Connie Bensen

Blogging is about finding a voice. Since I started this blog last fall mine certainly has found more clarity. I started it with the title ‘My Conversations’, but I’ve changed it to Community Strategist which better suits my focus on the aspects of community building, networking & the importance of creating relationships.

Recently Francois Gossieaux invited me to join a group blog on Marketing 2.0. I’m excited to represent the voice of community building alongside some great thought leaders in the marketing field!  Isn’t the logo great?!

The other contributors blogging at Marketingtwo.com are:

• Valeria Maltoni, Conversation Agent is a Fast Company Expert blogger
• David Berkowitz is Director of Emerging Media & Client Strategy for 360i
• Renee Hopkins Callahan is editor of publications at Innosight LLC, a Boston-Area consulting firm
• Paul Dunay is Global Director of Integrated Marketing for Bearing Point
• Francois Gossieaux is President of Corante & is a president and founding partner of Beeline Labs
• Lois Kelly is the author of  Beyond Buzz: The Next Generation of Word of Mouth Marketing
• Peter Mahoney is the vice president of worldwide marketing for Nuance Communications
• Steve Mann leads the Total Customer Experience, Competitive Marketing and Services Marketing functions for SAP
• Johnnie Moore works as a facilitator and marketing consultant
• David Rogers is Director of the Center on Global Brand Leadership at Columbia Business School
• Constantine von Hoffman is a journalist, social media consultant, award-winning science fiction writer, stand-up comedian and sometime marketer

Francois has also included a community with the blog. Join us there for further conversations. I hope you’ll pop over to the blog periodically. I love the theme & the way that each writer’s photo is featured when they post. I think that adds personalization to our work & is another way to connect us to the reader.

And when Francois & I compared notes we found that we have a common vision. Definitely exciting things ahead!

Have you experienced Hugh Mcleod’s work? He started drawing cartoons on the back of business cards. Now he puts his creative cartoons to work in some serious marketing efforts.

I caught his tweet today @gapingvoid and wanted to share my expansion on his idea that’s so true.

His post suggests that if companies don’t have a marketing plan that incorporates the geeks that are supporting their brands, then they won’t be viable. I’ll extend the idea that the marketing plan has to not only engage with those geeks, but also embrace & support that community. Growing it will provide the brand with ensured success (and the community will not only overlook the flaws in the products, as well as help improve on it if they’re listened to.) There are so many opportunities to succeed!

And I’ve wanted to share this cartoon by Hugh for a long time! Coming from Minnesota where our joke is that the mosquito is our state bird & being a big fan of Shel Israel’s book, Naked Conversations – this cartoon totally cracks me up!

Now go check out his site for a chuckle, some fresh marketing ideas & even business cards!

When I joined ACDSee last September as their community manager I knew that there would be exciting projects! Beta had a meaning for me because I helped with the ACDSee Pro 2 beta last summer. But I wasn’t involved at the level that I have been with this one.

The word ‘beta’ has new meaning for me! I’ve heard my Twitter friends talk about their betas, but now I totally understand. Taking a project from development to launch is an amazing adventure! And incorporating a beta period allows for our customers to join us.

We launched our beta last Monday and after one week the product positioning is beginning to happen. As we developed it, I had a good idea of where I hoped that to be but isn’t it ultimately decided by the customers? Marketing & PR just can’t dictate that.

Someone asked if it will be successful? I translated that into new questions:

• Are we listening to our community?
• Do we know our customer’s wants/needs?
• Will our business expectations be met?

It was interesting to read this today at a forum in our community:

ACDsee is once again flexing their muscles and really coming on strong as a real contender. As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve been giving the Pro 2 software a real consideration and it is very very good. Some real problems still exist and their are some significant holes for the pro photographer (Pro – hence the title of the software). But I’d recommend Pro2/v10.0 and the editor over PSP* now any day… PSP have moved backwards while ACD are bringing their products forward.
That’s a generous trial period and a great marketing idea…

*PSP is Paintshop Pro by Corel

That information is quite valuable in a number of ways. It also highlights the opportunities to gather feedback outside of the beta forums.

Beta definitely has a new meaning for me & I’m sure that there will be more to share on the process. What does beta mean to you?

If you’ve decided to incorporate social media tools into your mix for supporting your customers, have you thought of looking beyond your existing community? Let me ask this in another way, would you like to expand your market?

Brian Solis recently had an excellent post that included this graphic:

The stages are from the customer’s perspective. But what about from a company’s perspective? Here are some questions for you:

• Are you aware of who your evangelists are?
• Do you know what segments are using your products & what types are considering it?
• Who is aware of your products? and who isn’t? (should they be?)

Allow me to digress for a moment: On our recent trip to Anaheim, CA, my husband & I had a new adventure. We rode the city buses. Now that may not seem like a big deal but it was. Both of us grew up in rural areas with no mass transit. The closest that either of us have been to subways/people movers are in the Seattle & Denver airports. I want to visit London & we’ll be using the Tube, so the experience in California was good.

Details for our family & friends (and anyone else that wants a chuckle) – We asked the hotel staff for a taxi & they suggested the bus because it was ‘easy’. After a few moments of giving instructions including the word ‘transfer’ & ‘I’m not sure what bus numbers’ the person giving instructions said, “I’ll call you a cab”. At this point we were determined to try it. And on our return the hotel staff were quite amazed we accomplished it!

It was a good experience because it made us realize the realities of mass transportation in a city. A very helpful young lady our daughter’s age helped us change buses since that was her stop. She was attending a trade school & looked confused when we said our daughter was going to get a degree in English. On the 2nd bus we talked with the bus driver & learned a lot. He helped load two wheel chairs and told us why he loved his job. We noticed that riders assumed that he knew Spanish (and he told us about that too).

Overall we were quite impressed with the bus ride. It cost us $6 total vs the $60 we paid taxis one evening. Also it was good for us to expand our horizons.

That was a real life experience, but it can be applied to online experiences. Are companies looking beyond the usual places where they expect to find their customers? What would happen if you took the risk like we did in riding the bus & exploring new venues & talking with the people there? What could be learned?

I represent that idea because that explains my connecting with ACDSee. People in my niche were talking about their software behind the walls of a forum that Google wasn’t crawling. An enterprising employee at ACDSee joined the forums & found us using their software in a unique way. In the end, ACDSee gained a new market.

So where should you be having new adventures with social media?