How Media Companies can engage Communities

Larry W. Smith • [email protected] • @lwsmith10011

Rethinking Media Revenue by Engaging Community:

A Marketing Challenge

Size your VALUE

CONNECT with your community

Give them REASONS to buy

Rethinking Media Revenue by Engaging Community:

A Marketing Challenge

UNICORNS: Open. Honest. Real. Perspective. :VALUE

Connecting with a virtual or embodied

community is hard & endless work

• No one has you as their home page

• Reach out and touch people you can actually meet, often– Make them fans, loyalists

• Who are your community?– The one and the many are fluid

• Online, each and every article is bait and monetization– The one can lead to the many

Communities are networks

Community size have

different value

In theory there is

no difference between

theory and practice.

In practice there is.- Yogi Berra

Be a Unicornand people will pay

Niche community with purpose: Membership to the tool

Broad community: Subscribe to magazine, buy merchandise, attend Makers Faire

Reference source: Subscribe to magazine and website

Subscription and product: B2B application for data and information

News perspective: Subscribe to newspaper and website

Newsletter subscription:Information, knowledge and community

Unicorn value and people will pay

To get help from the Community, give to the Community

Palmer is noted for her use of the Internet, regularly using the latest innovations to make new fans and connect with old ones.

This includes her forum, her blog, use of many free music and social networking sites, fund raising, and direct-to-fan marketing. (Wikipedia)

Most online content sites do not work hard

at letting fans give love and money

Creating Community

• Socially active online; obvious and unique – aggregation of photos and

videos– RAW audio files to remix– 450GB video files to edit

• Advocating for other bands• Give away tickets, contests,

treasure hunts, surveys, email

Revenue: Free plus Exclusives

• Give music away free, but also sell it everywhere in many combinations and every format– LP, CD, DVD, and multiple

digital encoding

• Limited edition box set: 2500 @ $300 sold out in <30 hours

• All the traditional things like shirts, caps, tchotchkes

Trent Reznor & Nine Inch Nails

o Be a Unicorno Be open and honesto Work hard for the Communityo Understand the network effecto Innovate what they want, firsto Offer multiple revenue relationshipso Help them to become fanso Ask for help

Rethinking Revenue by Engaging Community:

A Marketing Challenge

Larry W. SmithMobile: 917-754-3904

E-mail: [email protected]: @lwsmith10011

Career: linkedin.com/in/lwsmith10011Writing: larrysmith.contently.com