The way companies are interacting with their customers and marketing to them is dramatically changing – thanks in large part to the emergence and popularity of social media tools.
However, some business owners are struggling to realize the importance of THE most important strategy for creating raving fans while boosting long-term profits.
This video shows how two companies (one offline and one online) have found the “secret sauce”. Watch the video and be sure to leave your comments…
What Are Your Thoughts?
Have you seen other good examples of companies “building community”?
Are you doing it in your company? If so, how?
Let us know by leaving your comments below.
You are right on the money, Stu. Like minded people want a community where they feel like they belong and can share about a common interest. I am in the process of building a wordpress membership site for my wife relating to party planning and decorating ideas. People will come to the site for ideas and “How to’s” and be able to interact with other members via chat and posting of pictures on the members forum. Wishlist makes the membership control seamless. Thanks for the great product.
I have purchased wishlist member to go with this site but am still working on how best to use it. I believe this could well be the answer to building an online community which is certainly my aim. The idea is great and I really look forward to the next video. Thanks so much.
Stu and Tracy, judging by the rate new comments appear here, the WL community is long overdue.
Great video1. Look forward to getting video2.
-Alex
Stu and Tracy, this video comes at a perfect timing. As I am just starting out building my forum. Looking forward to the next video.
Joshua Q. Shoemaker
I thought is was an exceptional video. I love your products as well. I am a WishList user and Fan!
Can’t wait to see video #2.
You guys are awesome!
We appreciate all the love and it just makes us want to create more videos like this.
When you launch your own communities you’ve definitely got to keep us in the loop – we’d love to share it with everyone.
With that said, video #2 is coming soon and from what I’ve been reading here in the comments, I think you guys will get tremendous clarity regarding what a community needs to grow and remain valuable for people.
Stay tuned
All the best.
Stu
Thanks for the great inspiration, Stu! We experience the awesome results from your products already, and yes – it’s a growing global trend.
Wait! i am a member of the Hyundai Accent fan club. No just kidding.
I believe a very important part of developing membership is that you can get much more valuable feedback from your customer base to make an even better product.
Looking forward to the next video.
Morris
http://www.yomocoffee.com
I enjoyed the video and look forward to the next. I write a golf instructional blog, so the idea of ” community” appeals to me. Eventually this will be a membership site. Right now I am working on traffic.Thanks
Doug
http://www.oldproblog.com
I think there are so many out there. One that goes along with the auto industry as well is Volkswagon for so many years, Jeep and scooter with the Vespa. Maybe the manufacturer doesn’t spend as much time promoting these communities, but the clients are diehard fans and develop strong communities all over the world.
Nice video, got a little bugged with the audio only on the right side and your lips out of sync, but I got over it.
Lemme know if you need some video help.
Hi Stu & Tracy,
Got a client using WL this weekend to build community in her first teleseminar course … a colleague in New Zealand who just signed up (can’t wait to see what she comes up with) … a local nonprofit building a community around local monks/spiritual leaders who stop by … lots of nonprofits/charities/schools that are about to expand their offline communities and donor bases with WL as part of their sustainability plans. Wow!
I love your offline and online example of community building … and all the comments of people here.
I look forward to video #2.
Phil Johncock
http://GrantWritingNewsletter.com
Nice video, got a little bugged with the audio only on the right side and your lips out of sync, but I got over it.
Lemme know if you need some video help.
Sounds like great fun!
I LOVE my Mini too!
Hi Stu,
excellent video and the Mini is a great example for building a community. We got one for our junior (aged 23) last year over here in Germany and I was very, very impressed with how they made the pick up of the car into an extraordinary experience itself. It was like a great show. And Junior got the feeling he was treated really special, like he was going to get himself a Rolls Royce. And even after the buy, they keep in touch with really well done online and offline mailings. Very cool stuff they come up with and they are doing very well now in Germany and this is absolutely well deserved. I am not a BMW fan (even though I live in Bavaria) but the Mini would be a car I would consider getting some day.
I enjoyed the video and look forward to the next. I write a golf instructional blog, so the idea of ” community” appeals to me. Eventually this will be a membership site. Right now I am working on traffic.Thanks
Doug
http://www.oldproblog.com
Sounds like great fun!
I LOVE my Mini too!
The video is nice, but I have to admit I’ve heard about the subject prior to the video. I’ve seen and participated in a variety of grassroots ways that entrepreneurs are building communities, tribes, membership sites, etc. I’m interested in what the next video has to offer.
Great comparison with the Cooper… I’m working on building a community for coaches and speakers, so I’m gobbling up every idea that I can from these videos and articles…
I recently bought a FLEX… I was exactly telling my wife it’d be nice to form a club… it’d be kind o’ impressive going down the road with 50+ FLEXes… But I’ll leave this one as a dream and work on my membership site
That’s great! It would be quite a site to see a fleet of FLEX’s coming down the road. Wait… “Fleet of Flex’s” – sounds like a good name for a Membership Site
Really appreciate the videos and support. Thank you all. From Sadie in France
Thanks for the kind words! You are welcome and we wish you luck in France!
Great video Stu, absolutely agree with what you are saying, thank you for this.
Cheers
Suzanne
Love the idea! My site is just about done, and “building a community” will definitely be the goal of what I do with it!
Good luck with everything Anthony. Let us know when you launch your site!
It is my first time visting this site, to be honest it is great. How can i be part of it? I also want to be like u guys improve my community.Please help. Am a male aged 22years,ilive in Zambia Africa.
great your post,thanks
its hard though- lots of work but i think once you start getting a commnuity together you can become soo powerful as they create the content for you.. but how to get more than ten people
You are correct that once your membership starts growing, everyone starts contributing value. It can be in the form of forum replies of comments on a Post. You can even have members contribute content should you choose to go that route.
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This was a great video – thanks and def looking fwd to 2nd one. I’m a big fan of community creation myself and urge my clients to do this very thing themselves: to build a community around them and their product – to position themselves as the go to business for their niche. A great example of community building is the community that’s growing around the ‘Key Person of Influence (KPI)’ Programme http://www.keypersonofinfluence.com in the UK and Australia. The community now consists of a few hundred people who have paid £3,500 to complete their 3 month offline training programme. (The community is mainly working out of Facebook.) The community members expected their results out of the 3 month course, but soon realise that the community is as valuable as the course content – and that’s for life for those who choose to stay in the loop. And the owners of the KPI Programme, Triumphant Events (www.triumphantevents.co.uk) are experiencing exponential growth as a result of this raving fan base, who are loyal to new offerings and programmes, and very active referrers, as well as being there to support each other (and Triumphant Events) as they all grow their respective sectors.