Minding Our Manners

“Hosting a community is like hosting a dinner party.”

So says Lois Kelly of Foghound, who was one of the speakers at the AMA Symposium on Tuesday. I like the way her approach frames a daunting task—building community—in a way that seems very real to me.

Here are a few things that I think about when I’m throwing a party:

How will I invite my guests? By phone? An email? Or even (gasp!) in the actual mail? I want them to be pleased to hear from me and excited to attend.

Will we eat casually from a buffet, so guests and mix and mingle? Or will we sit down together, so friends can talk more intimately with one another?

What do my various friends have in common? I’ll want to make sure they’re introduced, because I think they’ll enjoy talking together.

I think any of these things can be applied to growing an online community. Whom would you like to invite, and how can you best reach them? What’s the format that will work best for your community members, and how much structure do they need or want? And, perhaps most importantly, how can you encourage them, gently, to make connections with one another? Because that’s the foundation of any community, whether in your dining room or online.

Which brings me to another of Lois’s points:

“Marketing is a conversation.”

Again, it’s a terrific way to understand a very complex undertaking. A good conversationalist is someone who’s honest, who’s genuine, who encourages others to share rather than hogging the spotlight or dominating the conversation. Even better, it’s someone who tells a good story—someone who’s entertaining. If only all marketers could live up to these standards.

I’m at the San Diego airport on my way home (hooray for a wireless airport!). I have so much to sort through once I get there, and I’ll be back soon with some of my biggest takeaways from the conference.