Howdy Ya’ll!! I am back in my home tuff with my ropers and my jeans!  Sigh.  Austin SXSW.  Home!

I am in my first great session for Saturday (my first session was a bust!)   It is focused on influence. 

Differences between crowd and a community are:

  • Crowds are motivated by pride; Community are motivated by purpose
  • Crowds are powered by inspiration; Communities are powered by influence
  • Crowds want beneftis; Communities want to belong
  • Crowds want connection; Communites are driven by collaboration
  • Crowds like to get; Communities like to give
  • Crowds are sustained by service; Communites are sustained by Story.

Sometimes you need a crowd.  Sometimes you need a community.    The question is:  How do you move a crowd to a community with purpose!

Eric Knoll from Zappos gave this story.  At Zappos, everyone is trained on the phones for the BEST service.  Eric was on phone and the client was looking for a shoe that was sold out.   He went to look on other sites to find that shoe.  After 15 minutes of searching and chatting, it became apparent that this shoe was 2 seasons old, and not made any more.  But he finally found it on another site, a competitor site, and he gave her the site.   He sent her to that site. And she said “I am so confused”. I only want to buy it from you. So what else do you have that looks similar.   After another 15 minutes — he found the shoes.  This client is now part of the Zappos community.   This is not about graphs – but about people and purpose. To make a client happy!