The Power of Community – A Social Media Success Story by Hessie Jones

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Social Networking is a phenomenon that has gained incredible strength and continues to flourish.

It has baffled advertisers and businesses as the next generation of marketing is trying to learn how to tap into users in this space.

A significant shift has resulted where marketers realize that traditional advertising on the web is slowly becoming obsolete, and appealing to target groups as an advertiser in this space seems to be less effective than attempting to influence the influencers.

We’ve always seemingly put trust in the establishment to give us information on certain historical facts, best products, top destinations, hottest jobs and optimal solutions to problems.

But the emergence of Web 2.0 has elevated the power of community and hundreds of social networking sites have erupted to validate its authority. The establishment is slowly feeling the impact of this move.

I never really bought into community until a few years back.

Ironically, I managed the launch of Yahoo! Answers in Canada, one of the few social search products in this market.  Its premise was to leverage community to provide valuable information based on experience –> something algorithmic search could not provide. Unlike other social search products, Answers does not rely on expert advice from pundits in their fields but the common person, whose life experiences provides the source of answers to many questions.

The turning point for me came when I was attending a Search Summit in the UK, working with other international product and marketing people who were also launching Answers in their respective regions.

I received an email from a friend who informed me that my former VP’s daughter had passed away from Leukemia, something she’d been battling for 6 years. She was only 10 years old.

I wanted to immediately reach out to her and give her some comfort for her loss and was reminded of a poem that my Mom had shown me sometime back. I emailed my Mom and asked her about it but, while she remembered the poem, she didn’t know where to find it. I asked the rest of my family if they knew about it. But the response was same.

So, I searched for the poem online not really knowing the author or any of the lines — just the context. I did this for some time with no luck. So I gave Yahoo! Answers a go and I sent my question into the unknown abyss of the Answers Community, skeptical of what I would receive.  It took awhile, as I expected it should since I was looking for a needle in a haystack. The response came 9 days later.

And it made me cry.

I didn’t realize that someone out there had the answer. When I looked to established tools and systems for answers to my questions, they didn’t have any. I’m telling you that social networking is here to stay.

The tools out there are making it easier for users to create their own content, build and engage in community.  Businesses have to figure out how to maneuver themselves in this tightly-knit environment if they are to succeed.

About the author: Hessie Jones is an online marketer who has worked in the technology space for over a decade. Addicted to new technology who cannot do without her MacBook or iPhone, Hessie is currently at Isobar Digital NA, creating experiential catalysts for word of mouth influence. You can read more from Hessie at HessieJ.com or follow her on Twitter @hessiej.

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About Danny

Danny Brown is Chief Technologist at ArCompany and an award-winning marketer and blogger. His blog is recognized as the #1 marketing blog in the world by HubSpot. Danny is also co-author of Influence Marketing: How to Create, Manage and Measure Brand Influencers in Social Media Marketing.

10 comments
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sanjivkarate
sanjivkarate

1. It is not what you do for your juniors/subordinates/children that are important. It is what you teach them to do for them selves.
2. The world suffers a lot, not because of the violence of bad people, but because of the silence of good people.
3. A successful man is he who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks that others throw at him! Learn to accept criticism proactively and with grace.
4. Your success is determined by what you are willing to sacrifice for it.
5. No one will manufacture a lock without a key. Similarly the God does not give problems without solutions. Only we should have patience and courage to find them.
6. Success is not the key to happiness. But happiness is the key to success.
7. Do not complain about others. Change yourself if you want peace. It is easier to protect our feet with shoes than to carpet the earth.
8. Do not only be close with someone who makes you happy. Be close with someone who can not be happy without you. It may make a lot difference to him at least.
9. Bill Gates never did LaxmiPooja but he is the richest man. Einstein never did SaraswatiPooja but he was the cleverest man. So just believe in hard work.
10. You can tell whether a man is intelligent by his answers. But you can tell a man is wise by his questions.
11. Slow down and enjoy life. It is not only the scenery you miss by going fast but you also miss the sense of where
you are going and why.
12. The only thing I like about stones that come in my way is: once I pass them, they automatically become my
milestones.
13. Luck is not in your hands. But work is in your hands. Your works can make your luck but luck can not make
your works. So always trust yourself.
14. Love is a gift. If you receive it, open and appreciate it. If not, don not worry. Someone somewhere is still
wrapping it for you.
15. Birds that live in a lake will fly away when the lake dries. But the lotus that grows in the same lake will die with
the lake. So recognize the birds in your life.
16. Coincidence decides to whom you meet in life. Your heart and your mind decide with whom you want to stay in life. But only destiny decides who gets to stay in your life.
17. Everything in life has a beautiful ending. And if it is not beautiful, then be sure, it is not the ending.
18. MORNING means one more inning given by the god to play.
19. A person who surrenders when he is wrong is honest.
A person, who surrenders when not sure, is wise.
A person, who surrenders even if he is right, is a HUSBAND! :-)
20. I can not say whether things will get better if we change, what I can say is that if we want to get better, we need to change.
21. Leave something for someone…never leave someone for something because in life something may leave you but someone will always live with you.
22. Too often we underestimate the power a touch, a smile, a kind word, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the power to build a life long relationship.

23. God has deposited Love, Joys, Prosperity, Peace and Laughter plus all kind of Blessings in your account. Use without limit. The PIN code is : PRAYER!
24. Three best things:
A little seed in good soil
A few cows in good grass
A few friends in tavern
25. One meets his destiny often on the road he tried to avoid it.
26. With lies you may go ahead in the world but you can never come back.
27. The road to a friend’s house is never too long.
28. When the heart is full, the eyes overflow.
29. There is none luckier than he who thinks himself so.
30. The truth may walk around naked, but the lie has to be clothed.
31. It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.
32. No one knows what he can do until he tries.
33. God gives every bird its food but does not always drop it into the nest.
34. Do not choose for any one what you do not choose for yourself.
35. It is better, in times of need, to have a friend than to have money.
36. As you do to others, they will do to you.
37. Little children – little joys
Bigger children – bigger sorrows
38. A good name keeps its brightness even in dark days.
39. An inch of gold will not buy an inch of time.
40. A light heart lives long.
41. Personality has the power to open the doors, but it takes character to keep them open.
42. The person who likes you more will trouble you more. But when you drop a tear, they will fight the world to stop that tear.
43. Those people whom you miss in your happiness are the ones whom you love. But those people whom you miss in your sadness are the ones who love you. Do not forget them.
44. Success is not a matter of being the best and winning the race, it is a matter of handling the worst and finishing the race. Be positive.
45. A man does not start turning old when his hair starts graying, but when his enthusiasm towards life and its joy start dropping. Just keep checking your age!!
46. A honey bee visits 2 million flowers to collect 500 mg of honey. So our workload is nothing as compared to them. Be cheerful and keep working.
47. It is not that some people have will power and some do not. It is that some people are ready to change and others are not. Believe in yourself and change for betterment.
48. Everybody says that mistake is the first step to success. But it is not true. Actually it is the correction of mistake.
49. Winners recognize their limitations but focus on their strengths.
Losers recognize their strengths but focus on their weaknesses.
50. We choose our joys and sorrows long before we experience them.

John Digweeds
John Digweeds

I've been at her seminars and can say she's areal genius of the Social marketing.
Appreciate her a lot!

JIGNESH PATEL
JIGNESH PATEL

Hi,

I think that the internet marketing is very useful to all. Because that is a new thought for reaching on the top always. I am very impressed to internet marketing.

Danielle Evans
Danielle Evans

I'm just getting into social networking and internet marketing and see how powerful the two can be. This was a great article and I will be bookmarking this site to comeback for more.

Frank Dickinson
Frank Dickinson

Great post Hessie!

The power of community - something Danny does so well here - is something that simply cannot be mistaken. It reaches in to our lives when we need it most. It is the very thing that makes life online better each passing day!
.-= Frank Dickinson´s most recent blog post ...Coffee Conversations: When Life Gets Crazy =-.

Hessie Jones
Hessie Jones

Thanks Frank. You are very right. It is this community that makes a lot of us social-media-types addicts at the end of the day. We look forward to what's happening across the ether to our new-found buddies, and the constant ones as well. The like-minds, and even those that challenge you are things I look forward to everyday.
.-= Hessie Jones´s most recent blog post ...Next Generation Media – Video =-.

Giulietta
Giulietta

Hi Hessie,

Nice story about finding your long lost poem. If someone posts a question like that, I'm like a little Nancy Drew -- I want to help them find it!

What's the name of the poem, so I can search for it?

Community is making a comeback! That's what we are all seeing. People don't understand how important it is for our mental well being until it's taken away. Too many people floating around without access to a community. Not healthy.

Enjoy life!

Giulietta the Muse
.-= Giulietta´s most recent blog post ...Attempt The Impossible =-.

Hessie Jones
Hessie Jones

thanks so much Giulietta and Yael. I appreciate your comments. This event was a true turning point for me and made me realize that, even as an employee for Yahoo!, that company was missing the boat on community. They were late in developing technologies to not only encourage and help commmunities self-perpetuate, they relied on the future of display advertising as the future of the web. I love that community brings it down to a personal level and benefits the individual before the corporation.
.-= Hessie Jones´s most recent blog post ...Next Generation Media – Video =-.

Yael Brisker
Yael Brisker

Enjoyed reading this- to me it's about people valuing connection between humans, above all else.

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