Until recently the business attitude toward social media was to build a branded outpost on Facebook or Twitter, populate it with content and direct customers to it. While this has worked well for a few years, patterns are emerging that suggest social media is maturing and becoming more vertical.
This trend towards vertical online communities presents businesses with a choice: Leverage Facebook and Twitter to develop your online community and online customer experience, or develop your own bespoke online community.
For many companies it will come down to a matter of budget: Twitter and Facebook are free, or nearly free (depending on whether you pay for added options) whereas developing an online community costs money to plan, build and maintain. Sites such as socialengine and Ning both offer the ability to develop branded online communities, for a price.
Another deciding factor will be whether your customers are the kind that would benefit from, and ultimately, use, a customized, branded social media platform. It requires a specific connection to the product and brand for it to be successful.
One of my favorite examples is one I was just told about, called Take Me Fishing, developed by the Recreational Boating and Fishing Foundation. Here’s how they describe it:
RBFF has developed a wide variety of programs and products that make it easy for people to get involved in recreational boating and fishing. Under their Take Me Fishing™ brand and Anglers’ Legacy™ program, RBFF provides the tools to help people get started. RBFF also reminds lapsed boaters and anglers — people who enjoy the sport but no longer participate — about the joy they’ve been missing.
When users log into Take Me Fishing they are presented with a unique online community geared specifically toward their interests in fishing and outdoor activities. They interact with others who have similar interests, and are visiting the site for the same reason. The site hosts a crowd-sourced guide for the best fishing spots across the country, and has a social network called Fishington, where users can create profiles and interact.
This is a soft sell. The RBFF isn’t directly selling anything other than their image and their brand. This platform creates trust and brand recognition for the organization, by giving away something valuable.
Bespoke online communities are not a good fit for every brand, company or product. But for some, it is worth the investment in the long term.
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[...] social media strategy, whether for your agency or for a client. I recently wrote about one, called Take Me Fishing, meant for outdoors and fishing [...]