The Web is the new Wild West — lawless, full of overly eager trespassers and hyped to a point of absurdity. Yet, there is always the potential for human empowerment and business growth waiting patiently around the digital corner.
To cut back on the lawless and overly eager part, millions of people are increasingly turning to private Slack Channels and closed Facebook Groups. How many do you belong to and participate in?
In the past year alone, Facebook Group membership is up 40 percent, with 1.4 billion people — more than half of Facebook’s massive user base — now using Groups every month. Of those, 200 million people belong to so-called “meaningful Groups,” considered a vital part of users’ daily lives.
Ryan Holmes, the founder and CEO of Hootsuite, says the potential of Groups is deeply tied up with social media’s own unique power.
Current challenges aside, Facebook redefined communication precisely because it enables people to connect with people, without an intermediary or gatekeeper. Brands that learn to set up Groups and recede into the background — to let customers connect on a human level, not a transactional one — stand to recapture some of that original magic.
Ascend to Super User Status
I don’t want you to miss out, so please head over to The Internal Creative Review, Adpulp’s Facebook Group and ask to join. The ICR is for our most ardent and interested readers.
Can you answer “Yes!” to these questions?
- Do you have ideas you want to share with a tight-knit community of advertising pros?
- Do you want to run your ideas up the flagpole before you show the client or your boss?
- Do you need a support group to help you navigate some of the ad business’s tougher challenges?
If this sounds like a place that you will value, please head over to The ICR and ask to join.
Don’t Confuse Comments with Community
Commenting on blogs is about as popular as MySpace today.
Once upon a time, you’d land here and find long strings of comments. There are more than 10,000 in our database, but we have them turned off. We opted to replace anonymous commenting with Facebook-enabled comments a few years ago and the pace of commenting quickly ground to a halt.
In my opinion, anonymous commenting on blogs and/or MSM sites is digital garbage. It’s also the reason that Twitter is problematic, at times. Shit talkers love the protection that anonymity provides.
Slack Channels and closed Groups on Facebook take the conversation to a better place. It’s like being at a party, and finding a spot to chat, away from the music and cacophony of the crowd.
Ask to Join: The ICR.
