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In my recent post on the importance of creating a social platform for your organisation, I showed some examples of major companies and their quest to be one with their consumers. These are companies that realised it was going to take their own social network in order to truly engage with their customers.

The thrust of the matter is do you want to allow your customers and constituents to discuss your brand, products or service solely on third party social networks like Facebook? Or would you rather be at the centre of the conversation within your own community? Not to be misunderstood, of course it’s important that you embrace external social networks because you have to go wherever your audience is, however by creating your own social network you can have a much deeper and direct two-way relationship with your audience.

So, what are some of the key elements your social platform needs to have in order for it to actually work? How can YOUR organisation measure up to brands such as Dell’s Ideastorm and LEGO’s Mindstorms? Here are a few things to consider when integrating your own social network.

1. BRAND: When you look at your organisation, are you clear on what your objectives are and who you’re attempting to reach? Strong branding is extremely important so folks aren’t confused as to who you are and what you do.

Let’s have a look at one of my favourite t-shirt companies, Threadless Tees. Threadless, a Chicago-based company, is in my opinion, one of the coolest around. They understand that it takes an entire community to be an exceptional company.  With that community they serve, they not only have an outstanding BRAND, they help brand other artists through their space.

2. SOCIAL PLATFORM: How easy is it for your customers to reach you? If there are major complaints or problems, do you have a platform or social network in place to rectify the issue straightaway? Does your platform have clear cut instructions? Are you providing your customers the best service? Are your customers able to interact?

Threadless.com has a great platform where artists can submit t-shirt designs. Threadless thrives on up-and-coming artists to submit their original t-shirt designs. The community then gets the opportunity to vote on artists’ designs. The artists with the most votes get their design made into a t-shirt and/or hoodie which gets sold on the site. Up to date, Threadless has paid its artists hundreds of thousands of dollars for their designs collectively.  The social network they created makes the process of engagement simple for everyone involved.

3. ENGAGEMENT: Going back to SOCIAL PLATFORM, if there IS an issue, are you or someone in your company engaged in assisting? If you have your own social space, it is also important for you to be playing in that space too, not just relying on your consumers to.  One of the number one ways to be involved in conversation with your customers is through a blog.

Threadless has a categorised blog forum which ANYONE can submit a blog article or topic to create conversation and feedback. Its categories consist of General posts, one geared toward Art & Design, one for Tricks & Tips, and the other for Projects. Threadless does an outstanding job at creating a social space which is exactly that: SOCIAL.  The Threadless blog is engaging, it’s entertaining, and it’s educational.

Threadless also has a Q&A page which lays out nearly any question an artist or consumer may have. These questions range from submitting designs to orders to shipping. Threadless does an amazing job getting back to its community if there are any gray areas. Their site is very clear and most any question one could have, they’ve got an answer for you.

Threadless is just another example of companies who are utilising their OWN social networks to communicate. The social network they created is one that had to go above and beyond a social network such as Facebook, Twitter, or Myspace.  The companies we’ve been highlighting are ones who rather than playing in the sandbox, decided to create their own playground.

These are just a few characteristics I thought of when it comes to great social networks and what happens IN them. There is more in the way of implementation, which we we’ll explore in the upcoming weeks. In the meantime, what are your thoughts? Can you think of any other important factors in user-friendliness and what a great social network consists of?

posted by Venessa in the category Social Media Social networking
Tags: dell ideastorm, facebook, lego mindstorms, social network, social space, threadless