Selective Amnesia

A conversation on branding, blogs, microsites and communities

I mentioned to a friend a little while ago that I am familiar with the world-wide web as both a tool for communication and as a platform/place to build and sustain communities. And that the latter is what I’d like to explore in my work.

What follows is my end of the conversation.

My blog, Selective Amnesia, is not the community I was talking about. I am the community, or rather, the community is around me. It is in my Orkut and Facebook profiles, around my LinkedIn answers. It’s crowded around my flickr photos. In my Gmail inbox. In more ways than one, it’s my email. The community is also on my delicious network, and in the feeds I read and the feeds that I share.

The blog, Selective Amnesia, is just the door to a gated community. You don’t know/understand the community by looking at its gate. You need to come in, and see for yourself why those people have decided to stick together as a unit. My blog is like the big flashing neon sign is to the strip club. It tells people who are looking for conversation, that hey, just up ahead is a place you can have conversation. And not just with one person.

That is, in my mind, what brands should do when they go online. A website that pulls members in, a place that advertises that Brand X offers customers Need Y. And those who need Need Y will come to the site, and if it is both engaging (short term) and relevant (long term), they will stick on. But the microsite cannot become the be all end all of the brand. For, in two years time, or even two weeks time, another site will kick in that is more engaging or more flashy (or even Ajaxy) and you risk consumers migrating there. Instead, just like the community I have (which goes beyond my blog and into my email inbox where all the conversation happens), the brand will need to talk to people. It will have to be funny and relevant, or sad and relevant or sarcastic and relevant or bitchy and relevant. But it needs to do this outside of just the microsite or viral video. If it involves creating a secret mailing list for a select few, then the email list has to be created. If it involves creating Yahoo messenger emoticons, then emoticons need to be created. If it involves customers asked to contribute their own photos and videos to keep the community alive, then that has to be done. But done because the community thinks it needs to be done. Not because Brand Z does it or the competing agency is doing.

Of course, everything I just said could be absolute bullshit, even by the standards of the advertising industry. In which case, make me the CEO.

[Related posts: 1, 2, 3 and 4]

advertising | branding | interactive marketing | communities | microsites