Brands need to understand user behaviours and lure them into their online spaces
So what is a user ecosystem? Charlie Wells, Director of Marketing and Analysis at Sapient Nitro, put this question to the audience at the start of this Internet Week Europe panel. Unsurprisingly, everyone kept their heads down. Because "user ecosystem" is one of those phrases that nobody quite knows how to define. Wells, together with Ben Harknett, Director of EU Sales and Client Services for Wildfire Interactive, Henry Clifford Jones, Director of Marketing Solutions at Linkedin, and Steven Rojas, Director of Social, GrandLife Hotels, tried to enlighten us.
User Ecosystem Panel
Wells began by telling us what a user ecosystem is not: it is not a website, a platform, or a network. Instead, he says, "it is a matrix of behaviours that we want people to complete."
Rojas, who launched GrandLife Hotels' culture site, explained via Skype how he saw the concept slightly differently. "It's about bridging the gap between being a digital user and being here with us at the restaurants, parties and fashion shows." In order to create a thriving digital ecosystem around your brand you have to create an atmosphere that people want to be a part of.
Nature and nurture
To understand your user ecosystem it's important to keep in mind why people are there in the first place. "For example," said Harknett, "users typically go to Facebook to hang out with friends, so as a brand you need to incentivise them to spend time on your page." He recommends looking up ESPN's UK Facebook page for a good example of this: it keeps users updated with sports news but the network also works with its advertisers to offer fans discounts on their latest products.
Wells acknowledges that this is a difficult journey for marketers, who have to figure out what they want their audience to do and how they can create the right environment, before they decide what to put there. So the messaging part is the very last stage, and this is flipping traditional marketing on its head.
Footlocker's Sneakerpedia, created by SapientNitro, is an example of a brand-created digital ecosystem that allows its audience of sneaker freaks to share their passions without firing messages at them. And the rewards of this, says Wells (a self-professed data geek), are twofold: your audience stay engaged and provide you with valuable insight into their behaviour.
All the speakers agreed that digital user ecosystems are ever-evolving. To get a handle on them, brands need to have a clear objective, but they also need to be adaptable, to learn to make mistakes and to jump in with both feet.
-- Fiona McKenzie
Fiona McKenzie is a freelance writer in London and a contributor to Contagious magazine.
