Pillars of the Community

There's a lot to be said for great community management.

Having an active, vibrant online community creates an easily-accessible hub for your organization, or your brand. The benefits are obvious: your management team has immediate access to what people are saying about you, concerns can be responded to publicly, with immediacy, and if your executive team is the type to embrace feedback, it's a great place to cull ideas for new products or initiatives. That being said, you can't just create these communities overnight.

A great example would be Wind Mobile. Recently they moved their community from a standard, page-by-page blog setting to a more comprehensive Get Satisfaction format. Wind's online communication with consumers is nothing new to them - before the company even launched their Canadian initiative, they had run an online forum they called 'The Digital Soap Box' for several months, letting consumers air their grievances about the Canadian telecom industry. Everything was discussed openly, from billing techniques to ideal plans, and the content of these boards became the basis for their business - talk about a two-way conversation with your public! I think Wind still sets the gold standard for consumer interaction, categorizing their community into the obvious: FAQ and Customer Issues, but they add the inspired Ideas Under Consideration and feed their blog (which is never ghostwritten, by the way) for more user content. Revolutionary? Perhaps not, but as a long-term customer and former employee, I can tell you they are unusual in one respect: they read every comment, consider every statement, and often implement many of the suggestions that come from their community.

Another fantastic community (and one I know more than one of you have already rhapsodized about it) would be the online ode to Canada's sexiest cobbler: John Fluevog. Their website obviously understands and exploits a very basic truth - most people, but certainly the bulk of women, love their shoes. I'm no exception - I own a couple of Fluevogs myself, and they're among my absolute favourites. While there isn't a great deal of interaction on the site, there is a veritable treasure trove of all things Fluevog that a reader can get lost in, or more importantly, share with their fellow fetishists.  Whether it's the charming user-provided content of FluevogScience, the addict-enabling EverydayFluevog or the picture-heavy FlueBlog demonstrates how well this brand knows its devotees. And that's even before we get started on their heavily populated Facebook page!

As a bonus, I just wanted to highlight one of my favourite (non-Canadian, sadly) brands on Facebook: Sharpie! When I was at design school, I began a deep, abiding love affair with the world's leading permanent marker that continues to this very day. You may wonder how a page dedicated to a single stationary product can establish a strong rapport with their customers - click and wonder no more. Sharpie posts original work from illustrators located across the globe, which increases their 'shares' exponentially. They provide users with a number of unusual arts and crafts projects that use their products, adding value to following their page. They share photos of their fun, quirky work environment, they frequently ask for user feedback... need I go on? Visit Sharpie on Facebook and school yourself on how even a marker can be the basis for an amazing online community.