Livingston

Sep
16
2007

The Participation Ethos

BlogOrlando_BeThereJosh Hallett has asked BlogOrlando session leaders to post an early discussion of their session topic. Mine is participation is marketing, something well discussed on this blog.

The current Participation is Marketing theory (Chris Heuer) acknowledges that 20th century mass communications enabled companies to dictate messages, control the market, and use media to ensure brand message. With a fractured, traditional media marketplace and new social media channels, message control is dead. Paraphrasing Jay Rosen, audiences are gone and communities are arising.

Participation is marketing is not new (as Rich Becker likes to remind me), but it is reborn because of social media. Most marketers can recognize the traditional participation approach with community evangelists (usually non-profits and philanthropic efforts — see the National Business Community blog). Also consider the “man of the people” approach used by so many successful political campaigns.

Successful social media marketing efforts require companies to become a part of the community. In essence they don’t try to control the message, instead organizations acknowledge they are part of the community and give to it. They act appropriately with transparency and accountability as upstanding members of the community.

In short, participation means companies need to stop thinking of themselves as the center of the universe. They need to get into the street, roll up their sleeves and become people amongst people. Value creation from companies acknowledges they are an entity amongst entities.

There’s a sense of humility to the social media marketer. In essence, they understand that they are a role player in a larger, greater thing. Chris Brogan wrote an outstanding piece that described this participation ethos called, “I am a Marketer.”

And so, it’s a new media world that really returns us to old Main Street ethics. A shopkeeper within the town builds great relationships with his/her community members. There’s an intrinsic understanding that they need the community as much if not more so than the community needs the shop. And so the shopkeeper works hard for the community, and treats it well.

Social Media Case Studies

Note: No where does it say in this column that a participation approach requires a marketer to sacrifice results. That’s why it’s important to consider case studies. Included in this Blog Orlando Participation is Marketing discussion will be an effort to discuss strengths and weakness of real world efforts. Here are eight of them.

Four of these case studies came courtesy of Communications Overtones’ Kami Huyse, and her excellent post on case studies.

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by Geoff Livingston | Internet Marketing |

26 Responses to “The Participation Ethos”

  • Marshall Kirkpatrick Says:

    September 16th, 2007 at 9:55 am

    Geoff, this is a great foundational post that I’ll be sure to share with my readers - thanks for including one of my posts in your case studies. I look forward to reading the other case studies you list here. Really appreciate the articulation of the concepts in the top half of this. Glad to be getting to know your work more and more - keep it up!

  • Richard Becker Says:

    September 16th, 2007 at 11:28 am

    Hey Geoff,

    Thanks for including me as well as our community blog (that begs the question … how can Rich possibly be a fan of Ayn Rand) in another great post. To lend something, last night I was reading Communication Arts, and I was struck by a quote from Tracey Clark (maypapers.blogspot.com) that I’ll be including somewhere soon (as well as sharing it here)…

    “The blogosphere is all about Internet links that move faster and more efficiently than traditional word-of-mouth marketing ever could.” Hmmm…

    Best, Rich

  • Geoff Livingston Says:

    September 16th, 2007 at 2:09 pm

    Thanks, Marshall. You have a great blog, and you’ve done some impressive work, too.

    How could I not include you, Rich? You’re the man!!! Besides it’s important to remember that participation marketing has historical context. Thanks for reminding me.

  • Jay Rosen Says:

    September 16th, 2007 at 2:42 pm

    Hi Geoff. I don’t want to sound picky but this….”In the words of Jay Rosen, audiences are gone and communities are arising” is not accurate. I didn’t say “audiences are gone” or even “audiences are no more.” It’s more nuanced than that. In fact, in the post you cite, these lines appear:

    Look, media people. We are still perfectly content to listen to our radios while driving, sit passively in the darkness of the local multiplex, watch TV while motionless and glassy-eyed in bed, and read silently to ourselves as we always have.

    Should we attend the theatre, we are unlikely to storm the stage for purposes of putting on our own production. We feel there is nothing wrong with old style, one-way, top-down media consumption. Big Media pleasures will not be denied us. You provide them, we’ll consume them and you can have yourselves a nice little business.

    The point is not “no more audiences” but that people cannot be considered simply audience members anymore. Some of them are producers as well as consumers, and we need a new name for those people. This is what my post is saying.

    I hope that helps. Cheers….

    JR

  • Geoff Livingston Says:

    September 16th, 2007 at 2:48 pm

    Great feedback, Jay. Sorry about that, to address in this post I’ve changed the intro of that sentence to read paraphrasing. Your post in question is one of the most influential ever in social marketing circles. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in social media marketing. Cheers, and thanks for visiting.

  • Geoff Livingston Says:

    September 16th, 2007 at 7:18 pm

    Oh, and by the way, Jay? The email you left — none@none7.com — bounced and it featured a non-existent URL. I sure hope this wasn’t a fake Jay sighting… In the future, I’ll have to ask you to leave a real email address or else your comments won’t approve. I’m sure you understand, in the spirit of transparency and protecting your identity :)

    -GL

  • Jay Rosen Says:

    September 16th, 2007 at 9:12 pm

    http://www.pressthink.org is not a non-existent url. I own it, and it re-directs to which is unwieldy and non-memorable.

    I swapped in valid emai; I use a fake one to avoid spam and because by clicking on pressthink.org takes you to my blog, where in the “about” section there is a link to email me.

    Thanks for the kind words about The People Formerly Known as the Audience. Here’s one that may hold a little bit of interest, as well: There is No Demand for Messages It is along the same lines.

    Cheers…

    • Trackbacks

  • BlogOrlando : September 27-29, 2007 - Orlando, FL: Start the Conversation: Participation is Marketing Says:

    September 16th, 2007 at 1:47 pm

    Kramer auto Pingback[...] Livingston has posted an overview of his session, Participation is Marketing, over at his blog. If you plan on attending Geoff’s session please check it out. The current Participation is [...]

  • Media Orchard, by the Idea Grove: Media News, Marketing Views, Celebrity Culture, Political Spin Says:

    September 16th, 2007 at 7:38 pm

    Kramer auto Pingback[...] marriage announcements (nystocktrader.com)Journalism ethics hotline gets 500th call (Chicago Reader)Geoff Livingston on the participation ethos and Blog Orlando (The Buzz Bin)Check out Spin Thicket for more media, marketing and PR links.Subscribe to Media [...]

  • links for 2007-09-17 Says:

    September 16th, 2007 at 11:25 pm

    [...] The Participation Ethos » The Buzz Bin Geoff has another excellent article on social media. (tags: PR+education marketing) Bookmark to: [...]

  • links for 2007-09-17 Says:

    September 17th, 2007 at 12:28 am

    [...] The Participation Ethos » The Buzz Bin These case studies were successful because in some way they all acknowledged that participation within the community was essential. (tags: socialmedia casestudies socialnetworking) [...]

  • The Myth of Evil Corporations in Social Media : [chrisbrogan.com] Says:

    September 17th, 2007 at 5:38 am

    [...] Livingston, all around superstar, points out corporate participation studies here. There’s lots to this post, if you follow all the links. I think Geoff’s got the [...]

  • Participation Ethos as a Real Business Model » The Buzz Bin Says:

    September 19th, 2007 at 12:00 pm

    [...] last weekend, it became apparent to me that this business was practicing many aspects of the participation ethos. So I asked Doug to come over here and tell us about [...]

  • Now Is Gone » Corporate Social Media Links 9-20-07 Says:

    September 20th, 2007 at 7:08 am

    [...] The Participation Ethos - The mindset organizations need to embrace to be successful in social media.  Pre Blog Orlando session write-up.  The post mortem will be here (Buzz Bin). [...]

  • Now Is Gone » Corporate Social Media: What's the ROI? Says:

    September 24th, 2007 at 7:14 am

    [...] on corporate social media often revolve around the importance of engaging in a conversation, the participation marketing ethos, etc. However, we all know that businesses blog and create social media campaigns to market [...]

  • Osservatorio Community - Notizie dal mondo dei Social Networks » Brands e Social Media Says:

    October 11th, 2007 at 7:44 am

    Kramer auto Pingback[...] che è molto difficile dare risposte valide in termini generali, sembra si stia affermando la convinzione che per essere in grado di affrontare le nuove sfide è importante che le aziende smettano di [...]

  • Let’s Put Relations Back into PR » The Buzz Bin Says:

    October 22nd, 2007 at 9:55 am

    [...] wrote a piece on Now Is Gone dubbed, “The Art Of Participation PR.” It encapsulated the Participation Ethos as it applies to public relations. Here’s a snippet: The dictionary definition of PR is (via [...]

  • Evangelize! » The Buzz Bin Says:

    October 22nd, 2007 at 4:22 pm

    [...] must evangelize, and guide them from the command and control era into the participation ethos. Inside the echo chamber this seems obvious, but that’s because we already have savoire [...]

  • Now Is Gone » The Big Three Takeaways Says:

    October 28th, 2007 at 12:13 am

    [...] Social media marketing requires a significant change in corporate communications. Namely, one-way communications tactics allowed for strategic approaches like controlling the message. Social media is a form of two way communications demand more openness visa vis participation ethos. [...]

  • Facebook’s Lost Way » The Buzz Bin Says:

    November 27th, 2007 at 10:36 am

    [...] or hope to generate revenue through this dynamic two-way medium must serve their communities! Participation is marketing! Attraction has supplanted promotion, never forget it, or you will lose your [...]

  • Now Is Gone » Audiences, Stakeholders or Community Members? Says:

    December 15th, 2007 at 1:01 am

    [...] of the suggestions in Now Is Gone is to consider approaching social media tool-sets with a community mindset instead of an audience mindset (see Audiences versus Communities podcast). Audiences assumes a mass [...]

  • It's Not a Lecture: Beyond Participation: Advocacy Says:

    February 27th, 2008 at 4:26 pm

    Kramer auto Pingback[...] their successes as much as their mistakes. The principle that resonates best to me is the idea of participation as marketing - not a new idea by any stretch, but it reminds me of the days of working on local [...]

  • Now Is Gone » Stop Pushing, Start Pulling Says:

    March 23rd, 2008 at 4:05 pm

    [...] Otherwise know as Participation is Marketing. [...]

  • One Dimensional Social Media Sucks » The Buzz Bin Says:

    December 11th, 2008 at 6:08 pm

    [...] Participation is marketing, not tossing a bunch of chic advertising agency designed contests at the blogosphere. Creating meaningful calls to actions that people care about, that’s social media engagement. Create environments for people to engage and get out of their way! Help others achieve their needs and wants. Resolve their problems! That’s what companies should do (case studies here and here). [...]

  • Five Social Media Strategies » The Buzz Bin Says:

    February 10th, 2009 at 11:28 am

    [...] Participation Is Marketing – With a fractured, traditional media marketplace and new social media channels, message control is dead.  Participation is marketing is not new (as Rich Becker likes to remind me), but it is reborn because of social media. Most marketers can recognize the traditional participation approach with community evangelists (usually non-profits and philanthropic efforts — see the National Business Community blog). Successful social media marketing efforts require companies to become a part of the community. Case studies are listed. [...]

  • Blogging Primer » The Buzz Bin Says:

    February 26th, 2009 at 11:07 am

    [...] I cannot emphasize this enough. Rarely is content special enough to be discovered on its own. You must be participating, and become an active part of a community if you want your valuable content to be discovered and [...]

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