I can’t remember exactly when I uploaded my first photo to Flickr, but it was in its early days. I’ve since removed my initial uploads, but the earliest photo I still have on the platform is 2007…when I met then-candidate Obama. 

Flickr was a marvel of social sharing, collaboration, and connection. I met friends through Flickr I still talk to today. I grew my technical and creative skills through hours of reading and posting. Flickr was a damn miracle of the utopian social media dream. 

And then Yahoo bought them. 

The Flickr team left, the Yahoo folks struggled to understand what to do with their new acquisition, the site was left to die on the vine. And now, with the most ham-fisted way possible, they’ve announced that making significant changes to Flickr free accounts, ostensibly to get things back on track. 

You can read the details here. (This is a surprisingly good post for how to announce big changes)

It’s a surprisingly honest and insightful look at what went wrong. tl;dr: when you buy something because of its success, when that success was based on community engagement, then kill the community engagement because you’re only interested in scale to sell ads and ad data, things don’t work out. 

Community is a commitment. 

Community is a foundation. 

Community is more than a feature, its a way of conducting your business. 

Flickr has a nearly impossible feat of trying to reclaim their once thriving, marvelous community. And if they ever can get that moment in time back, it’s going to cost Yahoo an arm and a leg. Building a community reminds me of the journey of parenthood. Finding out you’re going to have a baby is an immediate societal and mental agreement that you will be there through thick and thin. If there are problems, you’ll seek help. At some point, it’ll be time to push the baby out of the nest. But simply not showing up to maintain a commitment you’ve agreed to is not acceptable. 

Building a community for your customers needs to take an equally serious mindset. Just because your budget cycles change, or your leadership changes, or your priorities change, doesn’t justify walking away from your community. Especially one that’s critical to your business. That decision nearly always comes back to haunt you. 

Over the years, I’ve spent my fair share of money on Flickr Pro account renewals. I’ve put stickers on my laptop advertising them, convinced countless friends to sign up with them, and participated in helping scores (hundreds) of people engage each other on the Flickr forums to better learn photography. I loved what they did, and truly hope this giant of the online social revolution reclaims their rightful place. 

But can they do it at this point? I honestly don’t know. All because they lost sight of what made them truly remarkable: the community. 

We know that all community have stratifications amongst their members. Some members are very active, some very passive…a plenty of shades in between. Beyond just members with “standard” activity levels, we think about the most active, most passionate, most influential members and how we can get them helping to drive our community, marketing, and business goals. 

As we consider the best path forward for these sorts of engagement activities, it’s important to dial in our definitions in order to most effectively and most strategically engage. 

Over the years, we’ve heard a great many terms to describe “Engaged Customers”… influencers, super users, super fans, advocates, and more. Each one of these terms define a very different type of Engaged Customer, so it’s important not to use them interchangeably.

Here’s how I’ve always talked about the various types of Engaged Customers.  

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Super Users (aka Super Fans) are volunteer community members who participate in a corporate sponsored environment at an outpaced level from “standard” users. They typically take great pride in being independent from the company and non-biased. They share their opinions about the company openly, positive and negative. Companies gain value from Super Users when they are the most active and the most authentic. Formal relationships  with a company are problematic for the Super Users, and therefore all recognition happens after the fact.

The most effective Super User programs are those based on volunteer efforts. Recognition happens without  expectation and after the volunteer activities have been completed. Super Users are motivated by passion,
nearly entirely. Quid pro quo compensation is not ever a part of the program, and recognition, even material recognition, is never an expectation or a guarantee. Super Users engage and invest their time because they love doing so, and are motivated nearly entirely by intrinsic motivations. 

Super Users build a persona over time strongly based in the brand owned/branded community. Any ”influence” they may have comes solely in the context of the time they’ve spent on the brand owned community. Their “celebrity” is a function of their in-community participation. 

Super Users drive conversations in communities across a wide variety of topics, and lead these social experiences. They don’t focus solely on marketing/sales issues, but instead deal with a broad ranges of on and off topic issues. 

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Influencers are members of Influence Marketing programs, a form of marketing in which focus is placed on influential people rather than the target market as a whole. It identifies the individuals that have influence over potential buyers, and orients marketing activities around them. The FTC is rightly concerned about companies paying these people to say positive things without properly disclosing and therefore convincing consumers to buy without proper information. Companies gain value from engaging/paying influencers to directly talk about their products.

An “influencer” is a celebrity, major or minor, with influence over a specific group of people. When an influencer speaks, their audience listens … and reacts. 

Paid motivations – An influencer, in the influencer marketing context, is performing actions specifically because they are paid to do so. They have created an audience through their celebrity and are using that audience to push products they’re paid to push. 

Short term Marketing oriented – The goal of a marketer working with an influencer is specifically to push a short term, product/service oriented agenda. They may or may not be members of your community beyond their Influence Marketing activities. 

Instant on – Influencers are powerful because their audience has already been established, and their credibility with them takes place without the effort of the marketer. Simply writing a check to the influencer can “turn on” an influencer’s power, directed at the brand’s product

Off site activity – An influencer’s activities are inherently separated from the corporate sites/properties. They are posting their paid endorsements on their own properties or third party properties like Facebook, Instagram, etc.

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Advocates fall somewhere between Influencers and Super Users. They are Engaged Customers, not unlike Super Users, but their activity is driven more by a desire to share their feedback on product usage experiences, than on social connection to like minded fans of a product/brand/service/idea. 

Like Super Users, Advocates are enthusiastic supporters of the brand, and go out of their way to support the brand and help engage new customers. But Advocates (and advocate marketing programs) tend to focus more on an “if > then” relationship. “If you participate, share, review, post then you will get some reward.” These programs are not a quid pro quo relationship, per se. But they are certainly meant to drive specific outcomes. 

When described this way, it may seem like Super Users are very similar to Advocates. And while there’s a great many similarities, especially in some of the methods of reward, the two function very differently. 

Advocate marketing programs are a more proactive approach to activating Engaged (or potentially Engaged) Customers to do specific marketing/sales oriented activities. Imagine a program where Advocates are asked to refer 10 people to a new product launch signup page. In return, Advocates may get access to special perks like free event access, t-shirts, conversations with executives, and so on. 

Super User programs are more reactive, where the program seeks to reward and recognize the most active members of a community for their prior work. Certainly we build Super User programs that help other community members level up to that status, but the community exists around a mission other than a proactive marketing/sales goal. 

But sometimes being a human and creating social connection with others isn’t  that tough. For instance, if you want to thank your customers. Here’s a great way to do it: 

“Customer: Thank you for being a customer”

Here’s a way to do it really well: 

“Customer: Thank you for being a customer. Here’s a token of our appreciation for all the business you’ve given us. You’re fantastic.”

Here’s a method to avoid: 

At Stamps.com, we greatly appreciate your business. But rather than just say “thank you”, we’d like to extend a unique offer to you and your friends. Send your friends and family a special offer ($100 value) and when they sign up and complete the 4 week trial, you can earn $20 FREE POSTAGE!

Just forward this email to your friends, when they sign up using the “Try It Now” button below, they will receive a valuable $100 offer and if they complete their trial you will earn $20 free postage!

Sincerely,
Stamps.com

Seriously… what? “But rather than just say ‘thank you’… nope. Fail. You’ve already put me on edge. Then rather than thank me, you’re going to offer me a way to do your job for you and find new customers and I’ll get a cut of that work? Gee… thank you. 

Thank your customers. Then stop talking. Save your asks for another conversation. Or at least don’t ever say “rather than just saying ‘thank you’…”

I’ve been a long time customer of stamps.com (years at this point). I’m printing stamps specifically for Christmas cards tonight. Having a better sense of their customers, here’s a message that would have worked on me: 

Hey Jake! It’s holiday card season, and we know postage can add up for all those cards. As a thank you for being a part of the Stamps.com family, we wanted to make it easier to connect with your own family this holiday season. We’ve put $5 (enough for 10 free stamps) in your account. 

If you think that someone in your circle of friends and family might want to join our family too, drop them this discount code and they’ll get the same credit. Nothing like being the hero at the holidays!

They would still have been able to communicate the same marketing message, but they would have come across vastly more genuine. I would have connected with them much more deeply as a group/company made up of individuals interested in their customers, not their own year-end bottom line. 

My friends at Vanilla Forums asked me to add my observations of online communities in 2018 and the predictions for where we are going in 2019 to their yearly report.

Download here: CommunityPredictions2019

I’m really excited about community in 2019. The last couple of years, I’ve been hearing and seeing rumblings of deeper investment and growth of community strategies, projects, expectations, and budgets. Here’s a 2019 that explodes online community even further!

In the meantime, check out my interview!

Reed and his partner, Chris are doing some great work on their podcast, so be sure to check it out!

Click here to listen to the interview

This time last year, the kind folks at Webbdagarna invited me to Sweden to introduce the idea of super fans to their audience. The speech is built around the 5 key things super fans want you, kind hearted brand purveyor. The cheat sheet is below the video, if you don’t have time to watch.

1. I’m not weird, I’m passionate!
Humans are an interesting bunch. Every one of us has our own passions. If we collect stamps, for instance, it’s the most normal thing in the world. We  But if we don’t collect stamps… well, how odd! Super fans just want to be respected for their passions. We all have a passion, whether it’s for cooking, supporting a sports team, restoring cars, or watching Game of Thrones every week. Our passion for our interests is a beautiful thing, even if others don’t have those same interests.

2. I’m not in this for the stuff (but can I get more stuff?) 
It’s a common misconception that Super Fans are just trying to get free stuff. And sometimes, that’s true, sure. Who doesn’t want free stuff from brands/products they love? But Super Fans are motivated by so much more than free stuff. They are motivated by intrinsic, personal, emotional needs. They’re fulfilling basic human needs.

3. This is ours (thank you for the support)
Super Fans believe the community they engage in is theirs. They believe, despite who’s paying the bills for the technology, this is their place. And to a large extent, they’re right. You build a brand/support/marketing/fan community in order to create exactly that: a home for your most loyal and engaged customers. But there is a fine balance that you must seek in your strategy and in your management to create a positive environment where leadership was clear, but based in a type of partnership.

4. We know more than you about your brand 
No matter how much you or your colleagues know about the brand, the products, the company history, your community knows more. When I say “community”, I mean individuals and/or the aggregate group of individuals. If you develop software, they’re the ones out there putting it through its paces 8+ hours at day in their jobs. If you distribute music, the fans can rattle off a long list of details about where an artist gained their influences. Respect this knowledge, and figure out how to put it to work for your company and for the community.

5. Please have as much fun as we do (even though we know you’re working)
There’s nothing worse to a passionate person than a vibe killer. No matter how much you love the products/services/experiences your company produces, it’s easy to get stuck in the drudgery of the day-to-day work tasks. Find a way, especially when engaging with fans, to keep your passion for the brand on par with theirs. Just because you’re working, doesn’t mean you can’t be excited about the products too. And if you aren’t passionate, find a colleague to engage with fans who is.

You may not recognize me… I know it’s been a while. Or you have never heard of me, since I’ve been a bit of a recluse lately. But I’m the guy who loves online community and has spent the better part of my career trying to bring community engagement to life in the most impactful, world changing ways possible.

So where have I been for so long? Why cut back the speaking and blogging and meetuping? I’m glad you asked. Buckle in, there’s a story ahead.

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In the last few years, I’ve been having a bit of a midlife (work) crisis. I’d worked my ass off to be a small part of helping the idea of online engagement, social media, and community building take root in the world since the mid-90s. I was the guy who bugged his friends and family at parties about the internet in the 90s. I was the guy who got way too excited when trying to get people to use Friendster and MySpace in the early 2000s. I was the guy who spent countless hours off the clock trying to help companies get excited about working directly with customers and fans. At the core of all this work was the belief that when we connect, even in small online ways, the world is a better place.

When you do something long enough, the excitement tends to fade. And I’ve been doing online community work for a long, long time now. And when we sold Ant’s Eye View to PwC my ability to share openly and speak publicly was restricted. Then I left PwC and joined Apple and those things were further restricted.

Then Trump was elected and I saw the world’s most powerful man, the leader of the free world use these tools I’d worked so hard to get societal buy-in for as a means to hammer intolerance, misinformation, and rivalry building. It broke my heart and made me question what I was doing with my career.

Shortly after that, my marriage collapsed in a brutally difficult fashion. I basically disappeared off social media, the same way I had recoiled from the world around me. As I recovered and started to post on social media again, I started to share small tidbits about the heartbreak. Outside of a very small circle of friends and family, everyone in my online world was shocked. “I had no idea anything was wrong”… “Your social profiles presented a picture of positivity, and I had no idea”. This reaction really shook me. I had created two worlds: one where everything was perfect, and another where everything had crumbled to the ground.

I decided this wasn’t acceptable.

So I started sharing, really sharing on Facebook. I titled my posts “Speaking honestly in public”, and I started sharing what I was really going through. I was raw, and real, and vulnerable. And brother, let me tell you… it was scary.

But an amazing thing started happening… people I knew, and people I barely knew started reaching out. They started sharing their stories with me about their own pain, their own divorces, their lives, their own struggles to be more honestly in public. They started telling me that my regular posts of brutal honesty were helping them feel less alone, and more empowered to embrace their own experiences. I’ve had more than one person tell me that they too were starting to speak more honestly in public.

And in this time, I was reminded why I love the online community space so much. I was reminded why I’m proud of my career, and proud of my impact on the world through my work over the years. I still think we could have done better, and need to continue pushing to improve this online community/social/whatever thing. But now I know I want to be a part of the solution, rather than selling oranges on the side of the road.

I’m back, baby.