Participation isn’t enough

Having a more clear-sighted view on people’s real world buying behaviours and thus which consumers actually matter to the generation of revenue and profit begins to gives us a framework for thinking about participation.

For if we want to survive and prosper from the paradox, then we’re going to recognize that participation alone is not enough:

Don’t confuse your passionate fans for being your most important source of revenue

Treat your fans as creative collaborators, doormen to other, bigger networks, or as a channel – they are actors in your content, but they are not its ultimate audience

Go beyond servicing the enthusiasm of your fans – your brand depends on the interest and purchases of the many more people who don’t know you well, aren’t devoted to you, and don’t purchase you at all, or that often

Recognize that participation is merely niche marketing unless it is overheard and witnessed by the mainstream – find ways of enabling the enthusiasm of your fans to spill over into the populations who are less interested

Be realistic about how many will participate and how deeply – ultimately stimulating mass reaction matters more than chasing mass participation.

Build for inequality – build into creative content both high friction and low friction forms of participation. A few people will want something (perhaps even a lot) to do, but many more will want a very little (or nothing at all) to do.

Building in talk value into the idea itself is a more efficient way of achieving spread than buying it. Whatever the degree of participation sought, do something f*****g awesome that is genuinely worth talking about – seek to generate headlines, both amongst media owners, and in people’s social interactions. It’s got to be good enough for some to want to take part in, and good enough for others to care.

Don’t underestimate the power of paid for media to invite, document and publicise people’s participation to a wider audience