I went out to dinner with Baratunde Thuston in Austin last night. This is his third South by Southwest and he’s been teaching me the ropes.
Baratunde is a self-described “conference whore.” He makes the rounds of the geeky conferences every year because, he says gesturing back and forth between the two of us, “you can’t replicate this online.”
Companies looking to build communities online need to be aware of that fact. For example, I’ve long argued that the online “I Love My Dog” community built by Del Monte Foods — the makers of Snausages — to bring dog lovers together around their product needs to have a connection to real world.
If I were working for Del Monte, I would plug into the Google Maps API, and crowdsource my dog loving user base to build a map of every dog park and off-leash area in America. Then, I’d encourage users who had connected in my online space to find one another offline and arrange playdates for their dogs.
The investment here is about giving back to the community that has spent time and money reinforcing your brand. The return is increased customer loyalty and the power of passionate, word-of mouth recommendations.
Yes, things get out of control when online communities meet in the real world. (It’s becoming rapidly clear to me that the primary purpose of SXSW — as “Four Hour Workweek” author Tim Ferriss put it last night — is to get drunk with bloggers.) But in this brave new marketing world, it seems that out of control is where the magic happens.
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