“You should assume your audience is weird and intelligent. Treat them like insiders, not drooling idiots. Everyone knows it’s easily possible to find answers and conduct research so understand that people will get up to speed themselves.”

- The Future Buzz

Don’t talk at people. Talk to them. Most people believe content marketing is top five lists and shareable pictures. Sure, thought leadership is important. Influencers are touted as top currency on certain platforms. Regardless of the trends, however, it takes a certain mentality to mold content for the digitally savvy consumer.  Engagement has become a buzzword when it should be a frame of mind. 

There are conversations happening everyday. That’s what the industry folks constantly preach. But what they say less often is that communities are being built based on shared experiences through these conversations. Your job is to inspire them. Messaging that intends to engage (and not only inform) builds a relationship between the brand and the fans. People don’t buy what they don’t trust. Humanize. Don’t let it fly over their heads but don’t shoot so low and insult their intelligence. Those assumptions? Throw away. Learn. The brand voice should become a trusted friend.

Sincerely yours…

Through integration, they are socializing web activity and the average netizen doesn’t even realize it. I always thought that Google Plus was failing because there was nothing being said. No buzz. No press. No blogger frothing at the mouth. But that’s exactly the point. Google is winning by duping us like the foolish and ravenous consumers we are. Dangling the carrot without showing the stick. The general public may later realize that we are a part of an online ecosystem where communication with each other is happening on their domain, on their watch, and on their terms. Obviously, they won’t please everybody. That’s the point though. You gotta suck it up and deal with it. Empires are built on fealty and folly.

(SOURCE: Fast Company)

Brian now runs The Breakfast Club.

Reddit is a powerhouse with oodles of cultural cachet. Heralded as the “first page of the Internet”, President Obama deemed an AMA essential during the election season and nicely verified its moniker. Two months later, Gawker exposes Reddit’s biggest troll and a vile practice called doxxing. It illustrates a male culture so empowered by the rise of the connected web that it begins stalking and harming women.

Patriarchal norms are alive and well. Sexism exists everywhere, as long as men believe they can get away with it. In a locker room, jocks pontificate on a cheerleader’s behind. On the web, Reddit geeks share upskirt photos of underage girls found on Facebook. Internet anonymity protects them from consequences. Kotaku, for instance, is a popular blog on things gamer-related. A recent comment regarding female protagonists elicited the following:

Misogyny is openly celebrated. Jokes about the kitchen are still rimshots of choice decades after Mad Men supposedly died out.

A few days ago, a game designer (male) asked on Twitter: “Why are there so few lady game creators?” A woman responded with the hashtag #1reasonwhy and ignited a heated conversation about the denigration plaguing the industry. Sexism permeates in stealth mode. Destructive filth goes on unfiltered, unaddressed, and anonymously as shown in the Kotaku comments above.

Since the Atari days, the phrase “I just got raped!1!!” commonly described Game Over. Such norms went mainstream, overlapping with nerd-infested tech industries now prominent. Slowly, this exposure is resulting in shock therapy.

Slovenly neckbeards are now vulnerable. Girls identify him as the one who coined “the friend-zone” and calls himself a “nice guy”. Douchebros are “owed” sex because they are so much smarter and more interesting than the “bad boys” women are apparently attracted to. CNN’s trouncing of Reddit doxxing and #1reasonwhy serve as a starting—and rallying—point to counter these immature buffoons.

As community managers, we are responsible for honest conversation on this controversial subject. Online communities became everyday life as it now includes internet privacy. Google affirmed this when they integrated real names into Youtube’s  comment system, which was notorious for anonymous trolling. Hopefully, this is a mere start.

Not only a Kotaku or a Reddit issue, it is a human issue.  When the term “rape” is used flippantly, women are denied jobs, and underage girls are threatened by male hackers, we must take action to move us forward.