Community Guy – Jake McKee

Putting the Search in Job Search

I was chatting with Jackie Huba on the phone today and she asked an extremely interesting question:

“How do you search for people to fill community roles”

We chatted a bit about the types of people that make up good community people. Is there a profile? A certain skillset? A college degree that would say “I’m going to be a great community person”?

I think there are two big requirements for any good community person:

·     Communication skills – written, oral, internet based, face-to-face. It’s amazing how much time I spend in the course of day simply communicating. I’m working with colleagues to get them excited about working with community, community working with the company, and general transferring ideas.

·     Social skills – I know this seems obvious, but it’s easy to forget. A community person’s job is all making and maintaining relationships. It’s incredible important to know how to interact very well with others.

Sure, some formal education in certain fields can help, but they can also be a hindrance too. I’m not crazy about old school marketers or PR people doing community work, as they tend to try to shove community into their pre-conceived notions of what the process should be.  But I think younger marketing and PR folks have some advantages.

But overall, you really have to actually search for good people. Typically a “job search” hasn’t been much of a search. You post an ad, and wait for people to send in resumes. But with community people, it’s important to actually seek out good people. People who get it.

Those folks can come from any department within your company (the guy who works for me in Europe came from the legal department before joining the community team). They can come from the the community you’re hiring for. They can come from another community you frequent. They can come from your local church group.

The key is personality.

Become an Evanglist

Ben posted this great entry on how to become an evangelist:

1. Become an evangelism expert.

Gather evidence such as case studies, how-tos and books on the subject. (There’s a growing body of work on the subject.) Put a stake in the ground that will define the edges of your platform of evangelism knowledge. For instance, if you’re focused on building customer loyalty via evangelism, don’t waste time on viral ads. Religiously follow the work of a few organizations whose evangelism you covet.

2. Track what people say online.

Become the go-to person whenever someone asks "What are they saying online?" about your company, product or service. Do this via free services Technorati, BlogPulse, IceRocket and Google Alerts. Politely mollify the skeptics who claim online word of mouth is not a scientific sampling of true customer opinion.

3. Find a few co-conspirators.

Share your growing body of knowledge with a few trustworthy co-workers with similar beliefs in word of mouth and customer loyalty. Envision how your company can increase its level of customer evangelism. Do not present your idea to a committee, whose "let me play devil’s advocate" members will effectively kill it.

4. Start small.

The smaller, the better. In a big company, it’s often the skunk-works projects that end up having the biggest impact. Your first program could be adding a "How did you hear about us" question to website sales or inquiries or in-bound call centers. Or launching a customer advisory board for a store or locale. Ensure your first effort includes solid measurements. Later efforts might not be so easy to measure. Watch how the success of your effects spread organically from co-worker to co-worker.

5. Bring in the experts.

If your pilot program is a success and the boss’s boss is asking for more, consider hiring an expert. It could be a known practitioner who joins your company as an employee, or it could be a firm that helps you conduct larger-scale research, customer-community planning or large-scale evangelism strategy development. The best firms will position you as the genius behind your company’s growing base of evangelists, not themselves.

In the comments, I added a few other things to the list too. I thought they might be interesting enough to repost here.

7. Have a vision

If you don’t know what path you’re on, and what your goals are, you’ll never be able to convince colleagues, fans/consumers to take the journey with you. Repitition is a crucial element in the ongoing struggle (and yes, it is a struggle to re-wire minds), and if you get "off vision", you will end up spinning your weels.

8. Don’t get discourage

Stick to the plan, even when people tell you no. And they WILL tell you no. A lot. Daily. (I actually wrote a blog entry recently about this one concept alone)

9. Learn, learn, learn

If you’re not paying constant attention to how colleague and consumers alike are responding to your ideas, your personality, your actions, you WILL fail. This does not mean that you need to conduct surveys and polls. It means you need to open your eyes, ask people what they’re concerned with, read body language, learn the "between the lines language". It’s all there if you’re willing to spend the time paying attention to it.

Rule: Say who you are

Penny Arcade, the well-known webcomic, has posted a great strip today about fake forum content posting by companies trying to pump their products. Here’s the post in question:

Compare that to another comment that’s clearly written by a real user:

Now let me be perfectly clear – I have no idea if either of those comments are plants or are actual users. Here’s a few of my reasons why I think the first one is a plant by the likes of EA:

• As the Penny Arcade dudes said the comment is "so relentlessly on message"
• While the comment tries to sound like it’s written by a 12 year old, it properly capitalizes everything, including the Xbox name itself.
  
• The language is clearly "planned", at least to this reader.
• It just oozes "Marketing Key Message"

So let’s assume that the first comment is, in fact, a plant. The saddest part is that instead of improving buzz, they’re creating negative buzz. Again, assuming this is EA at work, they’ve violated two key rules:



Properly identify yourself: This may seem excessive, but do it -  if you work at a company and you’re posting in a forum (or anywhere publicly), always always tag yourself. Most of the time, you’ll be in one of two modes:

• I’m an employee of XYZ company"
• "I’m just another user"
  

If you’re an employee, posting as an employee, use something like:

Sometimes, you can work for a gaming company and like talking about games away from work. Even though I work at LEGO, I was a fan first and then got the job. If I want to post like "just another user", I can do that with a footer like this:

If I’m posting as an enthusiast, then I always make absolutely sure to clarify the context of my message. For instance, maybe I open a post with:



"Speaking as a fan of the product…." or "This is just my personal opinion, but…"



Of course, this only becomes believable I actually…



Maintain an open and honest and honest relationship: As they say, "if you’re lying, you’re dying". Lies are always found eventually. Always. With the speed at which information buzzs around the net, don’t chance the fact that you might not be discovered. If projects like this are part of your strategy, your strategy is dead wrong. Fundamentally, from the ground up, day one wrong.



If your tagging (see first point) is a lie, it doesn’t count. This process only works if both rules are observed at all times.



These rules apply 100% of the time. When you get hired, you take on certain responsibilities and give up certain freedoms. Before coming to EA they could post whatever and however they wanted. They could identify themselves or choose to remain anonymous. But once they work their first day, that ends and they take on new constraints. I still post frequently as a LEGO fan, but I have to alter my behavior as an LEGO employee.





Imagine if EA had instead posted as EA employees – there’d be a ton of people saying "Great! EA cares enough to show up!" Sad to see they missed the ball… again, assuming that this is the real deal.

Ghostwriting Blogs

Everyone seem to have a different opinion on the issue of whether ghost written executive blogs are kosher or not. This discussion shows a number of opinions on the subject.

I don’t think there’s one answer to this question because it’s so dependent on the actual implementation. If by “Ghost Writer” we’re really saying “Marketing Schomo who has the blessing of the CEO to sign his name”, then it’s just lies. But if we’re talking about a “Ghost Writer” as a helping hand to an exec who works 100 hour weeks, I have no problem with it at all.

I once talked to the GM blog lead and he mentioned that Bob Lutz, famous GM Chairman of the Board/blogger would drop Blackberry notes from the airport waiting area and the folks at HQ would brush it off and post it live. Nothing wrong with that – the spirit of corporate blogging is about getting information out. That process certainly fits.

As Johnnie said:

“I try to avoid inventing too many rules for blogging – I encourage companies to try stuff and see what happens. You can usually reverse your mistakes. And a lot depends on the quality of your ghost.”

Rule: See It Through

Being a community advocate/evanglist/supporter at this point in business means that you’re going to constantly be running into brick walls. Colleagues, community members, you name it; someone is always telling you that your ideas are crazy.



That means it’s that much more important to stick to your guns – See It Through. There’s two components of this issue:



Believe in your ideas

This is a "basic business" rule, but it’s even more important when talking about community work. When you’re getting push back from colleagues, make sure that you believe in your ideas. If you don’t, then ask yourself why you’re trying to sell it in the first place. If you do, then do what it takes to push it forward.



This device is a great idea, but imagine taking the idea to the Sony execs and suggesting that the next generation PSP should be completely and totally hackable. As Jack Welch says:

Don’t quit too early

Once you’ve gotten people to agree to your ideas, make sure that you don’t quit too early. .Getting someone to say yes in the early stages is one thing. Getting them to follow through to end is another thing. Don’t assume your community projects are finalized until you’re setting in the After Action Review meeting.

What being honest is all about

Imagine saying this to your colleagues. Publicly.

These are quotes from Robert Scoble, Microsoft’s best known blogger.



Old school thinking was that this type of thing is damaging to a company’s reputation. Like the problems of a traditional old world family, negativity should stay hidden and repressed.



You can read more about the actual story above, but the details aren’t important to this discussion. Scoble has turned a story that could hold huge potential for PR blow-up and shown that Microsoft is not only made up of real people who think like you and I, but that the company isn’t scared of open debate. This example is a great showcase of the process of how to business blog:

1. Be honest - even if it hurts to talk about your colleagues or your company
2. Find answers - it’s not enough just to talk about things openly. You also need to be engaging conversation with those who in are involved directly with the things you’re blogging about.
3. Follow up – Once you’ve gotten the other side of the story, or additional facts, or any other type of information that’s relevant, fill in your audience. Create a full circle of feedback

Bonus point: (this one is for the company management) Support your bloggers – it might hurt to hear honesty, but your consumers appreciate it. (Just read the commments in the thread if you need an example) You may say you support the concept of blogging, but support the individuals too. Support their content. Get your management to post comments regularly. Help ensure that they’re getting the information they need from colleagues internally.



Great work, Scoble.

Open and Honest Relationship

One of the many mantras I talk about is "maintain an open and honest relationship". This goes for everyone involved in community work:



Community Members

This may seem obvious, but unfortunately, it’s usually the first thing marketing folks forget when talking to community members – don’t lie, don’t spin. It’s really easy to take the easy way out and simply tweakk the facts or spin the truth in order to end the conversation. The reality is that any type of falsehood will be quickly discovered, since community members are a close knit and well connected bunch. And if they do catch you, any credibility you’ve built up with them is completely shot.



Co-workers

You’re probably thinking "I don’t lie to my colleagues and they don’t lie to me". That’s probably correct, or at least mostly. While you, the community liaison might not be lying, you might be altering the facts a bit. Community seems weird to co-workers who don’t  work with community all day long. And community members can often do things that appear odd or weird (spending thousands of dollars on a "silly" collectible, for instance). If you’re not careful, you can find yourself presenting an unrealistic view of community to your co-workers by leaving things out or softening the weirdness. In the long run, that harms your efforts because you’re not properly preparing your co-workers for what they’ll soon see themselves. It’s much better to present the truth, even if odd, and follow-up with well thought out counterpoints to the "odd" behaviors.



On the other side of the coin, your colleagues might often withhold information from you, thinking that they’re protecting themselves and their marketing plans. As sad as it might be, community member and company employeed community liaison often get intertwined in the minds of marketers. Even though you colleagues might clearly understand that you both work for the same company, they may well hold back information to you in order to ensure that none of that info leaks outside company walls. It’s crucial that you repeat this phrase to your internal contacts over and over:



"I won’t share externally without consulting you, but colleague to colleague, I need all the facts so I can help develop the most effective plan for you".





Open and honest  isn’t just about lies or lack thereof. It’s mostly about the free exchange of honest information. Look at what happens when Alaska Airlines employees tried to mask their identities by posting blog comments railing on a blogger who went through in-flight problems from their company computers.



Open and honest should be included in your new employee handbook and should be a mantra for company culture. This doesn’t mean that you should start sharing company secrets – quite the contrary. It means that if you can’t share company secrets, simply say that. It means employees need to understand that nothing they do is hidden or secret anymore. And it means that we all need to really stop and consider what’s really a "secret" and what’s simply bothersome to discuss.

Slate and Podcast Ads

I’ve become hooked on the Slate.com daily podcast. They are wonderful little 5-7 minute chunks of interestirng content off of the Slate.com site, read by their editor. Andy has the perfect voice for the podcasts, and the content is always silly, pointless, and fun.

Additionally, Slate was one of the first podcasts to integrate real advertising (at least from what I listen to). They’re also the first ones to do it right. Well, sort of.

Andy gives a quick overview of the day’s story, then cuts to an add. In the weeks since the podcasts launched, they’ve had several ad spots, including one for a Chrysler that has an engine that switches from 8 to 6 cylinders at cruising speed. Very cool. (And even cooler for Chrysler that I remember this)

But for the past several weeks, they’ve had the same ad playing every day. Day after day.

I literally typed that from memory, and I’ll bet if I check it the only thing I will have gotten wrong is the URL. (And can anyone tell me what the hell an "MP3 board" is, and why I’d want one in my car??)

Slate has done a great job for themselves, for listeners, and for advertisers in the way they’ve structured their ad placement. It’s short, it’s mostly contextually revelvant (in theory anyway), and it’s between content in a way that doesn’t make me want to immediately fast foward or stop listening.

What they’re failing on is two things:

Ad Content
OK, first off let me say that the copy above seems like it was written by a first day intern. I’m pretty sure I’m the target market for this car, yet I feel like they’re talking to my dad or grandfather. "Tear up the road"? "Pamper me"? "One dimension"?

Podcast ads had better be contextually relevant far past what’s required in other media. When people have complete and total control on deciding whether or not to choose your content by individual installment, you can’t simply guess at what fits, you’d better be creating it specifically for the target podcast.

The ad above is the bottom of the barrel content inserted into brilliant and fun writing. Why is that style not showcased instead?

I’m now listening to the Slate Explainer podcast too. Guess what ad is running on there too??

Ad Replinishment
In podcasts, you have a completely different type of delivery mechanism than you do with most other media. Typically, old school media has a release schedule that is industry specific. New TV shows come out every week. Magazines every month. Morning radio shows every morning.

Podcasts are much different because there’s very few that have a set schedule for release, and none that are consumed on a set schedule. (The great thing about the podcast is that I can listen any time or any place I want). This means greater care needs to be taken to change out the content in a way that doesn’t get tired. I don’t want to hear this stupid Lexus ad every single solitary individual day on my commute home at 5:00p. I have my routines and I don’t want to have this Lexus ad be one of them.

But if Slate changed it up and ran that ad every three days for a longer period of time, I’d certainly respond better. It’s when I hear that dude’s voice in my head at night that makes me want to step away from Slate podcasts all together.

I know this is all new, but come on. This should be obvious stuff to a company who effectively stays in business off of advertising.

How to speak at conferences

Just a quick linksharing – How to speak at a tech conference. After having done so several times, I can agree with this article fully.

Community Speech

Last week, I was in Albany, NY speaking to a group of marketing people about why they need to start thinking differently – namly how to think as community members, and not marketers. The group was about 150 strong, and I nailed the speech. You know those times where you just know you nailed it? You don’t need any feedback, you just can tell from the crowd (at least those up front) that you’re getting through? You’re having a “on” day, you’re hitting your points, making your slide transitions, the whole nine yards. That was me.

The downside, however, was that with about 5 mins left to go in my hour long speech, they fixed the sound and viola! people could hear me in the back. Apparently, the sound system in the room wasn’t working very well, and despite speaking in a very loud voice with the bad mic, I wasn’t being heard in the back of the room. So here I was nailing my speech and most of the room was struggling to pay attention. Damn.

I’m going to polish up my notes from last week’s presentation (and yes, by polish I mean make comprehendable by someone other than me) and post them here. Someone might be interested in seeing what I’ve been talking about, and it was a great overview of our approach to working with community and internal colleagues.

A quick recap of the top 10 list that the speech was based on – the speech was titled “Everybody goes home happy”:

• Everybody goes home happy - I’ve explained this one a million times, so hopefully everyone is pretty clear. The basic idea is that both fans and TLG need to get something beneficial and satisfiying. If either side doesn’t, something’s wrong with the relationship.
• Open and honest relationship - In order to ensure that there is a healthy relationship between fans and company, that relationship needs to be based on openness and honesty. Both groups need to feel like they can have honest discussions about anything that’s on their minds.
• It’s not about selling - Sure, I work for a company that’s in business, and is here to sell product. Sure, all of my efforts, at some point, relate to selling… that’s the nature of working for a company, and that goes for any employee of any company. But my daily tasks aren’t about selling products to fans, or trying to get fans to sell products for me. My focus is on making sure that there is a solid, healthy, happy relationship built up between fans and employees. The rest turns into sales down the road, nearly by default.
• Be an advocate - As the community liaison, it’s important for me to be an advocate for the fans inside the company, to carry their voice and their concerns to all corners of the company. And of course, it’s part of the task to carry the voice of the employees into the community. But more than simply being a messenger, community liaison types have to be an advocate – willing to be beat up on a regular basis because they see a grander mission of ensuring communication is happy and healthy.
• Create a team – When working with a community, it’s important to create a “team”, of sorts. To find the key leaders in the community, the key groups, the key Web sites, and really get to know them. Build a “quasi-team”, so that the relationship has a foundation to grow on.
• If you wouldn’t do it, don’t ask – Seems kinda obvious, but you’d be surprised how many marketing folks say to the idea of working community the first time they really get it “Cool! We can push that project I don’t like off on them”. As the advocate, it’s my role to ever so gently (or not so much when it calls for it) to remind them that … if you wouldn’t do it yourself, don’t ask someone else to do it for you.
• Secrets and Paranoia – This is a biggie… and tough. Anyone in the business world has been taught that sharing is bad, and any company information is secret. It’s important (again, as the advocate) to push people to answer the question “Is it properitary or uncomfortable?” There’s a huge void between those two. Information is what drives a solid relationship, and secrets is what destroys them. Anyone who’s dated can attest to this!
• Control through participation (not Control through directive) – The idea of control is fairly laughable in the first place, but in the past, companies have had this idea that they can control consumers through any number of means. These days, that idea is nearly laughable, yet too many companies tend to try to give directives to consumers about what they can and can’t do. Since we all know that that doesn’t work, the idea of control (or really guidance) should come from standing side-by-side with consumers/fans and explaining and sharing why things are important or significant.
• Formalize at the last stage – Marketers love their formalized programs, campaigns, and projects. Communities don’t. They just like people to show up. I’ve been doing community work for 5 years now, and we’ve only this year implemented our formal programs – the LEGO Ambassadors and LEGO Certified Professionals. Push back the formalization until it’s really needed.
• Spending money is for fools – If you ever want to wake up a group of marketing people, just say these words outloud. Just be sure you have ambulances on hand, because at least 10% of the room will have heart attacks! Marketers are pre-programmed to spend money in order to achieve results. I keep my group’s budget purposely low (we barely cover our travel costs each year), and focus on talking to the fans about what they really want. Most of the time, it has very little to do with money. Nine times out of ten it has to do with getting free product, respect, interaction, and inclusion. (OK so product costs money, but very little, relatively speaking)

Anyway, more to follow as I get time to actually polish (i.e translate) my notes into something readable. I may even expand each of the 10 points above into separate blog entries. Hell, I wish that I would have recorded the speech in order to turn it into a podcast. Damn, I need to start thinking about that.

Feel free to challenge the ideas above or ask for clarification. I’m always up for a good community-themed discussion.