…gave their top community member a lifetime
supply of their product for free.
…or replied to a tweet from a member in a
funny, novel, way.
…or arranged for their best community
member to throw the opening pitch at a
major ball game.
…or helped prevent a member being evicted
from their home.
…or did something else that was fun,
unique, novel, or innovative.
Too often we see these stories and declare
them to be the future of communications. Yet, we don’t hear about the second
time a brand does this. Nor the third, fourth, or fifth…
The novelty fades fast. Once that
first-time attention has vanished, you’re faced with the obvious problem. These
activities don’t scale. Worse still, they’re time-consuming, often expensive,
detract from more important issues, and incur their own problems. Replying to a
twitter comment with humour is great until someone accuses you of not taking him
or her seriously.
Any brand can do something amazing for one
particular day. However, this isn’t going to make a difference. It’s how you
treat and interact with the community on all the other days that really
matters.
Yes, if you have the time, surprise a
member on their birthday with hand-delivered cake from the CEO. Just don’t
expect it to have much of a long-term impact.
Incredmental improvement in your everyday activities is far more effective than any novelty.
