Clorox is doing some exciting things in community management. It was one of the first major brands to integrate gaming mechanics into its forums, and its latest initiative is designed to get fans, customers and professionals to submit ideas to build new and better products.
In his recent BlogWell presentation, Clorox’s Greg Piche walked the audience through this “co-creation” process.
Though it’s still early in the project, Piche was able to share great ideas and take-aways based on what the company has learned.
- People love to do this. Piche and his team have found that when asked, people love to share ideas, and they feel valued when they’re encouraged to do so. They’re eager to talk about features that frustrate them, things they like and how something could be made better.
- This works best in private, owned communities. Clorox created a private community in which it invites members to participate in co-creation projects. Here, it’s easier to manage the conversation, meet legal requirements and post “challenges” that generate idea submissions.
- LinkedIn is a great tool to find co-creators. Clorox recruits a diverse base of fans to join its co-creation community from Twitter and Facebook — but the company has had the most success with LinkedIn. Using LinkedIn’s filtering tools, Clorox is able to find designers, artists, MBAs, Ph.D.s and other folks with passion and training that make them great at collaborative design.
Watch Piche’s presentation. (slides available here)