I've been working with several groups lately on setting up social media strategies. They are quick to jump on particular technologies, before taking the community into account.
In this blog I've talked a lot about "gaming", which is a loaded word often used by cynics to say that people are using a community for personal benefit.
Arguments about enlightened self-interest aside, I will take a middle ground here and say that there are three Rs of social media: Relevance, Reward, and Responsiveness. These three Rs must be satisfied for any community to exist - period.
Gatherings of people without these Rs are prisons. People serve time in them, they may work within the system, but their goal is always freedom from the system and not promotion or improvement of it.
So, when you are setting up your social media tool, whatever it be, judge it not by the flashiness of its skin, but by the content of its character. How does it satisfy the three Rs?
Relevance - why would people use a system they do not find relevant? The system must provide information they need, when they need it, and with minimal effort for retrieval. This is what causes the system to be integrated into daily routines. If systems are not relevant, they stand a much higher chance of being ignored.
Reward - People are People, so why should it be that we should get along so awfully? Because our systems do not reward good social behavior. If your system rewards people's hoarding of information and building fiefdoms, that is what they will do.
If, on the other hand, your system rewards (really rewards) participation in social media, your members will gladly use social media. They will share information all the time, they will come up with new and unexpected information to share.
The highest reward is the increase in personal value. Build systems to promote individual recognition for group-supporting behaviors.
And make multiple avenues of reward to promote multiple types of input and to satisfy people's individual means of contribution.
Responsiveness - Ultimately, the system needs to grow. Prepare for expansion. Your users will like your system at first, but they will positively fall in love with it if it changes to meet their needs. Build social media systems that users can expand on their own. Provide active feedback loops to find out what is missing. Meet needs for missing services as soon as possible.
Communities need to feel like part of the users' lives, provide something back to them, and evolve as the needs of the group evolve. Like it or not, your social media tool is a community. Treat it with respect.
Who says I can't be concise?
Blogged at my house in Seattle with Live Writer
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