Your community examples are great. I'm always conscious that 90% of branded communities fail, so in reality the planning takes a lot more effort than you convey in order to mitigate that risk. Of course you can't boil the ocean in one presentation but it's a simple reminder like that which can make people stop and think before rushing in too deeply.

I'm also very conscious of the fact, when I give people the typical examples of “social media success”, that those smart companies such as Dell or Virgin America have only exposed what they want to expose. To make what they have apparently achieved so easily with just a few tools e.g. Twitter, actually takes a lot of hard work and cross organisational planning, training and coordination. To copy what you see on the surface will almost certainly lead to failure and a waste of resources. That's why we preach the need for a proper social media assessment and then strategy considerations, and lastly tools or branded versus social web community considerations.

In any case, love your work – you have a solid niche here and huge opportunity to help improve the customer experience. In my experience the brand depth of airlines is a thin shadow of the brand promise.

Walter Adamson
@g2m Social Media Academy, Australia
http://www.socialmedia-academy.com.au

Your community examples are great. I'm always conscious that 90% of branded communities fail, so in reality the planning takes a lot more effort than you convey in order to mitigate that risk. Of course you can't boil the ocean in one presentation but its a simple reminder like that which can make people stop and think before rushing in too deep.

I'm also very conscious of the fact, when I give people the typical examples of “social media success”, that those smart companies such as Dell or Virgin America have only exposed what they want to expose. To make what they have apparently achieve so easily with just a few tools e.g. Twitter actually takes a lot of hard work and cross organisational planning, training and coordination. To copy what you see on the surface will almost certainly lead to failure and a waste of resources. That's why we preach the need for a proper social media assessment and then strategy considerations, and lastly tools or branded versus social web community considerations.

In any case, love your work – you have a solid niche here and huge opportunity to help improve the customer experience. In my experience the brand depth of airlines is a thin shadow of the brand promise.

Walter Adamson
@g2m Social Media Academy, Australia
http://www.socialmedia-academy.com.au

Signature: Telling stories with right storyboarding presentation together with PowerPoint presentation is like owning a printing press and printing your own currency.