I am happy to announce we are now on phase two of the process and wanted to open things up to a wider group in order to share some of the interesting insights so far and allow for increased participation. So we decided to put out an open call to all client-side Social Media Practitioners who resonate with the idea of the Social Media Council Europe and want to be part of this unique initiative. This is your chance to join an elite group of Founding Members from industry leaders such as Phillips, Honda, Mastercard, Burberry, LEGO to co-create the future of the Council with us. With this post we want to give you more information on the co-creation phase and invite you to participate in this unique European Social Media initiative.
We practice what we preach
Here at Social Media Council Europe we always like to practice what we preach. That’s why when the Social Media Council Europe was nothing but an idea, we knew that to make sure the community would provide the most value to its future users and directly reflect their needs it was important to get their input and buy-in before we launched. We knew co-creating the community was the way to go and hoped the experience in itself would be a way in which founding members could learn new methods and principles that would be valuable for their day-to-day roles.
We offer a clear and convenient process
The Co-Creation phase was created to be social by design and easy for people to get involved, importantly without having to take out too much time from their busy week. We deliberately designed the process to have as few entry barriers as possible, to allow for real involvement and interaction. Therefore we set members one challenge and one discussion topic every week over a four week period. This gives our members the flexibility to participate at a time and day of their convenience.
We offer a bespoke platform to support the process
The platform offers a whole range of features. But as we emphasized above we want the process to be very clear. So basically members can; submit ideas, comment on one another’s thoughts and decide which they like the most by voting. The combination of challenges and discussions helps us not only to get ideas but also to understand the possible needs and opinions of our users and make the outcome a better fit with your needs.
Here is an overview on the platform and the different ways members can express their needs and ideas and to connect with Social Media Practitioners from all over Europe:
We give you space for your ideas
As you can see the topics touch different aspects that are relevant for the development of the Social Media Council Europe. And whilst we started very open and undirected, we also focus and guide the creativity and thinking of the members towards key success factors. To give you a better understanding on the kind of ideas and the areas we are looking for your input, we want to elaborate a bit more on the different challenge and discussion topics:
Week 1:
We kick started the process by asking the founding members ‘how we can become the No.1 brands-only community for social media in Europe’ with the focus on them the intended user and what benefits they would want from the community. The challenge was deliberately broad without giving the participants too much further direction the purpose being to allow for us to understand their perspective and experiences along with offering participants the opportunity to get to know each other.
Week 2 & 3:
This phase is now live and open to your participation. We have focussed on the two critical success factors that we think will make or break the community, which are: “Limited time and information overload” and “Openness and confidentiality”.
It is also important over this period for participants to spend some time familiarising themselves with the platform so they are comfortable in contributing in the more demanding phases and keep the conversation going.
Without you the users, all communities stagnate, and when dealing with high-level and high-profile professionals it’s more challenging as time is very limited. In week three we are looking for ‘ideas on how we can make sure that participants are happy to share their experiences and challenges’. This is a vital part of ensuring what we design is servicing the needs of users in the right way.
Week 4:
In our final week, the challenge will be about growing the community and attracting the most relevant people going forward. Ideas on marketing, word of mouth, events and partnerships are welcome for this challenge. With it being the last discussion topic, we want to give members the room to grow and develop their ideas on the platform so finally, the participants have the chance to share the last and most important thing they want us to keep in mind when we build the Social Media Council Europe community.
We share our experience with you
So how has it gone so far and what has been shared? To give you a snapshot on what you can expect we want to share our experience and some ideas that we see as very promising. The first challenge was intended to be undirected and broad so we received a wide variation of ideas that fall into three main categories:
- Purpose, Scope and Strategy
- Marketing/PR and Partnerships
- Learning, Collaboration and editorial activities
I don’t want to go too much into detail, but I think both ideas are very valuable inputs for the further development of the Social Media Council Europe.
You can be part of this European Initiative
We have had some great feedback from Marketing and Social Media practitioners we contacted. It is absolutely clear there is definitely an unmet need and a role for Social Media Council Europe to play in the lives of its members.
What has been clear is the challenge of “Limited time and information overload” has already shown to be an important element in members being able to contribute as much as they like. We received a lot of responses from members that they would love to participate more but really struggle to find the time.
So this is why we are opening the opportunity to you looking for an estimated 20 minutes effort each week (at a time and day of your convenience). So if would like to join us, please get in contact with us via. [email protected].
Thanks and we look forward to hearing about your thoughts and needs as a social media professional in Europe.
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