Comments on: Would You Join a Toothpaste Community?

By: amuRcep

amuRcep — Sat, 23 May 2009 01:02:36 +0000

mm. really like it.

By: I would join a donut community « doug wick

I would join a donut community « doug wick — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 15:03:17 +0000

[...] is something we’ve addressed a lot in this blog, particularly with Aaron’s popular “Would you Join a Toothpaste Community?” post, along with follow-up posts where Aaron tackled a few challenging products from a [...]

By: Wanna Start a Cult? | Real Estate Magazine - Real Estate Opinion Column - AgentGenius

Tue, 31 Mar 2009 15:33:04 +0000

[...] you passionately discuss cereal with your friends? Or, would you join a toothpaste community, as Aaron Strout recently [...]

By: Aaron Strout

Aaron Strout — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 03:19:13 +0000

Thanks Sam. We couldn’t agree more!

Aaron

By: Sam Eder

Sam Eder — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 22:46:03 +0000

I’m glad to see this conversation started again! I couldn’t agree with Aaron more, too often we are caught up with the technology and forget the big picture- why will people find this compelling. That being said, too many marketers assume that just have a a compelling subject is enough and don’t think about how to build participation. If we accomplish anything this year, let it be killing off the “Field of Dreams” attitude people have when it comes to online communities. “If you build it, they will come” does not apply. If you go through the effort to build an online community, know that there will have to be a considerable marketing effort to back it up.

By: Is Social Media Always a Good Idea? NO « Social Media Building Blocks

Is Social Media Always a Good Idea? NO « Social Media Building Blocks — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 02:36:25 +0000

[...] pm · Filed under community I’ve been thinking about this for a while. Aaron Strout’s toothpaste post made me think about it but Mark Wallace’s blog post prompted me to write it [...]

By: Aaron Strout

Aaron Strout — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 14:49:54 +0000

Diane – it’s an honor to have you commenting on this post. As someone that has been in the space for longer than most, I like your perspective on how brands should think about creating community for their customers. The concept of “social glue” is a good one and one that many folks tend to forget about. Instead, they get caught up on which tools to use.

Best,
Aaron | @aaronstrout

By: Diane Hessan

Diane Hessan — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 14:13:14 +0000

Aaron, I couldn’t resist throwing in my 2 cents. What a great topic! At Communispace, we’ve launched and managed about 325 communities for major brands, and our experience is that no one will join a toothpaste community and stay for an extended period of time. Having said that, we run successful communities for makers of everything from toothpaste to deodorant to paint to life insurance. The key to success for low-involvement products is creating what we call “social glue”: for those communities, you need to have members that have many things in common other than the product itself. One of our most vibrant and longstanding communities is for Axe Deodorant, but the members are all young guys, and, well, let’s just say that they have a lot to talk about other than whether they sweat.

By: Your Brand: The Bridge to Community « doug wick

Your Brand: The Bridge to Community « doug wick — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 19:36:42 +0000

[...] My colleagues Aaron Strout and Bill Fanning have gotten a great conversation started around the difficulty of connecting community with a brand that seems not quite as “community ready,” starting with a recent post titled “Would you join a Toothpaste Community?“ [...]

By: Your Brand: The Bridge to Community « The Engaged Consumer

Your Brand: The Bridge to Community « The Engaged Consumer — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 17:38:27 +0000

[...] Your Brand: The Bridge to Community January 19, 2009 Posted by Doug Wick in Engagement Marketing, Social Branding, Social Marketing. Tags: branding, social marketing strategy trackback My colleagues Aaron Strout and Bill Fanning have gotten a great conversation started around the difficulty of connecting community with a brand that seems not quite as “community ready,” starting with a recent post titled “Would you join a Toothpaste Community?“ [...]