What would you tell a Marketing Manager?

My new friend Jake the Community Guy has polled some thought leaders in his question for knowledge. He asks the following

“If you had 5 minutes with an inquisitive marketing manager, what would
you want to make sure they learned about working with fans/community?”

I talk to these Marketing folks all the time, in fact, just a few weeks ago I was one of them at Hitachi. Hers’s a few key points I would share, it’s an important message.

1) Communities have already formed, it’s up to the company to Join

2) They are not in charge, Let go to gain more

3) Learn to listen to the communities before joining.

4) Conversations over creating messages

Also, I would note there is a big distinction between fans and communities. Fans are a subset of a larger community, that may include detractors as well, and that’s important to know, identify, and engage.

(Update: Jake will compile a list of responses on his blog)

This entry was posted on Friday, December 22nd, 2006 at 7:28 am and is filed under Community Marketing, Social Media, Web Strategy, Web Theory. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.