Comments on: Your online identity—add to it!

By: Michael Maurillo

Michael Maurillo — Fri, 08 May 2009 19:04:12 +0000

Maury,
That's really interesting thought – enabling a user to identify why they are a fan of brand x. There's probably a number of ways to make that happen, but just using that as a thought starter could take you to some cool places as far as the relationship goes.

By: Michael Maurillo

Michael Maurillo — Fri, 08 May 2009 14:04:12 +0000

By: Maury Postal

Maury Postal — Tue, 05 May 2009 19:03:36 +0000

Great point Kristin. I also think by introducing a set of words to let people describe how they feel about a certain brand or object is key to gauging consumer interest right off the bat. Something to the effect of like and love would help bring successful elements of the social web full circle and serve to standardize specific user actions.

By: Kristin Maverick

Kristin Maverick — Tue, 05 May 2009 18:44:25 +0000

Absolutely. I think FAN is the wrong word and maybe Facebook should have described it a bit differently. When I think FAN, I think Yankees, Red Sox—not chicken parm sandwiches and “lazy summers”–it should be more of a “Like” feature. Fan is such a strong word. That said, Facebook is the only one doing anything remotely like this to fill out your online profile with content versus just the basics. By developing a basic start for this, we can only go up and add more to it. Then, maybe we can describe how we can break away through the clutter for the die hard fans.

By: Michael Maurillo

Michael Maurillo — Tue, 05 May 2009 17:12:19 +0000

I think FB Fan pages definitely enable brands to engage with certain “types” of fans, but it should not replace (or become an easy way out of) engaging your die hard fans as well. A way to define a “die hard” might be someone who is already part of a community that has formed around an associated passion or your brand itself. Some who, might actually, wouldn't be caught dead joining your FB Fan page b/c they are such a huge fan (does that make sense?). It's also important to note that not all brands have “die-hards”. And for which case, FB Fan pages are a really nice opportunity for the non-die hards to show their fandom by basically putting a virtual badge on their virtual-self.

Point is, it's not easy to truly engage your fans in a meaningfully by participating in a credible way and adding value to whatever community or experience they are engaging in. So while FB Fan pages are a nice start/option, don't let you clients just check the box. Make sure they use that first step as way to learn more about their fans, what they react to, what they care about, what they want more or less of, to find out who the real die-hards are and where they are connecting without them, to then go out and use those insights to deliver better services and products.

By: The_Swine_Flu

The_Swine_Flu — Tue, 05 May 2009 16:18:41 +0000

I love these viral environments. I've got a twitter page (http://twitter.com/the_swine_flu) and Facebook Page (http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Swine-Flu/769...) Both have over 1,500 followers/fans in less than a week. It's really helping spread my message of death, chaos and destruction.

For example, I hosted a Face Licking party Sunday night. Over 150 people signed up and shared their stories.
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=76617351025

On Twitter, people are using the hashtags #facelick and #facelicking
http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23facelick+...

On top of this, I'm using drop.io to power my voicemail line 646-462-4073 x 02276

And of course gmail. theswineflu.aka.h1n1@gmail.com

Look for my interview dropping later today.

Thanks so much for this insightful blog post. I hope to learn from others in this field on how to continue infecting humanity.

Sincerely

The Swine Flu, aka The H1N1