Yeah, so, I’m a geek, and this is hawt.
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Someday, remind me to talk to you more about my obsession with Lifetime Customer Value (LCV). And if you are a geek and want to get a head start, check out userlabor.org and portable contacts.
Brainstorming titles of books on community with @communitygirl:
[ via tweeeet ]
Community: All is Fair in Love and War
Community is not all peaches and ponies. It is hard work and messy and beautiful and creative and draining. People are mean. And people are inspiring. The only thing harder about dealing with a person, is to deal with a lot of persons. But, but, but, it is always worth the journey. So, how can we learn the rules of love AND the rules of war and bring a whole group of people along for the ride.
Community: These People Kill Me
Cultivating a community a lot of work. The kind of work that can kill you. No, seriously, stress causes heart attacks. Heart attacks kill people. On the other end, there are so many (SOOOOO many) stories that come out of community life. Heartbreaking, wonderful, beautiful things, that only surface when people crash into one another around things they love, or hate, or are passionate about. (Or, are bored.) Interesting how the same people who make you want to die, can also make you laugh so hard it feels like you are dying.
Community: Love Scales
So many things related to the business of interacting with customers do not scale. Every company, at some point has so many customers that they simply can no longer engage with them on a one-to-one level. This is sad. This is also life. When companies and organizations learn how to cultivate a community of customers (or communities of customer groups) they give birth to something that can scale. Make it easy for your customers to love you, and then they might fight for the chance to do your marketing, pr, customer service, evangelism, and sales FOR YOU.
What would you title your book on community?
A couple of things have been picking at scabs on my mind:
Before I start connecting all these dots, do you have any to add?
People’s “relationships” are emergent and thus can’t be managed. That is, they can be influenced but not controlled.
[ via Charlie Ehin ]
a.k.a. Why I Think ‘manager’ is the worst word to follow the word ‘community’
I prefer the phrase Community Cultivation and try to map all tasks and skills against gardening metaphors:
What would you add to the list?
or What metaphors do you use?
If you invest in your customers now, you might find VCs anxious to invest in you.”
After 6 years of trying to raise funding for 3 of my startups over the years with zero success I decided to let the market decide and court customers now rather then VC. it’s been a turning point for me because my customers get it immediately whereas the VC just don’t seem to get it. And my customers give me feedback to improve my concept and the VCs just seem to shoot it down and say it won’t fly and that I’m “too early” which just means they aren’t interested.
– Comment by Blake Southwood on a NYTimes article on “Falling Valuations: Poison for Venture Capital”
I am still a n00b when it comes to venture capital, so I really can’t address any comments about the value of that industry. However, I know a lot about customers, and love to hear stories about entrepreneurs who recognize how much value their customers provide.
“Customers Get it Immediately”
Almost by definition, your customers are the ones that get it. Obviously you caught their attention, and they were intrigued or inspired enough to sign up or buy. There is a ton of value in understanding your current customers, and how they understand you. While other companies play percentage games with marketing (If I hit 1000 random people with an add, 180 click, and 27 buy…) you can focus on understanding what inspired your existing customers to embrace your product. Then, as you improve their experience and refine the product, they will lead you to the rest of your market(s).
“Customers Give Feedback”
Your customers want to help you. They want a better product/experience, and they know what would make it better. (After all, they probably use it more than you.) They want to leave their mark. It is a primal instinct. Embrace it. They are more than happy to give you a ton of help for the low cost of recognition and validation. And, sometimes they just want to complain. That is OK, let them. Make it easy for them to come complain to you. If you don’t listen, they’ll find someone else to complain about you to who will listen.
Bottom Line
I flew through some reasons why your customers want to give you feedback. I want to dive much deeper into those, but for now, I just want to point out that there is a lot of value in listening to that feedback. You shouldn’t act on all their feedback. I’m not describing design by committee. But, I am saying that any feedback you receive from your existing customers is very valuable in growing your business and getting more customers. Bottom line, the market will tell you where to go, it is up to you to innovate and refine in that direction.
Entrepreneurs tend to be really good at thinking about their product, employees, VCs, term sheets, bottom-line’s and their someday-IPOs. Sometimes, they become so focused on those things that they forget to think about their customers. In the shuffle, customers (who make all the rest possible) are reduced to spreadsheets, or clicks, or eyes-on-page, or some amorphous herd of annoying questions. When customers are continually thought of in this light, it is nearly impossible to treat them as individuals who could love a company and become a volunteer sales force of evangelists.
I help companies love their customers. Or, to put it another way, I make it easier for customers to love their companies.
I am excited to begin sharing my experience in cultivating community engagement and customer care with companies who are looking for help developing strategies and processes to:
There are a few conversations I would really like to have right now:
Raymond Cattell’s 16 Personality Factors:
I am reading through Raymond Cattell’s 16 Personality Factors this morning, and trying to figure out where I fit on the spectrum for each factor. It also has my wheels spinning about how valuable it might be abstract these out to a community level, to help companies either zero in on a specific community personality for their product/service. Or, better yet, consider converting singular communities into several communities that might individually have incompatible personalities, but could become more healthy in their own environment.
| Descriptors of Low Range | Primary Factor | Descriptors of High Range |
|---|---|---|
| Impersonal, distant, cool, reserved, detached, formal, aloof (Schizothymia) | Warmth (A) |
Warm, outgoing, attentive to others, kindly, easy-going, participating, likes people (Affectothymia) |
| Concrete thinking, lower general mental capacity, less intelligent, unable to handle abstract problems (Lower Scholastic Mental Capacity) |
Reasoning (B) |
Abstract-thinking, more intelligent, bright, higher general mental capacity, fast learner (Higher Scholastic Mental Capacity) |
| Reactive emotionally, changeable, affected by feelings, emotionally less stable, easily upset (Lower Ego Strength) | Emotional Stability (C) |
Emotionally stable, adaptive, mature, faces reality calmly (Higher Ego Strength) |
| Deferential, cooperative, avoids conflict, submissive, humble, obedient, easily led, docile, accommodating (Submissiveness) |
Dominance (E) |
Dominant, forceful, assertive, aggressive, competitive, stubborn, bossy (Dominance) |
| Serious, restrained, prudent, taciturn, introspective, silent (Desurgency) | Liveliness (F) |
Lively, animated, spontaneous, enthusiastic, happy go lucky, cheerful, expressive, impulsive (Surgency) |
| Expedient, nonconforming, disregards rules, self indulgent (Low Super Ego Strength) |
Rule-Consciousness (G) |
Rule-conscious, dutiful, conscientious, conforming, moralistic, staid, rule bound (High Super Ego Strength) |
| Shy, threat-sensitive, timid, hesitant, intimidated (Threctia) |
Social Boldness (H) |
Socially bold, venturesome, thick skinned, uninhibited (Parmia) |
| Utilitarian, objective, unsentimental, tough minded, self-reliant, no-nonsense, rough (Harria) |
Sensitivity (I) |
Sensitive, aesthetic, sentimental, tender minded, intuitive, refined (Premsia) |
| Trusting, unsuspecting, accepting, unconditional, easy (Alaxia) | Vigilance (L) |
Vigilant, suspicious, skeptical, distrustful, oppositional (Protension) |
| Grounded, practical, prosaic, solution oriented, steady, conventional (Praxernia) | Abstractedness (M) |
Abstract, imaginative, absent minded, impractical, absorbed in ideas (Autia) |
| Forthright, genuine, artless, open, guileless, naive, unpretentious, involved (Artlessness) | Privateness (N) |
Private, discreet, nondisclosing, shrewd, polished, worldly, astute, diplomatic (Shrewdness) |
| Self-Assured, unworried, complacent, secure, free of guilt, confident, self satisfied (Untroubled) |
Apprehension (O) |
Apprehensive, self doubting, worried, guilt prone, insecure, worrying, self blaming (Guilt Proneness) |
| Traditional, attached to familiar, conservative, respecting traditional ideas (Conservatism) |
Openness to Change (Q1) |
Open to change, experimental, liberal, analytical, critical, free thinking, flexibility (Radicalism) |
| Group-oriented, affiliative, a joiner and follower dependent (Group Adherence) |
Self-Reliance (Q2) |
Self-reliant, solitary, resourceful, individualistic, self sufficient (Self-Sufficiency) |
| Tolerates disorder, unexacting, flexible, undisciplined, lax, self-conflict, impulsive, careless of social rules, uncontrolled (Low Integration) |
Perfectionism (Q3) |
Perfectionistic, organized, compulsive, self-disciplined, socially precise, exacting will power, control, self-sentimental (High Self-Concept Control) |
| Relaxed, placid, tranquil, torpid, patient, composed low drive (Low Ergic Tension) |
Tension (Q4) |
Tense, high energy, impatient, driven, frustrated, over wrought, time driven. (High Ergic Tension) |
| Primary Factors and Descriptors in Cattell’s 16 Personality Factor Model (Adapted From Conn & Rieke, 1994). | ||