5 minute question

Jake

Thanks for starting this off. I encourage you to actually list my responses (and others) right here on your blog. You’ve my permission!

Fair enough! I’ll post an update now.

One important one…

Communities need connections

What I mean by this is that there are usually pockets of knowledge that are usually not connected. One User may be a leader in his own mini community but may not know that there is another User that is a leader in her own mini community. Finding a way to open the doors and connect these communities can be a powerful thing. It gives each leader a better chance to be highlighted and the company a better conversation to listen to.

Just five minutes? You?re killin? me, Jake. But I think one of the most important things that I could ever try to convey is that ? if they do it right ? they are in for one of the toughest but rewarding experiences of their professional career. It?s that whole ?campaign vs. movement? thing, and you said it best at the last WOMMA Summit: ?Start what you can finish.? This isn?t some 3-month campaign that they can abandon and move on. This is literally rolling up your sleeves and digging in to people?s lives. It?s hard freakin? work. But it?s so very meaningful, too.

Be flexible. Not everything is going to go according to plan ? and that?s a great thing. Movements are organic. They don?t follow a marketing strategy or fit on a flowchart. They are living, breathing things because they are dealing with living, breathing people. And those people will be your greatest ally ? if you listen to them and let them in. To be flexible you have to realize that you aren?t in control and need to relinquish that illusion from the start. The sooner you do, the better.

You are a part of the community, too. Not the director. Not the leader. And certainly not the owner. Remember that.