Last Wednesday afternoon Yasmin and I were invited to a luncheon hosted by Slashdot founders Rob Malda and Jeff Bates who started Slashdot as undergraduates in 1997 and have built it up to formidable social networking site for IT folks that boasts thousands of users and contributors every day. Although I have to admit I was a bit confused about the topic for discussion, “Web 2.0: The Web is Dead…Long Live the Web,” I was excited about the luncheon for a few reasons. First, the lunch was held at the W New York Tuscany, and as a former event planner, I have a strange fascination with checking out hotel meeting rooms. It was great, by the way. Second, I was interested in meeting Slashdot’s founders and hearing what they had to say about Web 2.0. Rob and Jeff didn’t disappoint, they were just as funny and intelligent as I expected them to be.
One of the major topics of the discussion was how marketers can get their companies involved in discussions taking place in online forums and communities. As most marketing professionals know, it can be tricky to tow the line between your average run-of-the-mill commenter and company spokesperson when you are trying to get a client involved in an online discussion.
Here are my top 5 takeaways from Rob and Jeff on how companies can successfully participate in online communities and discussions:
Be honest, be transparent: Always reveal your intentions and be authentic. If you are from a company, be upfront about it and let the community know who you are, and why you are there.
Stay on topic: Know your audience and how you fit into the community. Remember that you should only share content that is relevant to other members.
Be targeted: Don’t think that you have to be everywhere for everything that is happening online. Take the time to understand the different populations in different communities, and find where your audience is. Don’t be fooled into thinking that you should only target communities with a large number of members — you will be more successful if you find the right
Be a good citizen: Do your research and understand the social order of the communities that you are participating in. Learn their language and recognize how you can fit.
Develop marketing and advertising that will draw in your audience: If you are paying for advertising on a community website or forum, be sure to create advertising that will be exciting and compelling for members. This may mean customizing your advertising for different forums and communities.
Yasmin and I also walked away with some very cool notebooks and some Slashdot “Smart Mass Putty” that I haven’t been able to put down. It really reiterated what we at Affect so firmly believe in when it comes to social networking, so it was great to hear these two people confirm this for us.
-Katie Safrey
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