Flock me, Baby.

Josh Bernoff has a great post over at the Forrester Groundswell blog:

“Here’s a conversation I often have with marketers:

Josh: Who are your best customers?

Marketer: Women with a child under 4. [Or 'People with assets of at least $1 million.' Or some such.]

Josh: No, I really mean ‘Who are your best customers?’ What are their names?

Marketer: [No response.]

If you’re seeking word of mouth, you should know who your best customers are . . . by name.”

I agree with this 120%.

Your community is not demographics, it’s not numbers, it’s not users (god I hate that word). It’s people.

That said, while attending the (thoroughly excellent) Good Ideas Salon Community Management Panel at YouTube I realized that I am in a much different situation than those managing social networking communities. Or even shopkeeper communities like Matt Stinchcomb of Etsy.

I don’t hang out where my community talks about things that they are passionate. They use the Flock software by themselves, and I meet them primarily when they have an issue (or occasionally give us praise). How can I get to know these people?

Josh mentions that “there is no one more enthusiastic than a friend who used to hate you”, which I’ll second wholeheartedly. But I still don’t know much about that person/those people aside from the fact that they use Flock. I don’t get to know them through their social interactions like Jen Burton of Digg gets to.

Which is not to say I don’t meet great people…I just don’t get to know them the same way.  So help me out, folks…what do you do?

Software Community Managers, speak up: how do you really get to know your community?

I wasn’t sure if I was going to write about the election of our 44th President.  I am completely and utterly ecstatic, but I really didn’t know how I could top what Barack Obama, President-Elect of the United States of America, said at Grant Park:  “If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.”

Then I got an email from him.

It’s from his campaign, of course, but it hit home.

———————————————————————————————————

Evan —

I’m about to head to Grant Park to talk to everyone gathered there, but I wanted to write to you first.

We just made history.

And I don’t want you to forget how we did it.

You made history every single day during this campaign — every day you knocked on doors, made a donation, or talked to your family, friends, and neighbors about why you believe it’s time for change.

I want to thank all of you who gave your time, talent, and passion to this campaign.

We have a lot of work to do to get our country back on track, and I’ll be in touch soon about what comes next.

But I want to be very clear about one thing…

All of this happened because of you.

Thank you,

Barack

———————————————————————————————————

Because of me.  Because of you.  Because of US, most importantly.  How does Barack Obama (or his campaign, if you want to split hairs) choose to tell me this?  Through an email, even before he gives his acceptance speech.  Signed with his first name.  Without any sort of crazy HTML formatting, logos, or signatures.  Promising to be in touch about the next steps.  Simple, straightforward, truthful.

This appeals to me on many levels, one of which is my work as Community Ambassador at Flock. I have a job at Flock because of the passion, energy and action of people who love our product.  My job is to make sure that they get what they need to keep loving the product and spreading the word.  Everyday I feel the kind of appreciation that Obama mentions in this email.  And it’s INCREDIBLY important to thank these people and to make sure that they understand that this company (or in Obama’s case, this country) would not survive or thrive without them.  As I said back in my post about why the Community Manager is important: “If you don’t listen to your community, you are either going to fail or you will have to get very lucky.” Barack Obama knows this well.

Barack has been preaching the politics of hope, of opportunity, and of togetherness.  I won’t claim he’s had an entirely angelic campaign…I think it would be impossible for anyone to have done so.  But instead of creating a mob, an angry group that boos at a concession speech…Barack Obama has created an enthusiastic, excited, hopeful group of Americans who are ready to make this country shine again.  I am filled with exhilaration and hope, and I am excited to serve my country like I have never been.

Barack Obama is a true Community Ambassador/Manager/Evangelist/Organizer, and that’s exactly what we need right now.  One man isn’t going to save this country, the masses must.  And Barack Obama, President-Elect, is the person we need to motivate the masses.