The other day, an old friend of mine, someone I’ve known for 13 years, joked to me via email that she and I were “into social media when social media wasn’t cool.”
I laughed at how dorky that sounded, but she’s right; our very friendship was forged via social media, only that wasn’t yet what anyone called online communities back when we first got to know each other as members of both misc.kids, as well as an international listserv for moms, Parent-L. The two of us have only met in person one time in all those years, but our friendship has been sustained quite nicely via our online connection.
While mothers’ entrance into social media is currently getting a lot of attention, perhaps giving the impression that it’s a new development, we moms were actually among the earliest affinity groups to really “get” the community-building part of online communication. In fact, as far back as 1998, I wrote about the burgeoning phenomenon of “virtual motherhood” for a parenting magazine; the piece was then included in one of the earliest pop-lit anthologies of stories of social relationships forged via online community.
By the mid-90s, AOL saw what was happening with mom-community on the Web, and in 1996, the company provided seed money for a startup social network called Moms Online. As it happens, my first job in social media was as an online producer and community manager with the Oxygen Network , which had just acquired Moms Online from AOL. In addition to being a pioneer in the development of commercially viable online communites, the founder of MomsOnline, Katherine DeBaun, deserves credit in the annals of social media history as arguably the first, real “mommyblogger.” Kath penned an “online column,” as it was known then, called “The Daily Alexander,” which was about mothering her toddler son, Alex. At that time, the idea that anyone could build a national audience writing about the mundane details of family life every single day (!!!) was unheard-of. But Kath did. Readers loved it, and advertisers started to take notice. ( As an aside, another Moms Online producer -who also happens to be an old, local pal of mine from days of yore – is also someone I’d name as among the most influential female blogging pioneers: Spike Gillespie. Her “blog” came in the form of a weekly email to Prodigy subscribers, and it paved the way for many other provocative, confessional bloggers who have followed ever since.)
So while it’s certainly true that the social media adoption and participation rates among all Americans, including mothers, have really exploded in the past 36 months, it’s also the case that many vital, affinity-based online communities existed long before anyone had ever heard of My Space. And here’s the thing: because we hear so much about the newer social platforms, like Facebook and Twitter, many social media strategists tend to focus entirely on these better-hyped, flashier platforms, while ignoring the “old school” social networks that were created by early adopters, like the community members at Moms Online, but that remain extremely active.
I’m talking about the rich, below-the-radar ecosystem of less-sexy online platforms like email lists and message boards (which used to be called “bulletin boards”). There are many tens of thousands of these vibrant communities out there, with millions of participants. They include Yahoo Groups, Google Groups , Usenet Newsgroups and standalone, niche-topic message boards. Even Meet-Up (remember Meet-Up?), the social network that received a huge flurry of hype and buzz during the Howard Dean campaign, but isn’t gettin’ much media love lately, still has more than 63,000 active groups.
In Knoxville, TN, where I live, there are at least two dozen subscriber-based email lists set up by residents of specific neighborhoods to communicate with one another. I live in the 37917 zip code, so I am a subscriber to the 37917 email list, which is six years old, has 742 members, and has seen 140 new messages posted in just the past seven days.
I would argue that neighborhood email lists, which exist in every city and town in America, are the single most effective way to get any message – whether personal or commercial in nature – to a hyperlocal, block by block online audience. As an anecdotal example, this morning I posted a message and photo on my blog, Facebook page, and Twitter feed regarding a stray Border Collie that ended up at our house. I also sent the message out to the 37917 email list. My hope was to locate the dog’s owner. Within 45 minutes, the dog’s owner had contacted me after a friend of his who subscribes to 37917 had seen the message, recognized the dog, and forwarded my email to him. My blog post, Facebook and Twitter status updates, however, didn’t effectively connect me with my neighbors in an immediate way, even though many of them are functionally networked with me via those other platforms.
When creating a social media strategy for a business, cause or organization, it’s absolutely critical to include these more traditional, less-hyped online communities as part of the plan. Political and social campaigns, as well as businesses with highly specialized products or audiences need to pay special attention to these old-school communities, which allow a type of opt-in, affinity-based market segmentation that’s hard to beat. And even big brands with many products should be looking carefully at these less-sophisticated online communities. I mean, what could be more attractive to a brand like Betty Crocker, which owns Bisquick, than an active email list with 380 subscribers who discuss nothing but recipes that include Bisquick? And for a regional pharmacy chain, how about tapping into a Meet-Up group for Denver ADHD patients and their families?
Additionally, while it’s true that older Americans are becoming increasingly engaged with Facebook, Twitter and You Tube, this age group has been using these email lists, message boards and Usenet for years; after all, Baby Boomers were the ones who created this stuff in the first place, back in the ’80s. Thus, if the target for your message skews significantly older, these more traditional online communities offer a lot of opportunities to interact with your audience in a medium where they are more engaged and active because they are more comfortable than they are with some of the newer platforms.
So what’s the takeaway here? It’s this: social media didn’t suddenly emerge out of nowhere in the past three years. No, what has happened recently, and has suddenly drawn such attention, is that the long, slow build-up of almost two decades finally hit a tipping point in terms of mass adoption. Of course, this geeky social media backstory doesn’t serve any particular purpose for all of the recent-adopters now enjoying reconnecting with college roomates via Linked In. All they know is that this online community stuff is way more fun and engaging than they thought it would be before they took the plunge.
But this Web history provides critically important business intelligence for professional social media strategists. We need to remember that these old-style communities, built on platforms that may now seem clunky and out-of-date, still hold the interest and participation of a vast audience. When we ignore that audience, with all of its wonderfully wacky diversity, we are ignoring tremendous opportunity for our clients.
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