[MUSIC] So how are virtual communities important when it comes to distributing content? >> Well the thing to keep in mind is that a virtual community is basically on a mission. And what they're trying to do is two things. First, they're looking for experts who can help them on their mission. And they're also then looking for a place where they can dialog with other community members about what they heard from the experts and what their opinions are. And so these communities are basically self-forming. And the thing to keep in mind is that they have multiple levels. When I look at a social community or a virtual community, basically there are three rings that are important. At the center are the experts, and these are the people that are the trusted agents and the experts in that particular topic area. The next ring out are the influentials, these are bloggers who are essentially talking to thousands of people about the very topics of interest. And they are very influential in terms of saying, here are the topics that we need to do. Here are the trends we need to keep track of. At the outer ring of that are the occasionals. And the key is, occasionals are people that are occasionally in the market, and occasionally outside. The real key is that if we put out a great piece of content, the influentials will pick it up and they will talk to tens of thousands of the occasionals. And in that way, an idea or a piece of content we could go put out, will actually go viral. And so, they're always looking for exceptional ideas and then let it go viral through the community. >> So, if success in social is developing timely and relevant content, why and what are social visitors really seeking? >> Basically there are two things a social visitor is seeking. First off, they're looking for clarity. Help me understand what's going on. And they're also seeking guidance. In other words, what we want is someone who's an expert. Who can say, here's the things you ought to be focused on, and here's the things you ought to be considering to help make sense in a very complex and confusing world. >> So how can organizations or me as an individual in them, determine what is particularly relevant to social visitors? >> Well if you really want to make a connection with a virtual community or a group on a social network, what you have to do is three things. The first is understand the mission that they're on. Then identify the hot topics that are of interest to them. And then help them filter through the amazing amount of content that's available and focus them on what is really relevant. Basically to understand where a virtual community's going, you have to understand the mission and find where they're moving forward and what they're trying to address within the community. To do that, we'd like to first do a diagnosis. And that is to monitor the social community, the virtual community, and figure out what is the challenge that they're trying to address. What problem are they trying to solve? The second thing is develop a guiding policy. And what that means is, how can we help them deal with it? In other words, what is the overlap of our expertise with their needs that we could drive them forward? And then based upon that, what are the coherent actions we could take? By coherent actions I mean a set of activities. It could be putting out videos. It could be writing articles. It could be doing webinars. That would help that group move forward and address the mission that it's on. >> So, within that then or perhaps around it, what do you mean by filter and focus? >> Well, what we're looking for is compelling content. And by compelling, it means something that is urgent for them to read. And basically there are some tips that I can give you. First off, you would need to have a very compelling headline. In other words, people are looking for solutions. But they don't have time to look a lot. So you want it to be something that grabs their attention. Then tell them its importance, in other words why is it important for me to read this or watch this video? You want to establish your expertise. Tell them what is your right to tell them the things that will solve their challenge. And then keep it very short. What we would like to do is have a short summary stressing the importance of taking some action items. So what I like to do, is to tell them some information that's useful for them, but then boil it down to three action steps. Here are the one, two, three things that I would recommend you do, that gives them a reason to move to action, and it makes your content much, much more compelling. Not only tell me something, but tell me what to do as a result of it. >> So if I'm in this community, and the community forms increasingly in the cloud, does that mean that I ignore the social networks? >> Not at all. The key thing that you want to do is to remember that your virtual communities are forming and interacting at all levels of the social cloud. So at the top, you have the big social networks. Those are the Facebook, Twitter, and other ones here in the US. And then there are different ones across the world. And that's the top of the pyramid, but the next level down you have the passion communities. These are where people are talking about things they are very passionate about in their lives. The next level down we have, essentially, the thought leaders and the bloggers, as well as the video sites. At the bottom we have the virtual communities, and the key is, we can link up to them at all levels, because they're all there. >> So pretend I'm a small not-for-profit. I understand what you're saying, but I have very few people, and I have just two goals, I'm interested in not having animals inhumanely trapped, and I'm interested in making people aware of that. What advice would you give and how could I relate this process to that little organization? >> The question you're asking is a question I hear all the time. It's, how can I make maximum impact with minimal resources? So if you're thinking about trapping, while you may put out a lot of articles on your website, nobody's going to go there to read them. Because the communities that are talking about it are blissfully unaware that you even exist. And so the key is, you've gotta go to them. And so by using a monitoring system, which we'll be talking about, you need to identify where there are people talking about this. There are people across the world talking about trapping, inhumane treatment to animals, and thousands of topics. And they would love to know you content exists, but they don't know that. And so what you need to do, is to develop a plan to take the contents that you've done and essentially go multimedia. For example, I may take an article that I wrote on trapping, well, why not make it into a couple of two or three minute videos and putting them on a place like YouTube where people could watch them? And maybe I'll go to a blogger who's talking a lot about the concept of trapping and I'll just let them know that, hey, this is a great piece of work I've done. It would be really relevant to your article. They're looking for content to drive out to their thousands of readers. And so what you want to do, is you want to reach out to the social community, because these virtual communities are not going to come to you, but that's how you get maximum impact. You do a larger article, make it into a bunch of videos, make it into some blogs. You can start a blog for nothing. And then go out and tell the people that are looking for the content, that you've got the content. And in that way, you become an expert. And they become very engaged with you, as well as with your not-for-profit. >> So the advice that you're giving me as part of this is, to go multimedia? >> Yes, you need to work smarter, not harder. And the key is, I can write things but most people don't have a time to read a big article. They don't have a time to look at a white paper. But you give me a couple minute video on what you've done and three major action items, I might listen to that while I'm having lunch in the office. I could listen to it at home very easily. And so what you want to do, is you want to realize that the world is now digital. It's no longer print. And as digital, we want to think about how we can use audio assets, video assets, as well as articles in print, to get to the markets that we want. And as you think about the younger people, they're more likely to watch a video than they are to read an article. And that's why YouTube is the second largest search site, it's because people are out there. So I recommend thinking about doing something big, then making a lot of smaller things, then marketing that out to the communities that are interested in it to let them know you've done the content. >> So what you're saying is, I should do one big piece and then divide it up into different kinds of pieces and packages and content. >> Exactly, in today's world, we don't have time to create 10 or 20 great pieces. So let's do one that's really super on the example of trapping. And then let's take that and make 30 different things that we can market out, in terms of blog articles, in the terms of videos, as well as many articles that people can read with three accent items. And essentially what we'll be doing, is we're going to be working smarter and not harder. [MUSIC]
