Using Social Media to Build Brand Awareness

One of my current marketing objectives is building brand awareness. This to make sure that folks in our target markets know to turn to us when they have a problem we can present a relevant solution to. Social networking sites offer a means to achieving this. There are a lot of channels but to get going the basic starting points are:

1. Find and join existing groups with interests related to our subject area
2. Add value to these by following discussions and blogs and actively commenting on them.

The natural progression from this, assuming I want to create a focus around my own particular subject area and build more visibility, would to start my own group(s). To make such a group credible and attractive then it must:

1. Incorporate powerful value-added content to build respect and credibility (not just be more top 10 lists for success!)
2. Have liquidity: in other words, there must be enough participants with enough goodwill to want to contribute their time and knowledge to the community
3. Be open with a willingness to take the good hits with the bad (but have a “listen and respond” strategy for dealing with the latter)
4. Have balance and not be perceived as a promotional tool for my products or services.

Experience shows that folks are willing to take a pinch of promotion with a main meal of value-adding content but any over-seasoning and the whole lot goes in the bin.

So here’s to my question, assuming I don’t want to brazenly promote my brand but do want to associate it with thought leadership, in creating my new community do I give it:

1. My existing (company) identity
2. A distinct but related sub-identity
3. A de novo identity
4. None of the above?

A community of individuals is a living, breathing thing that moves and shifts with time. It creates its own identity – its own brand based on its values. Arguably, therefore it shouldn’t (or even can't) have one imposed on it. On the other hand, there has to be some sort of identity for people to aggregate around in the first place. What's more, we all like to attach to certain identities – as long as it helps to take us to where we want to be.

The sequence of events in catalysing a community could therefore be:

1. Give it a label
2. Seed the community with quality content
3. Invite in proactive participants with relevant interests
4. The community builds its own values
5. The values in 4 become inextricably linked with the initial label.

If enough of a buzz is created around the first few steps then the bees should be attracted to the pot (or do bees just go to flowers and wasps and flies go to pots?).

Of course, there's no reason why web-based social networks should be any different from face-to-face ones in all of this. The National Slugwatchers Association might have an annual Slugfest meet and an online Slugfest community. Slime-All, a marketer of slug-related products, would want to be a participant in these communities.

So, before we get any more insecty (okay, slugs aren't insects), what are the experiences of B2B brands in this area? Am I being too obsessed with the whole branding of the community when the focus should really be on the value of the community itself? After all, we're all given names at birth but all the evidence is that it's our parents and peers and not our names that affect what we become (read Freakonomics Chapter 6 for the gen on this).

Please leave your comments so we can develop this dialogue. Cheers!