I am writing my ideas/advice on “Creating Your Movement”. At one of the highest levels of group action you have the “Movement” or “Social Movement”. It can be a cultural revolution, Tae Bo, or Carlton Sheets. This series will discuss some of the subset activities for creating your movement.

Today we talk about why your movement needs a strong community.

Your Movement Needs a Community!:

• Duncan Watts a sociologist recently wrote: “what we often want is not so much to experience the “best” of everything as it is to experience the same things as other people and thereby also experience the benefits of sharing.”
• People want to feel like they aren’t the only ones with their obstacles, desires. or questions
• A small set of the population is always looking for the next new thing and wants to tell everyone they know about it when they find it. These “sneezers” also want you to make it easy for them to spread the word.
• You can pay for all the marketing you want but until people can share an experience and be a part of something great than themselves you will never tap your most effective marketing asset.

Build Your Community:

• Make your decision on how your community interacts or let your community decide how it will interact. Each has a benefit so choose wisely but follow through with your choice.
• Face to Face or Virtual – Is your community scattered? How do you they best connect? These are the start of the questions you need to ask.
• When people meet what is the intention? Is it to talk, share common experiences, share common problems, or to do an action together? This will shape how your organize your community and what you cater to.
• Use a meeting place that people are familiar with or can quickly learn. Some people think the VFW is common place to meet and others like Chucky Cheese. Know your audience and create an environment they can make their own.

Grow Your Community:\

• Make it easy to enter and quick to feel welcomed. No one leaves the ideal home.
• Empower others because you can’t do it alone and the synergy of many can be your greatest asset.
• Always survey the group for needs. Empower others to meet them and make the group feel like it is heard.
• bjcook writes in his “Social Media Marketing 101” article that: “Take the time to welcome members, engage with them, provide them with valuable content. If you're a brand, you've got a budget to introduce some authenticity to these users and stay connected to create ambassadors; users who will begin to seed the group to others in their person network.”

A Look At My Implementation:

For my next movement, I’m going virtual first later to enable face to face. My website and information products will be strongly geared to attracting buyers to an online community. The community will provide support and interaction for users and also allow me to understand the needs of community. It will also serve as a platform to empower sneezers with products to get feedback and cost-effective promotion. Web 2.0 tools will allow members to connect with other members in their area to meet up face to face and develop deeper relationships. This also creates a place to bring in prospective new movement members in.

Like all great communities this is a discussion. I’d like to hear your thoughts so comment now and lets here what you have to say.