Build a strong following and community and you have an army of brand advocates, especially when those advocates have a voice and a following of their own. As companies and agencies become more savvy about monitoring the social web, it’s important to understand what stage each voice is coming from and where they might go.
Here are my suggestions for 6 stages or types of blogger brand involvement:
1. Blogger mentions a brand – Sentiment could be anything: agnostic, positive, critical feedback, negative/dissenter. But it is hopeful and not cynical. Of course this is not an evangelistic activity, but it is often the starting point.
2. Blogger reviews product/service associated with topic, interviews topic author, reaches out and create dialogue.
3. Blogger defends topic and what it stands for, unsolicited – comments on blogs, forums, social media sharing sites, status updates or Twitter.
4. Blogger contributes content either as a blog post, video, image or other representation of a their appreciation and passion for a brand and topic.
5. Blogger moderates discussion as a result of being selected for such duties as recognition. This can happen within a forum, a social community or as part of an online event.
6. Blogger fully adopts the brand of the topic, publishes a blog or web site dedicated to the topic and may even support the effort with a business model such as advertising or sponsorship.
I’m looking for feedback from other bloggers and marketers on this. What do you think? As a blogger do you feel yourself moving through these stages or is it more complex and situationally dependent than that?
