Update: I’ve updated this from its previous version, still bloggers block version. I am hoping after hearing a nice lecture from John Updike, my thoughts will flow a bit better.
I’ve been talking about online conversations with a number of people lately and have come to what I think are two realizations. First is that people (at least from my experience) understand the concept of a micro-community of which conversations are derived from much more easily than the seemingly all encompassing term (or concept) or “conversation.” The second realization is that most companies appear to be aware of the value of online conversations. I think other then the fear of uncharted waters, that the perceived value of these conversations are being lowered due to the conversations occurring in some communities that have a negative or hateful nature (toward people specific people in a company, not just companies).
I can see why negative criticism or hateful content could lower the perceived value of communities, and thus conversations, for companies. It’s the fear of the tipped sea saw because the fat kid (or skinny kid if you want to be p.c.) is on one end, so you’re getting lopsided results. The common response from companies once they reach this point is that they have to bring on a full time staff to try to manage and control all the valuable communities. But guess what? It’s not true.
Here’s (and displayed in the graphic above) is what I imagine the breakdown of the process would look like, I also include the use of micro-communities.
- Every conversation takes place in a kind of micro-community (blog, forum, Google Group, website, etc).
- Every micro-community should have a degree of community development applied to it- their own form of management and guidelines. This means companies don’t have to manage the communities.
- Every micro-community, based on its development, emits a particular personality.
- Each personality gives you a particular perspective on your company (or product).
- All conversations coming from these micro-communities should go through a filtering process to identify those conversations that are beneficial and those that are not.
- Most importantly: You can’t control the conversation nor should you want to. Controlling the conversation removes much of its intrinsic value.
I feel that is a kind of process to what I have spoken about as of late in different parts- the importance of listening to micro-communities (conversations), how to listen to them, and now this as what I consider a complementary addition to the link to CK’s described process (found in the bloglines post).