Community is like a Tupperware Party on Steroids

May
22

… at least on Cafemom it is. Those were the words from Andrew Shue, Founder of Cafemom at Agency Bootcamp in Chicago. It was his response to my question to the panel:

There is a lot of talk in the industry about the concept of community. What is your opinion of “community” and is it just a fad?

He went on to say that it’s natural human behavior to form, build and live within a community; and that this behavior dated back centuries when cavemen lived within some form of communal standards. He also said that “online communities” will increasingly grow and that these communities will HAVE to be even more relevant if they want to succeed. I couldn’t agree more with him and I think Cafemom is doing a great job at being relevant! I was also quite impressed with Andrew’s knowledge in this space. Perhaps playing an Ad Exec in Melrose back in the day helped him out a bit.

Since the topic revolved around community; I brought up Dell and how they are building community on Ideastorm. Tom Arrix, Vice President of Media Sales from Facebook said that he didn’t think it was a good strategy; and that the only time someone would go to Dell.com is when they are ready to buy a computer. He believes that building community is more effective in an “already established” community; perhaps he was insinuating that doing so has more credibility (in the consumer’s mind) than a community hosted by the company or brand. He does have a good point. I believe that both strategies are important; but the objectives will probably be entirely different.

Overall, I think the event was a huge success. It was great to catch up with my buddy Ted Murphy (Founder of IZEA); and meet Andrew Shue (founder of CafeMom & Billy from Melrose), Kent Austermann (Sales Director from Bebo), Tom Arrix (Vice President of Media Sales from Facebook), Robert Palma (SVP Sales from CafeMom), Sara Maters (Sales Planner from CafeMom), Bryce Emo (Sr. VP of Sales from Myspace) and Wailin Wong (Reporter from the Chicago Tribune) who was nice enough to introduce herself to me after the event.

Looking forward to the next one.

Author: Michael Brito

Michael Brito is a Vice President of Social Media at Edelman Digital. All thoughts and opinions on this blog are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of his employer or clients; neither past or present. Feel free to follow him on Twitter or subscribe to this blog.

Michele

I subscribe to Cafemom and love it.
This was a great article.
Michele

I subscribe to Cafemom an dlove it!
Great article.
Michael Brito

@ Bob
Thanks for your comments. I am a big fan of Ideastorm and often write and talk about it.

http://www.britopian.com/2008/04/24/in-social-media-listening-is-only-half-the-battle/

You guys are doing a great thing over there by listening to the community, and incorporating that feedback into future product innovation & design; a clear example of building strong brand stewardship.
Bob Pearson

We're big fans of facebook. You'll see a "Dellbook" community within facebook among many other communities. I saw Tom's comments and couldn't help but respond on behalf of the IdeaStorm Community. The reality is we have received over 9,000 ideas from our customers and we have implemented over 120 in a little over one year. Our Linux customers deserve full credit, for example, in convincing us via IdeaStorm (no other forum) to offer Linux on consumer systems (Ubuntu). We were also the first company to offer XP again after Vista was introduced, also due to our IdeaStorm Community. My point is that our customers are excellent at letting us know of their ideas and it makes a real difference in helping us improve our products and services. We also have EmployeeStorm internally and have over 4,000 ideas with similar success. Of course, we look at this as the beginning of what can be done and look forward to integrating this type of approach with leading social media sites, in the future, so our customers voice is heard loud and clear....and in real time.

All the best, Bob Pearson
Dell Communities and Conversations
Christina

Hey, it was nice to meet you at the event. You did a great job moderating the panel!

- Christina