This past week my sister & I attended the Craft & Hobby Association trade show in Anaheim, CA. The stat’s are 20,000 people attend & 3,200 exhibits.
The majority of the attendees are retailers ordering merchandise for their stores. We had appointments with editors of various publications. It was exciting for me to demo our products for them & show the new features in person.
In one year of using social media & providing support online my sister & I have established a considerable presence in our niche. It was nice to hear people say ‘Our customers recommend ACDSee’. And the ultimate compliment was when our president came back from the exhibit floor saying that people had asked him if he knew Connie & Heidi. It was a good feeling to have the company’s brand so firmly embraced.
The majority of the scrapbooking exhibits were for paper products & I noticed the word ‘Community’ in many places – on exhibits in large letters with a website, on pamphlets and from people in the publication industry.
It was quite interesting to attend a publicity event as Taunton Press announced their new online community. Their marketing executive provided the stat’s on their readers that are online. And they showed sample pages of the site (which won’t go live until March). It makes me wonder at the wisdom of creating a new community? I asked them if they were going to participate in the existing communities? They already have a number of social media endeavors going. I see that they have YouTube videos on woodworking as well as forums on a range of areas.
Overall CHA was a great experience! It provided an excellent overview of where the craft industry is at. Talking with people gave us a good sense of where our brand is positioned at. We also gained feedback from the editors of publications in this niche.
Very interesting! I would have liked to attend that event with Taunton. Did they mention they need any sort of blog coordinator?? :)
Sounds like you had a great show – I’m so glad to hear it, and so happy to hear your efforts are being noticed and recognized by the “brass”. That’s so fabulous. It’s great to hear when someone so genuine really succeeds in our industry.
So, what was the answer to the question, “Are you going to participate in existing communities?” I’m increasingly finding myself asking that question internally and with our clients. Or, really, asking if that question is applicable. Is there already a vibrant community (or communities) that your prospects are active in? If so, are you adding value by starting your own, or are you just throwing up a competing world that, at best, makes their world more complicated? Would you be better suited to, for instance, start a blog, but spend as much time authoring content there as you do authoring content in the existing online communities?
There are absolutely cases where a company is truly blazing new ground — pulling some sort of a “blue ocean”/”disruptive technology” move and, therefore, neeting to launch an online community to foster early adopter interactions and engagement. But that’s the minority of cases. Much, much better (and lower cost, and lower risk) to jump on board with an existing online community if it is already active and vibrant! Right?
I love the question!