Take some time to think about this:
Are you hearing or listening?
Are you questioning or guessing?
Are you memorizing or learning?
Here's a better question: Do your actions indicate that you know the differences?
The difference between communities who are successful and those that are not can be measured in seemingly minute details and processes. Culture, attitude and focus all actually matter.
Why Focus Matters:
An understanding and clarity of the purpose behind your community efforts is imperative for any stickiness. If you make your offerings too confusing? People simply won't get what you are trying to accomplish and will lose interest.
Keep your offerings consistent, tight and relevant. Stray too far one way or the other and you will run into scope creep.
The ultimate betrayal with focus? Surfacing so much information that it becomes useless to the end-user.
The ultimate success with focus? Having a consistent and clear dialogue that everyone can follow along with. This doesn't mean that you have to stick to just one subject, merely that you should maintain a direction.
Why Culture Matters:
Company culture is oft talked about and seldom enacted. Trust falls and mission statements don't mean much if you don't actually practice what you claim to.
Culture should not be something that resides strictly in your company's mission statement. It should be something that each and every one of your employees live and breathes.
The ultimate culture betrayal? Finding out a company doesn't actually do the things it says it does. (Think differing levels of customer service.)
The ultimate culture success? Our customers come to us to help others solve their problems, not just their own.
Why Attitude Matters:
Are you satisfied with your customer experience, approach and overall value proposition? Now, does each employee at your company hold these things in the same regard as yourself?
A positive attitude/customer service experience can't just come from the top. It needs to exist company wide in order for it to actually have any weight or meaning behind it. Otherwise? It's just a lot of buzzwords and false promises.
The ultimate betrayal with attitude? Community members view others as getting preferential treatment.
The ultimate success with attitude? Every community member feels important and valued.
Understanding these differences, managing expectations of community members and providing consistent value will determine the success or failure of your particular community.
Failure to adhere to these lessons? Well, just ask AOL, Motrin, Dominos, and Comcast how well ignoring their communities has worked out for them in the past.
Photo Credit: lorri37
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tagged as agency culture, business culture, company attitude, company culture, social culture, social focus, socially active, socially aware
