Publishers are scratching at this right now: how do we turn our publications into communities? In the magazine world, FastCompany swapped their magazine site out for a social network with a magazine stuck in there between the member content. Last year’s Gnomedex conference used IntroNetworks to power people-to-people connectivity before the event started. Webkins knows it’s not about the cloth or the stuffing. But they’re just the start. There are too many obvious community business plays laying on the table waiting to happen. Why?
Here are some community options for some organizations not yet doing such:
Hotel Social Networks
Forget loyalty programs and miles. Imagine a program where business types can opt in to expose that they’re staying at a particular hotel, and that they’re amenable to meetings about product pitches, but not job offers, and for the next four days. The upside? I’d pay EXTRA to go where the business opportunities would make it worth it.
Fear Factor: stalkers and other liabilities. This can’t be too hard to solve, can it?
Harry Potter
They’ve merchandised the hell out of the books, everything from pretend wands to real jelly beans, and they’ve got a massively multiplayer videogame in the works (or did they launch it?), but what’s missing is a place where fans of the books and movies can get together, talk about them, create their own fan fictions and mashups, and otherwise sit there in a barrel to be hit with opportunities that would work best for them.
Fear Factor: kids in the mix means different privacy laws, so, stalkers/predators are part of it again.
The NFL (or Your Sports Industry Here)
During this past year’s SuperBowl, I was at a local cinema pub watching my team melt down on a 40 foot wide screen in a room full of people. I’m a casual attendee, but sports fans are crazy passionate. Where there’s passion, there’s an opportunity for a community play in social networking. Why not some kind of site to share videos, pictures, audio, and more? It’s obvious the difference in quality between what an NFL fan will produce and what a huge organization dedicated to the best crafted sports media can whip up. Allow for profiles, for chats, and maybe even for on-NFL-site fantasy football, an opportunity you want anyway, and haven’t figured out how to approach.
Fear Factor: my only guess here is copyright and other legal stuff.
Trade or Non-Profit Associations
Most trade association websites are brochureware from the 1990s. They have a home page, an about page, a contact page, a calendar, and maybe one more wild card page. Here are situations where you’ve got hundreds and/or thousands of members and prospective members who might also find value in connecting to each other, as well as to you. Make it easier. Build a space for connecting side-by-side as well as the part of your site just giving out information.
Fear Factor: I don’t think there is a fear factor, unless it’s just fear of cost to upgrade their sites.
Any Where You Have a Population of Like-Minded People
There are community plays inherent in most every situation where you’ve got tons and tons of motivated customers waiting to be converted into even more valuable community members. I could keep naming them, but the above are some examples that should get your head moving. In all cases, I provided a fear factor that might keep people from executing. You may or may not agree with me that these are the reasons why people wouldn’t execute a community play. But if you disagree, you’ll have to share what else might be holding them down.
Whatever the case, I think there are opportunities not yet being explored. What do YOU think?
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The Social Media 100 is a project by Chris Brogan dedicated to writing 100 useful blog posts in a row about the tools, techniques, and strategies behind using social media for your business, your organization, or your own personal interests. Swing by [chrisbrogan.com] for more posts in the series, and if you have topic ideas, feel free to share them, as this is a group project, and your opinion matters.
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Isn’t this what Facebook are (kinda) trying to do with Beacon?
Surely the sports world is ready for a huge social network. I don’t see the NFL taking the lead here because of their crazy copyright concerns (all in the name of getting people to subscribe to their cable channel it seems). But some other sports authority ought to be able to figure that one out.
Non-profits I think are beginning to realize that there’s a world of people and support that they’ve never tapped in the never-ending process of fundraising… There’s a TON of exciting ways to build communities off of non-profits.
What about the News, news organizations with shrinking staffs, growing online presences (most of the time) and other concerns surely understand the need to do more than just pump out a paper or a broadcast each day. They need interaction and community building.
They already have captive audiences in the non-virtual world, now they need to get those people into the online scene and take advantage of The People creating and editing and mashing up “the news”.
All in all, the technology isn’t the problem anymore, it’s not holding us back. Its us holding ourselves back it seems.
Chris:
Maybe it is less about fear and more about the people in charge not having any idea how powerful social networking can be. Just a thought.
I would certainly agree that there’s a lot of unexplored potential with community. I think that a lot of companies haven’t worked out the risk/reward tradeoff yet. Publicly traded companies, in particular, have that risk-aversion mindset that probably scares them off.
Being in airports for the last 2 weeks gave me an idea of setting up some sort of Twitter app that would allow like-minded people to meet and chat while waiting for their flights.
http://ericrochow.com/2008/02/21/social-networking-in-the-airport/
Lots of potential in the airport just by the mass of people and the fact that a lot of them are on business.
For the record, the NFL’s had a fantasy football service running off their site for at least two years now. We’ve run a playoff fantasy league for Extra Points (http://www.extra-points.com) through the NFL’s fantasy game for the past two years and it’s worked out very well.
I’ve seen a number of sports-related social networks and/or sites that have tried to incorporate social networking (http://www.screamingsports.com is one that comes to mind) and I really just haven’t found any that really jump out as compelling enough to stay. Maybe I’m just the type of person who enjoys sports a lot but not arguing about it, which is what a lot of that discussion degenerates into.
The other problem with fan-created sports media is that fans don’t get the access that MSM gets, and if you do get media access, it comes with a lot of restrictions on what you can and can’t say and do with it. Most of what you’re able to create is commentary (like we do on Extra Points) or mash-ups of league-approved content which is technically on questionable legal grounds. It isn’t like citizen journalism where someone with a cell phone camera can get as good (or better) a video as someone in a news truck because they’re in the right place at the right time.
There are actually quite a few Harry Potter community sites that allow the things which you listed. Two that come to mind are VeritaSerum and The Leaky Cauldron.
I’m sad that one of my first posts on this blog is about Harry Potter. I hope to highlight my brilliance in other areas soon.
http://veritaserum.com/
http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/
great ideas, chris. what do you think radio can do?
sure, they have websites, but they’re hardly relevant. music lists, cheesy jock bios, corporate templates - that’s about it.
how would you help radio build the bridge between new and old media?
I can’t find the link on their site (hm, bad design?) but the Pod Hotel in New York at one point had a forum/calendar where you could list when you’d be there to meet up with like-minded people for a chat or drinks. I thought it was interesting: hotel stay a’ la’ a Tweet-up.
There are some of these things for the Harry Potter Crowd- interactive stuff on JK Rowlings website, fan forums, podcasts, fan fiction on those sites- all user generated content, which the author often participates in to some extent.
I’ve actually pitched the idea of Superblog and Supertube to the NFL (I own the domain names already…) but they aren’t really getting it and listening yet. They are still a broadcast only, non-interactive organization, to their detriment.
@Ross - not really. Beacon is an ad network. I want companies with big communities to build their cross-customer interactions.
@Jonathan- news is starting to do it. USA Today from Gannett is doing a great job of it.
@Kim - that’s true, too. Awareness is light.
@Mark - you’re right, but risk can be mitigated.
@Eric - you’ve got it right on the nose. Mesh networking would enable that a bit, by the way. Mesh and/or bluetooth.
@Steve - wouldn’t you just GUSH to get your hands on some video clips from the NFL to remix your OWN little “moments of greatness” videos and the like? Some day, the NFL might see through to do something like that.
@Todd - come back and be brilliant again. But are those fan sites? I’m saying Scholastic should’ve led with it.
@Buzz- I think radio is starting to get it. I’ve talked and worked with a few radio shows that are doing video and streaming projects alongside their current platform. I’ve also seen radio stations dip their feet in and out of the social platform game. In Boston, in the Rock format, that’s WFNX and WBCN.
@Jen - smart people, then. : )
@Whitney - some day you’ll win them over. You’re clever, persistent, and know what you’re talking about.
Yardbarker http://yardbarker.com/ is another sports themed social network with actual athlete bloggers. I really like this site, but it certainly could benefit from official organizations (eg NFL) contributing and making video content accessible to members.
I also see major bookstore chains (eg. Barnes & Noble and Borders) as missing the community mark. Dedicated customers passionate about literature who already hang around in the bookstore and coffee shop all day, sounds like a recipe for success. You can find ratings on books on other sites, but there’s really no cohesive community (although Red Room gets close for writers and their fans).
Chris, they are indeed fan sites. I’m not sure it makes sense for Scholastic to start their own community at this point in the Potter life cycle, particularly when the existing sites have such vibrant communities.
You’re saying they should have been forward-thinking though, and I certainly can’t argue with that.
I’m a little surprised by what seems like a lack of research or awareness in this blog post. Sure, in principle everyone who has fans should allow them to connect. Great point, but the examples seem pretty lightweight or vague once I read past the hotels, and I don’t think these can accurately be described as unexplored opportunities.
1. Many pro sports teams already have social networking added to their sites and many fans set up social networking sites or message boards dedicated to their favorite media or sports franchises. For some examples, check out http://www.mycolts.net and http://www.spiritof12.com. I’d also recommend checking out Pat Coyle’s blog for evidence that NFL people are thinking hard about online community.
2.Why is it a problem if a fan sets up a Harry Potter site instead of Scholastic shouldering that load? I’d argue that fan-driven sites are better solution because they costs less and are more authentic. Scholastic should spend their time sponsoring and supporting the existing communities rather than trying to supplant them. An obvious option is pre-release access to special media and other “leaks” of editorial content. Joss Whedon and the LOTR franchisers both worked that angle to great success.
I’m looking forward to seeing the other 99 posts in this series, though I’d personally prefer 10 great posts to 100 posts that overlook what’s already happening in the world.
We should run away and create beautiful companies together. :)
@Chris - Believe me, I can’t keep my eye on EVERY part of the social networking space. Swell folks like you are welcome to point out when I’ve gone way off the mark. If you scroll back about 20 posts, I’m sure you’ll find a few other times when I was wrong.
I also predicted Jaiku would swamp Twitter last April.
About 41 other Social Media 100 posts have been written, so feel free to poke holes in those, too.
(Truly, though, thanks for your thoughts and your pointers).
41? I’m gonna dull my pokey stick!
Apologies for the harsh tone - keeping up a blog is no mean feat and I enjoy your posts. Thanks for keeping the conversation going. For one post, I’d love to read your list of publishers and other niche brands that have done social networking right.
Hi Chris- no worries. If you don’t call bullshit, I don’t get better. Right? You were reasonably constructive. : )
Boy, let me poke around on that. Usually when someone asks me for “real” research, I make Jeremiah Owyang write the post. He works for Forrester. He has that kind of bent. But, maybe I’ll go look around, just for you and your stick. : )