Connie Bensen, Community Strategist
Who are the “evangelists” for your community or site — the advocates and the influencers? And how can you empower them to further your community goals, get them revved up? Community Strategist Connie Bensen did a series on just this. Here are highlights and links.
Who are these Evangelists, Advocates, Influencers?
According to Connie, they are those who
- LOVE your product & tell everyone
- Are actively talking about it & are helping others.
Supporting Advocates
How do you find and identify your advocates? By listening, says Connie.
Where and how? By participating actively in your online community, using Google Alerts, Technorati, Google Analytics and social media monitoring tools.
When you identify people that are evangelizing for your brand, Connie says, engaging your advocates, interact with them.
She suggest that you be helpful, answer questions about your products or services. But also, thank them, identify yourself as a representative, and express your brand’s point of view.
To support and enabling your advocates, create a communication area with resources. Then interact but allow them ownership. Involve them in projects and planning. Be sure they have resources.
Read the links for more of Connie’s advice and examples.
And How Are You Helping Your Advocates?
Got more ideas on how to involve and support your community advocates? Please leave me a comment.
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Hi Peg,
Thanks for linking to my posts on enabling your advocates. This is truly the power of social networks that organizations need to consider.
Jeremiah Owyang recently had an excellent post on Advocacy Programs.
http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2009/09/22/checklist-develop-a-successful-advocacy-program/
Another great resource are the white papers that Jeremy Epstein has written. His point of view is that the most influential people are the average people who are excited about the products. (rather than the influencers with large followings).
The most important thing is interact with those that talk about your product. The rest will come naturally!
Connie
Community Strategist
Alterian
@cbensen