When Your Fans Love Your Work - and Treat It Like Their Own

In an increasingly digital world, there are two kind of content creators: The Open and The Closed.

Closed content creators are focused on the rules of content use that they grew up with in the 20th century. Content is the sole possession of its creator and/or the company that licensed that content. While Fair Use is often acknowledged by both content creators and users, some companies are less likely to actually allow free and fair use of images and words - even when that use actually affects their bottom line positively.

In a world where tools to create video, audio, illustrative and text-based mashups and parodies are common, and information available on the Internet is seen as open-source, even when it is copyrighted, it becomes critical for any company to know when to establish Fair Use policies for consumers of that company's content.

Most companies react to their consumer's use of their content with the legal equivalent of swatting at a swarm of mosquitoes. These shotgun tactics might, in fact, slow down use of your content, but just as swatting at mosquitoes is unlikely to eradicate biting, this kind of legal action does little in the long run to stop consumer reworking of your content.

More importantly, in many cases, there are perfectly good reasons why you should encourage your consumers to take your content and run with it.


Today we're going to look at situations when you should allow your consumers to use and reuse your content.

When to Become an Open Content Creator:


When you have nothing to lose

You and your company are just getting started, you have a modest audience and a modest market. At this point, the absolute most important thing for you is to get the word out. In this case, it's probably the best of all worlds if you provide your consumers with materials to mashup, remake and parody. Create contests where you set the usage rules. Provide images and ideas, even tools to help your fans create and expand your audience.


When you have a huge audience

Let's be honest here. Is a fan-written story about Harry Potter really a threat to the franchise? No, and despite what Warner Brothers says, it never can be. The reality is that every story, every piece of art, every parody video keesp that fandom alive one more day. And it may even draw a new fan in, long after the series itself has ended.

When your name has saturated the potential audience, let go of your creation. There is nothing anyone can do to hurt you.


When you are growing rapidly beyond your ability to manage

Your new idea has gone viral. Peoples' interest in it is off the charts. You cannot and should not attempt to control the property. Let it fly, let it live! Allow your advocates to work for you through contests and rewards. Give them a chance to be part of your team while your real team upgrades the site infrastructure.


When your potential audience is small

There's niches, and there's micro-niches. A niche is marketing to Lithuanians, priests, or left-handed people. A micro-niche is marketing to left-handed Lithuanian priests. There are only going to be so many people who fit your niche, no matter how much promotion you do.

Because you cannot knock on doors to find every single person who might potentially be out there who would be the perfect market for your product or service, it makes a lot of sense to let your audience help you. When they can remix and rework your content so that it attracts new consumers, it's a win-win for everyone.

Giving your fans a chance to own your work makes them more likely to want to own your work.

The Care and Feeding of Influencers and Advocates

Companies are spending a lot of money and time identifying people who are Influencers in their industries. They slice and dice their own data to see who their Advocates are in their Social spaces. But, what, exactly, do companies do with this data once the have it? Too often they attempt to hitch their cart to these people and let them do the heavy pulling for them.

The importance of Influencers on your business shouldn't be downplayed. Influencers in certain industries can make or break a company in early stages. The right kind of coverage on the right blog can be the difference between great success or relative obscurity. Influencers see you as someone they want their audience to know about.

Advocates are members of your market that spend their time praising you/your business, sharing information with other people in their own networks and generally expanding your ability to get the word out...because they like you, your product, your goals and your voice. Advocates see you as someone they want their friends to know about.

Many companies make the mistake of seeing Influencers and Advocates as people over there, not people who are right there by their side. Or as animals to harness and pull the company cart. Or numbers to be measured and used, rather than valuable members of the team, to be integrated into the business strategy.

So, how should one take care of Influencers and Advocates?

Influencers and Advocates are, first and foremost, relationships that need to be built up. Sending out well-written press releases is important, but actually taking time to meet, speak with, and build up a relationship with an Influencer is the difference between someone reporting your press release and someone writing a glowing post about the press release.

Listen to what is being said by your Influencers and Advocates. This is an easy point of contact for you to engage those people talking about you. When someone who links to you all over the webs says, "this new thing - it's not so great," stop what you're doing and ask why. That Advocate might have a personal beef, but they might very well put their finger on a weak point that you never saw. You won't know unless you listen to them. An Influencer in the space who calls attention to your new product could be the difference between an amazing launch, and something much less amazing. Know what has been said, know who says it. Listen to those comments and absorb the insight into your strategy and tactics.

Acknowledge contributions made by your Advocates - thanks Persons 1, 2 and 3 for a lot of insightful comments recently! And thank those who retweet and share, as well. Thank Influencers for their time in mentioning you. Every kind word from an Influencer in your field is another person out there who has their eye on you, waiting to be impressed.

Reward positive gain behavior. Don't offer reward for minimal efforts such as Liking, but do take time to notice the time and effort your Advocates put in for you. "Hey, we notice that you're really being awesome and we wanted to say thanks" goes a very long way. Influencers often can't legally take gifts, and in any case that is not the relationship or reputation you want to build, but taking a moment to thank someone for their Influence and promotion is never a moment wasted.

The more you listen to, and talk with your Influencers and Advocates, the more of a relationship you build.

Take good care of your Influencers and Advocates, don't try to harness them to do your dirty work. It's your cart - put in your best effort to pull it yourself and your Influencers and Advocates will pitch in right there next to you.

Are you a Social Media Hobo?

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It seems that everywhere you go these days, someone is shaking a can for Social Media recognition. In a desperate attempt to be seen as Influencers and Taste Makers, every company - and many individuals - are making it so easy for you to share their wisdom, that websites and social media profiles are practically covered with widgets, toolbars, and sharing icons.

At what cost?

Are you missing the forest for the trees in your pursuit of a piece of the Social Media pie? Take a honest look at your content. Is it fresh? Is it interesting? Is it yours?  But...who cares if that information is yours originally? A retweet or a share might get your audience acting...that's good enough right?

It's all well and good to aggregate, share and inform, but what people really want is information they haven't seen before, information they can use. They want information that entertains and informs and, in some cases, enrages.

Experts that aren't creating their own content, but are asking for recognition from their audience, have become Social Media hobos. They aren't contributing. It may be the easy way to a higher Peerindex, but there's nothing authentic about it.

You can make a difference in your field. You do have time to write an insightful post on your blog, or create a simple, meaningful infographic.

You are the expert in your area, there's no need to be riding someone else's train.

Put down the can and stand up from the stoop - don't beg for follows, likes or shares. No one respects a Social Media hobo.

Be the expert you are in your field and you'll get the respect you deserve.

The Truth About Consumers' Role in Innovation

Innovation is a buzzword that never dies. Every company, no matter how risk-averse, fearing that control of their brand has been ceded to their consumers, flogs employees and consumers alike with their innovative-ness, if not with actual innovation.


In the entertainment sector, innovators have quite literally cut out all the layers between themselves and getting the material almost immediately - for free. Creators are disfranchised from their own work and distribution companies have been marginalized, forced to run after new technology like a dogcatcher chasing an errant mutt. The only people who gain from this are the innovators...but this is not sustainable. This kind of innovation is choking the industries it feeds upon.

In thinking about how this innovation has not only not helped, but has negatively impacted some industries, it dawned on me that the idea of innovation by consumers is backwards. Innovators are rarely consumers. They drive consumption by their innovation, but they are rarely buying the products themselves. Why? Because they can do it better - that is what drives them.

A strong company breaks its own toys and rebuilds them differently. If you're waiting to see what your consumers come up with, you've already fallen behind the curve...and while you're playing catch up, the innovators have moved on to break the toy 6 different ways, run rings around your security/DRM/ and have provided people 3 different ways to use your product for free.

I've never really understood Apple's closed community before, but my own explanation makes it make sense to me now - they break their own toys.

If you're letting consumers drive your brand innovation by breaking your toys, you've already lost the market.

The Difference Between Buzz and Sustainable Growth Strategies

You may have see a headline that looked like this recently:

10,000 Free Round-Trip Tickets to Japan

Articles go on to say that the Japan Tourist Bureau is planning to (possibly) give away tickets to (possibly) influencers and mega-bloggers to come to Japan, and (possibly) write about their experiences there.

This is a fine short-term strategy, but it's not what JTB should do.

Here's what's wrong with this plan:

1) JTB is (planning on) giving free tickets to people who are already highly likely to travel.

2) It's a short-term boost that might create a minor bump in tourism, but has no sustainability.


***

I love Japan. I love visiting it as often as possible and I write about my experience there for people to enjoy. There's a pretty good chance that I'd get one of those free tickets. But that's relatively pointless, because I go there anyway.  The people who are pro or semi-pro travel writers, or have compelling Japanese business interests, are not avoiding Japan because of a high yen or fears of radiation. And, people who are worried about radiation are unlikely to go to Japan just because a travel writer says it's safe.

I might motivate one or two people a year to really get over there - I did motivate a whole crowd to come in 2005 for an event I ran in Tokyo. And, if those people liked it, then they might go back. If 10,000 people motivate one or two people to go, it's a nice little blip on the tourism radar.

But.

This is not sustainable. This is buzz.

JTB can't afford to give away 10,000 free round-trip tickets every year and not all of the people who get those tickets will go again, bring a friend, or instill desire in readers to visit Japan.

For a short-term campaign, they'd be better off giving free tickets to people who have never been there, have a compelling reason to visit and who are likely to bring spouses and children with them.

There's still no sustainability, but then their campaign would also express some goodwill and get people who might not otherwise visit Japan over there.The problem is...

Buzz is not a Growth Strategy

To create a sustainable way to increase tourism, JTB ought first to look at cost. Airfare to get to Japan from my part of the country is ridiculous and is heading higher in the next few months. This presents a tremendous hurdle for anyone who might want to go there, especially if they have a family. A trip to Japan now costs what you might pay for a used car, or a year's tuition for a community college. This seems like the most obvious pain point in the world to me.

JTB - you want more people to come to Japan? Make it cheaper to get there.

13 hours in the air is a long time, but it takes me that to get to just about anywhere outside North America. The cost is the problem, not the time. Work with airlines to bring airfare to something a normal human with a spouse and kids can handle.

There was a time when airlines sold cheap overseas travel fares. I remember a coworker going to Japan for 3 nights, 4 days with hotel for $400 as an airline special. If I could get that deal, I'd go there every month for a long weekend and to pick up manga and magazines. I'd eat out, too. And not just ramen on the street.

Work with airlines to bring back airfares that don't take being a millionaire to afford. I have no doubt that tourism rates will rise right back up.

Confession Time: I Don't Take Google+ Seriously

Okay, I know it's all the rage to heap praise upon praise for Google's new Mom-free social media sharing space, Google+. But being the trend-bucker and sooth-sayer I am, I'm going to make a public confession here:

I don't take Google+ seriously.

I've been using "Social Media" since the days of Bulletin Board Systems, when I had a Panasonic Senior "portable" computer (that weighed 18 pounds and had a thermal printer on the ass end) and had to take my phone offline to pretend to have a drink and a chat online with a friend who lived ten minutes away. So, whenever a new social platform opens up, I'm glad to take it for a spin, click the buttons and kick the tires. And, after serious consideration, I just cannot take Google+ seriously.

Circles Aren't All That (much less a bag of chips)

Circles seem like an exciting and revolutionary idea, but if you have ever created a mailing list, it's really not. Even on Facebook, you could always just message a few friends and share something with them. It wasn't hard. Circles are useful, if you have passion around three or four separate areas and don't want them mixing. I'm not a big fan of segmenting my conversations. Segmentation isn't privacy, either.

When Circles first showed up, there was a lot of conversation about good Circle taxonomy. I thought about it at length and came up with the following Circle names:

• People Who Think They Are My Friends

• People Who Want Me To Listen To Them Talk

• People Who Want To Hear Me Talk

• People I Follow on Google+
  

In reality, I have only one Circle, called "Following." Because that is what I do - I follow you because I want to read what you have to say...it doesn't matter to me which of the many topics I'm interested in that you write or share info about. In fact - I'd prefer to get a nicely varied mix of different kinds of information on different things, because otherwise, it'll all start to sound the same. I like variety. If you want to follow me and put me in a bucket, fine. I post and share on multiple topics, so you're as likely to get Social Media articles mixed in with Comic/Manga news, British Archaeology and Physics.


The Main Topic Discussed on Google+ is...Google+

This morning I open my feed and no less than half of the conversation is about how good, bad, indifferent, useful, useless, growing, dying Google+ is. At least Facebook is mature enough as a platform to only have this kind of navel-staring happen with particularly obnoxious updates. This morning's headline was trumpeting Google+'s failure to retain users. I wasn't surprised because the true power of a new social platform is access to a new audience. Google+ lacks this because:


The Audience on Google+ is People You Already Know

The early adopters of Google+ were Social Media wonks, who naturally want to poke and prod any new system...and folks fleeing from Facebook because their Mom was on it. These people were likely to be in your network already, if you were on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Quora or any number of platforms. I know of exactly one person who found a whole new community there - and it wasn't organically grown on Google+, it migrated there from...you guessed it, Facebook.


Last, and quite possibly the biggest factor I have in not taking Google+ seriously is...

It's Google. They have long ago shown that "Don't Be Evil" has no meaning to them, and they track, trace, follow and measure our behavior. This is better than Facebook why? Google sells our information and stares back at us, unblinkingly, completely unable to see any irony.

Why am I confessing this all of a sudden? Because this morning I came to a sudden, shocking conclusion.

Here is the avatar I use for almost every single social media platform I'm on:



This painting was done by talented artist Mari Kurisato based on a photo of me. She takes commissions and her art makes great site avatars. If you're looking for an exciting, unique way to make an impression, I recommend her work highly.



And here is the avatar I have on Google+:

This is the avatar I've had on my Gmail account since I began using it. These are my two favorite anime characters.



And, that's about how seriously I take Google+.

Measure Twice, Post Once

When developing a Social Media Strategy, it's absolutely critical to know a few things before you begin:

Who Are You Talking To?

What Are You Trying to Say to Them?

What Do You Want Them to Do?

Before you try to answer any of these questions, think about where you're getting you data from. Are you out there listening to your audience, measuring your market and do you know how your strategy is supporting your business objectives? To do this, you must measure twice, so you only have to post once.


There are any number of free and proprietary social listening and measuring tools. They change so quickly that any list will almost immediately become obsolete the moment I hit "publish" on this article.  Here are a few of the tools I use to track influence, sentiment, response and engagement:

SocialMention - Social Mention tracks your keywords (company name, personal name, tagline) across the social internet. It tracks passion, sentiment, strength and reach, which gives you a good idea of what kinds of responses you're getting and from whom.

Klout - According to their description, Klout measures the likelihood of response to you. Higher scores mean that any given post/status will engender response, sharing or action. Unfortunately, many people are using Klout scores as a measure of expertise or elite status. Avoid this, as it indicates a lack of understanding about Klout. Klout has also spawned what Animenewsdotbiz has coined as "Credibility hobo." This would be asking users for shares, +1 on Google and other assistance for upping your score. "Brother can you spare a +K?"

Topsy will give you a overall picture of your activity online. It's doesn't dig deep into analysis, but if you want to see a quick overview of your activity - and any activity engendered by it - Topsy is a good tool.

And as I posted previously, I'm finding Crowdbooster to be a very useful tool to get a visual impression of the popularity and response to any given post.

Of course, any savvy company should have a Google Alert and Twitter Search set up to see what people are saying about them.

Now that you know who is listening to you, acting on your links, sharing and responding, and what they are saying about you, you can answer the above questions appropriately. You will know who you are talking to, when they respond, and to what. You can see what language works and which kinds of posts get the most response on your platforms.

Listen and measure before you post for the most effective use of Social Media.