In July 2008 Philips asked Isobar to develop a campaign around one of their shaving devices, one with extraterrestrial qualities.  Working with this idea of extraterrestrial we planned a series of communication scenarios by contacting bloggers and seeding video around the Internet that in turn, generated excitement around the product. In retrospect, this was the beginning of our social media proposition.

Just over a month later three colleagues came together in a local Bagels & Beans and worked to shape the form of a new social media agency. After working day and night, editing Wikipedia-pages and seeding Hyves groups, we were happy to be able to add at this early stage the first FTE. Now almost 3,5 years later, the bureau has grown considerably and we manage along side roughly 25 socials and creatives, social media programs for clients like Grolsch, Opel and 20^th Century Fox. If we have learned anything in the past 3,5 years, it’s that social media is a party!

Community management is the ‘oldest’ social media proposition that we have. As the task of community manager has gradually evolved we have noticed that the phrase ‘community manager’ no longer is an effectively description. Imagine you are giving a party where a group of like-minded individuals come together, communicate, and cooperate to have a good time. We have come to see social media in a similar fashion, with the community manager taking the role of all-important host. A good host provides his guests with food and drink but also entertainment. A good host provides some of the entertainment himself, a rich host buys in entertainment.

I see social media as a kind of party on the Internet. What I also see is that some brands often have unrealistic expectations at their parties. Very often they expect to gain the loyalty of thousands of people by making one good joke. That’s not how it works. Imagine you walk into a bar dressed up as a bottle of beer. The other guests will look attentively, but that attention will fade pretty quickly when you don’t have a good opening sentence.

That opening sentence might be compared to a status update, and such an update should have a positive and surprising effect to grab the attention. But this is only the beginning: the first impression. What follows is the start of the conversation; and that’s where it starts to get exciting! Research shows that we make a judgement in the first minutes of a conversation. Online the attention span is much lower than offline. Within seconds the decision to “like” or not to “like” is made and your efforts have either succeeded or failed.

For these reasons I have decided to give our Community Management proposition a new meaning. From editing and managing to creating content and generating enthusiasm. It might sound overly poetic but it nevertheless underscores our ambition. A good host does not only take care of the logistics of the party such as the management, location, enforcement of rules and some good conversation, they also provide the entertainment. Once they have the entertainment it’s time to send out the invitations!

At this time, we at Isobar are always experimenting with social media, but what is comes down to in my opinion is this: a traditional Community Manager manages and informs, whilst the new Community Manager entertains and inspires. This new entertaining host, who makes a party with his friends around a brand, is what we consequently call a Storyteller.

Status updates form a starting point for a conversation and become an important part of smaller daily stories. We tested a couple of these stories and ‘surprise’ is the key ingredient. Although the conversation cannot be rigidly scripted, there needs to be a loose scaffolding into which the story can have context. The conversation subjects not only have to fit into the world of the fan and the brand, they need to create a real time story.

There are multiple ways to tell a story. But every story has a beginning, middle and an end. The stories that you tell through social media should also follow these same steps. Thinking of ways to facilitate this process you give the follower the possibility to make the story his or her own and influence the direction of the plot.

As mentioned earlier, social media is a party. Organise the format, location and send the invitations, but don’t forget to entertain, inspire and have fun!