Veronica Belmont Talks About Building A Passionate Community
How do you engage and build a passionate and community for your brand? Veronica Belmont, will be leading a discussion at Social Media Club Seattle’s December 8th event on how to build a passionate community that actively contributes and advocates for your organization. Before her talk at SMC we asked her a few questions about herself, and about building community.
A little bit about Veronica . . .
Veronica is a technology and gaming-centric video host based in San Francisco. Currently her projects include Qore (a monthly interactive magazine about the PS3 for Sony) and Tekzilla (a weekly tech help and how-to show on Revision3.com), along with a bi-weekly column on MaximumPC.com. She’s worked worked as a producer and on-air talent for CNET Networks (now CBS Interactive). A social-networking junkie (with almost 1.5 million Twitter followers), Veronica has been a speaker at South by Southwest and New Media Expo, among other national tech events.
Why is a passionate community important?
Anyone can create a Facebook or Twitter account, but you’re not going to create a true community unless you put the extra effort into it. A passionate community wants to be involved — they care about your product and feel like they have a personal connection with the brand. When other people are evangelizing your brand for you outside of the company, it’s a lot more meaningful.
When did you first realize the importance of a passionate community?
Probably when I was a producer for the podcast Buzz Out Loud at CNET. We knew we had the good numbers for the show, but when people started creating comic books about it, drinking games, Photoshop contests… well, we knew we had something really special on our hands, and the type of passionate community that wasn’t typical of the CNET audience.
What are some first steps to building and recruiting a community?
Being prepared to put the time into it! It can be a full-time job for one or more people, depending on the size of the company. I spend upwards of 4 hours a day just maintaining my various networks online. You can’t be passively involved.
What is a common mistake brands make in building or relating to their community?
The soapbox syndrome, as I like to think of it. Companies just regurgitate PR stuff into their Twitter streams, and it never feels authentic. People are following your brand because they want to see a different, more personal side of it.
Is there a good way to deal with the trolls/haters entering your community?
If your community is strong enough, they’ll often take care of it for you. But there are usually two responses that I tend to give to trolls: Either you completely ignore them (until they get bored) or you respond to them directly, and in a very non-confrontational manner. Half the time they’re just looking for any kind of response at all, and once they get it they stop bothering. Other times, they’re just looking to get a rise out of you.
What do you hope people learn from your talk?
I hope people learn that although it’s very easy to get started with social networking for your brand, it can be a much bigger time investment than they might think. You have to put way more out there than you can expect to get back. It should be part of a bigger strategy, not something that just gets added onto the side.
Have a question about building community for Veronica? Please post it in the comments. We will try to ask as many of your questions as possible at the event!
You Can Find Veronica . .
veronicabelmont.com
twitter.com/veronica
www.facebook.com/Veronica-Belmont
December Meetup Event Details:
Date – Tuesday, December 8th
Time – 6:00-9:00pm
Location – Microsoft Conference Center: 16070 N.E. 36th Way, Redmond, WA 98052
Tickets – Sold out!
Great interview, and some good knowledge gained.
but now I cant help but feel as if you treat us fans as customers, if that makes sense?
When you talk about the product (you, your shows) you imply that you’re selling to us, but in the same breath you suggest that your twitter/facebook is for the general public to see a different more personal side of your product.
Does it equate that this personal side is part of the product, a mere illusion as to the world of Veronica Belmont or a true projection of yourself as the product to the fans? I wouldn’t suggest that you post intimate details etc, but as a fan of you and your shows, I can’t help but now feel apart of a mass marketing scheme.
Basically what I’m asking is where do you draw the line between personal relations and a genuine interest in the general public and fans, and marketing yourself? or are these two things merged?
(I realise the above article context, but I’m just curious to know from a personal point of view)
Anyway, keep up the great work, and I’ll keep hanging on your words. Thankyou x
Veronica’s presence on social networking is one of the best ways to learn where this new technology is heading. More than any self-proclaimed “social media expert” or famous actor, she has a keen understanding of what works and what doesn’t. Don’t label her a pretty face–she knows how to use these tools better than most large marketing companies do.
It’s not just Twitter and Facebook. There are photo sharing sites, music sites, video sites, movie sites, and more each year connecting people together. The key is to *interact* and be *real*. There are only a handful of people that I follow who do this effectively and Veronica is at the top of my list.
Don’t waste time with tools that autogenerate meaningless followers. Follow meaningful people.
Go to FriendFeed, look her up, and see the sites she constantly participates in. Find other people who are as good at interacting and follow all their sites too. It becomes easier to envision what social media will become in the future. You’ll go “a-ha, so that’s what it can become”.
Great reality check. Being effective in social media requires a lot of time and effort to build a passionate community. And if you aren’t actively working at building a passionate community – your results will be poor. Social media is like anything else, you get back what you put in.