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GuruSpeak > Mr Walter Pike
Walter Pike On Social Content And Communities Mr Walter Pike
New marketing maven, thinker, writer, speaker and teacher, Mr Walter Pike is a well known thought leader on marketing in a social world. With a background in sales and marketing with corporates, leadership in client service and strategy in leading ad agencies and as an academic, Mr Pike has over 30 years of experience in branding, marketing and advertising.
He is an international thought leader on social media and digital marketing where his research focus is on group formation behaviors, and patterns. Mr Pike believes that “the key thing in social media is not how you relate to your audience, but it's how those people who make up the audiences relate to their connections.” Following is the excerpt of his exclusive interview to Younomy’s GuruSpeak: "IT is idea that creates community"Younomy: If “profit” can be considered as a key indicator of the performance of a business, what can be the key indicator of the performance of a social business?
Mr Pike: I don't believe that profit is the chief indicator of performance in a business, especially if they are not defined by time. Business unfortunately often measures things because they are easy to measure not because they are the most important things to measure. The same goes with social media.The so called social media is actually the technology that has created a new era in communication. It is the eco system in which we live. It should not be seen as the paradigm itself - just as one can't confuse a printing press as a glossy magazine or a music CD as a plastic disk. Organisations should consider relooking their business to understand how to operate in the social era which is a new business environment. They should stop thinking about how to maximise profits using social media as a tool – It’s a whole different concept. Then the measure of success of social media use will become the sustainable measure of business success which include amongst a raft of other things - sustainable profitability. Younomy: Irrespective of which sector they belong to, or their size, companies/brands of all sizes find that creation of original content is a big challenge. Why it remains the challenge number one? Mr Pike: If businesses are geared for operating in the social era, why would they find generating content difficult? It’s precisely because social media is seen as an add-on tool for promotions, it is not seen as part of their operations. The fact is that if you produce cool stuff and do cool things, then producing content will be easy. Then people who care will want to hear about what you do and share it as well. Younomy: Mere social tools do not create social business. What are the key cultural aspects and skills/mindsets that organizations should have to make social media work? Mr Pike: Really, it is understanding communication in the social era. Younomy: It appears that social media is a platform for people to nurture their own personal, professional, societal identities. Even brands try to segment people in their network with their personal/professional identities. Examples: Google’s "startup-moms", "Walmart moms", etc. What roles identities play in social business? Mr Pike: One of the key aspects of my thinking is to understand why people form groups. The first thought is that they group around an idea of some sort. It is that idea that creates the community. The idea could be a cause, a brand, an activity or a point of view, etc.People have different roles in different communities - in some they are experts, in some they are the centre of a cluster, in some they connect clusters, etc. Brands may curate those groups and people will interact there, but they are not brand groups. I use a methodology called directed activism that looks at talking to people who care and empowering them to achieve their goals. The first step is to identify the communities and then the activists and the roles they are playing in the communities. Younomy: As you say, all audience have their own networks. Formally or informally, they are trying to build their own followings. My second question is should not brands create content which would be useful for their customers to create their own following/community? Mr Pike: Yes, the role of brands in this space is to empower its "activists" absolutely! |