Today’s topic is social media. More specifically, I’m going to discuss how
to create and sustain social media experiences in a way that will hopefully be
relevant for some of the many companies seeking to tap into the power of this
(relatively) new set of tools.
When most people think social
media, they think about Facebook and Twitter first. I say those are broad tools in the world of
social media – more akin to a hammer. Good
for many tasks, but not very subtle or nuanced.
Go another level deeper into social media and you’ll find more
specific-usage platforms such as Foursquare, Pintrest, LinkedIn, and
Instragram. This is one area in which
companies can play that has been largely unexplored. These tools are less hammers, and closer to
screwdrivers – built for a specific task or set of tasks, and very effective
for those jobs.
For
this post, I’d like to go down one more level – specifically to look at
Ravelry. Ravelry is a social network and
pattern database created specifically for people who knit and crochet. It has forums, a virtual “project notebook”
where you can show off what you did with a particular pattern and yarn, and
even a way to catalog all the yarn you have on hand and see what others did
with it. What makes Ravelry special is
that it is a social network for a very specific group of people. Everyone on the network, whether or not they
are “friends,” already has something in common.
Farhad Manjoo’s 2011 Slate article “A Tight-Knit Community” really addresses this point well. He explains that since everyone on Ravelry
has a common interest, there is more opportunity for users to open up on forums
and fewer trolls. As a knitter myself,
I appreciate this “safe space” to discuss everything from TV shows to favorite
pattern designers to politics.
I also
love how the site is designed. It has
evolved from its original incarnation in 2007, but each change is truly made
with the users in mind. The site was
developed by a husband-and-wife team where she is a knitter and he is a tech
guru. The combination is powerful – an intuitive
site designed for crafters with their needs in mind at all times.
How can
this be applied to a company? Going back
to the Manjoo article, I think he makes a great point in that a social network
is far more fun when it is a smaller operation tailored to a specific group
rather than an all-encompassing behemoth like Facebook where everyone and
anyone is part of the greater network. I
think companies could benefit from supporting the development of more sites
along the lines of Ravelry. Ravelry
currently generates revenue through yarn-related advertising and taking a small
cut from any pattern sales that are done on the site. Think about the possibilities for a similar
venue for animal enthusiasts, or foodies, or runners. A handful of firms could band together to
create an online space for their consumers.
It would not be free of advertising but the users/consumers would be at
the forefront, not the products.
This all comes back to many of the
concepts that Robert Schieffer and Eric Leininger discuss in their 2008 Marketing Management article, “Customers
at the Core.” Some of what makes Ravelry
successful is that it is very much driven by a combination of customer insights
and customer input, without becoming customer-controlled. The availability of forums makes it easier
for Ravelry to get beyond the input and into the insights. Ravelry has thus far managed to avoid the
pitfalls outlined by Schieffer and Leininger in their article, and any company
looking to use the Ravelry model for
customer insights gathering would be smart to keep strategy before tactics, and
not fall prey to chasing “the issue of the day.”
Give a specific set of consumers a
safe place to network and much could be learned about their likes and dislikes,
and most importantly, their needs. Ravelry
has led to the rise of designers that may have never gained ground without the
site – the users know what they want and seek it out, allowing those who
understand these needs to flourish. It
has also led to the creation of companion products such as a handful of apps
that allow users to post photos directly from their phones to Ravelry. Think of what a company or group of companies
could do with the insights gleaned from creating a similar space for their consumers. While many of these consumers may have
scattered resources now – a forum here, a tracking program there – combining all
these aspects into one site aimed at a specific subgroup could help take these
far-flung pieces of information and bring them home to a space beloved by
consumers and companies alike.
One big risk with a corporation
attempting the Ravelry model would be that of privacy and information
mining. Facebook has received
considerable backlash from their attempts to monetize the information it has access
to about each of its users, despite the implicit and explicit contracts
Facebook has with its userbase. Some of
what makes Ravelry a wonderful space for knitters is precisely because it has
very little commercial agenda – it is a service provided for free to any who
want to participate by people who truly care about this community. I worry that if a corporation were to attempt
a similar site, it may come off as an ill-disguised marketing ploy.
My proposed solution to this issue
would be for multiple companies to work together to create the site for their
users. Also, perhaps have some
influential bloggers or forum participants from other sites around the topic
give their input into potential designs.
Keep usability at the forefront and restrict advertising to banners and
perhaps particular forum groups/threads.
Ensure that the users know if their information is being collected and
how it will be used. Keep the emphasis
on the community – “we want to watch how you use this site in order to make it
better for all of us who love this sport/hobby/etc.”
I think if done thoughtfully and
with the user needs at the center, the Ravelry model could work for other
companies that target specific subgroups of the population – from dog lovers to
kayakers to birdwatchers. We just need someone
to take the time to dive in and do it right.
Schieffer, Robert, and Eric Leininger. "Customers at the Core." Marketing Management. Vol 17, Issue 1, Jan/Feb 2008.
