Tag Archives: community

Spread Your Wings with Triberr


You have this perfect idea of creating a blog that is going to be fed with eye-catching and breath-taking blog posts. You then decide to sign up on wordpress.com (or any other blogging platform of your choice) and start to upload your first posts. Only to find out that your content is not as spectacular as you thought it will be because nobody is actually reading your posts. So, after a few more trials, you see no progress and decide to abandon the whole blog. Why? Because you assume after a few trials that your posts are useless and boring for the audience? Slow down. Relax. The chances are, your blog posts have not even reached your targeted audience.

In today’s fast-paced world, the internet enables you to connect with almost everyone around the globe. You must already know this when you first considered blogging. But what you might have forgotten is that the internet gives not only gives the reach but also a pool of tools to maximize that reach. One of those tools, given we narrow it to the blogging sphere, is Triberr – a blog post sharing platform that will give life to your blog (posts). Not by using fake humans that will artificially increase your readership figure but by connecting you with real humans who will help you grow your blog organically. We are not talking about social media bots, we are talking about a whole community of like-minded bloggers, who share each other’s contents and this way, support each other. Triberr calls this community a “Tribe”.

So, how does this ‘Triberr’ platform, that I have (hopefully) hyped you on, work?

Triberr is a platform that aims to connect like-minded bloggers to support each other. To understand how the platform works, let’s have a look at its core element: Tribes. Let’s say you are a fashion blogger looking for (more) readers to read your latest blog post that you put so much effort into creating. Triberr does exactly that. It helps you increase the readership rate of your blog posts by connecting you with another fashion blogger, let’s call this person Blogger A. Once you connect with Blogger A, after few procedures, you become a member of a tribe that Blogger A is currently enrolled in. That is, you are now surrounded by people who blog about fashion as you (aspire to) do. After you are officially in, you can start sharing your blog post in the community. What happens next is, once you share a blog post, your team members (called tribemates) will support your blog post by sharing your post on their social media – this way, your post reaches more people but also a more relevant audience. As said before, Triberr is a community of bloggers that support each other. As such, you should reciprocate the received favor you received by doing the same thing – you share your tribemates’ blog posts’ on your social media. Your tribe(s) hence becomes fuel for your blog’s organic growth.

Let’s evaluate Triberr’s business model further via efficiency criteria

Triberr is a platform that aims to increase the same-sided network effect by engaging and connecting bloggers around the world. We can thus define Triberr’s business model as crowd-sourced based. In theory, it means that at Triberr, consumer co-production is high and a network is a unit of co-production (Tsekouras, 2019, p. 28). In lay terms, the previous sentence says that bloggers (i.e. consumers) are willing to actively participate in activities that will create value for Triberr which brings benefits to the platform but also to bloggers themselves. That is, Triberr grows as more bloggers are active on the platform but bloggers also benefit from a higher number of shares and thus, a higher readership of their blog posts. This mechanism thus satisfies the first efficiency criteria, which is [joint profitability] of partners involved (i.e. bloggers and Triberr) who work together to create greater value (Tsekouras, 2019, p. 35). Triberr works as a customer-driven value system and it works because both consumers (i.e., bloggers) and the platform both benefit from each other. To name a number of benefits for bloggers: an increased audience that is relevant, getting to know other like-minded (successful) bloggers from whom they can learn from, and satisfied social needs through the feeling of belonging into a community (aka tribe). To name a number of benefits for Triberr: lower marketing prices because of (electronic) word-of-mouth and increased platform value as the number of bloggers grow. In terms of effort and investment, both participating sides exert minimal efforts: bloggers produce contents they enjoy and outsource sharing efforts, Triberr leverages bloggers and outsources the growth of the platform to them altogether.

In many cases, bloggers can abuse the platform by creating inappropriate tribes as well as tribes could be polluted with inappropriate bloggers. Triberr solves this issue by disabling aspiring members to join the tribe immediately. Aspiring members must first go through an “introduction period” in which they can follow their desired tribe and “join” the tribe as observers (Triberr, 2019). As observers, aspiring members’ posts are not (yet) visible to the members of the tribe. Nevertheless, they are allowed to interact with the members of the tribe and share their posts – this way aspiring members can “earn” the tribe’s trust and thus a place in the tribe. Only after observers become full members, their posts will become visible (and thus shareable) to all members of the tribe. Bloggers are responsible for their own content, which must be original. Contents that are perceived hateful or involving threat and harassment are taken care and act upon Triberr as well as US legal bodies. Moreover, a user’s identification is linked to the user’s social media profile to increase authenticity. In addition, a user’s privacy is protected by Triberr’s compliance with GDPR. As such, the Triberr’s feasibility of required reallocations, the second efficiency criterion, is considered met as (aspiring) members are carefully screened (by the community) and user’s trust is achieved with legal compliances.

Triberr goes beyond tribe community and content sharing.

In addition to the above-mentioned two services, the platform provides three premium services. Users can measure content performance with “triberrAnalytics” in the form of post analytics (e.g., number of clicks or content shares) and growth analytics (e.g., number of new and active members). With “triberrQueue”, users can optimize the posting time of their contents. Lastly, “triberrCurate” helps clients with discovering and choosing the relevant content for their targeted audience.

So, my last question for you is:

“Are you now ready to spread your wings with Triberr?”

Sources:

Triberr man proof [Digital image]. Retrieved from https://help.triberr.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/triberr-man-proof-1.jpg.

Are Virtual Communities Different From Face-to-Face Communities?


A community has always been seen as a group of people that interact with each other, face-to-face. But since the rise of the digital age, a new phenomenon has occurred; digital communities. This blog post tries to give an overview of the original community and the virtual community and how they differ. The blogpost is based on the article “The Experienced “Sense” of a Virtual Community: Characteristics and Processes” by Blanchard and Markus (2002)

Original communities

Original communities are face-to-face communities. There are two types: geographic neighborhoods, so place-based communities and communities of interest. The communities of interest were groups of people that bonded over interests, rather than the geographical location. So, these types of communities were more widespread. Since the limited use of digital devices and or the internet, most of these communities included face-to-face contact and no such thing as chatting. Not all neighborhoods are also communities.

Virtual community

Virtual communities are built around digital devices using the internet. The people within the community are connected mostly digital. In some cases, they know each other in person and also interact face-to-face. But when it comes to the community as a whole, that is only digital. Like in original communities, there is a difference in virtual settlements and virtual communities. Virtual settlements exist when objective measures of computer-mediated interaction exceed some threshold levels. Not all virtual settlements are virtual communities.

Sense of community

So why don’t all neighborhoods count as communities? In order to really be a community, the concept ‘sense of community’ plays an important role. Without this ‘sense of community’, the group of people is just a group of people.

This phenomenon was found in the original communities, but studies showed that this concept was also applicable in the virtual communities.

The definition used in the article is: ” a characteristic of successful communities distinguished by members’ helping behaviors and members’ emotional attachment to the community and other members.” There are some behavioral processes that contribute to the sense of community, namely: exchanging support, creating identities and making identifications and the production of trust. These are quite the same for both type of communities.

Researchers are still in doubt if the sense of community is the reason for communities to exist, or that it is an effect caused by communities. It is mostly presumed that the sense of community is necessary for a community to exist rather than that it is treated as an effect by communities.

The ‘sense of community’ experienced in virtual communities is called ‘sense of virtual community’. When this is experienced, it is called a virtual community. There are also a number of social processes and behaviors that should be present in these communities, namely: providing support, developing and maintaining norms and boundaries, social control and some more.

Sense of community is not forever existing, it can decay or be extinguished. This can be caused by leaders dropping out or if new members with different values join, etcetera.

Active members vs lurkers.

There are different types of members that are involved in most communities. The active members are mostly the leaders of the community, they contribute a lot to the content and interactions within the community. There are also members that are not as involved but still contribute once in a while. The last type are the lurkers. These members are not active, but only present.

In the study, members believed that the newsgroup they were subscribed to, was a community. But their attachment to the community varied with their participation, and their perceived benefits from participating.

Original communities vs Virtual community: what are the differences and what is the same.

The article argues that because the communities have differences in characteristics, the feelings are a little bit different formulated, but are quite similar in meaning. Table 1 gives an overview of the main feelings experiences with sense of community in the two different types of communities.

Table 1: Comparison of SOC and SOVC

Dimensions of SOC Dimensions of SOVC
Feelings of membership Recognition of members
Feelings of influence Exchange of support
Integration and fulfillment of needs Attachment
Shared emotional connection Obligation
Identity (self) and identification (of others)
Relationship with specific members

So, overall the communities have a similar buildup and similar processes. But some differences exist because of using digital devices versus face-to-face interactions.

What are the benefits for companies?

Companies are creating a virtual meeting place or platform for their customers to interact on. The companies try to get (positive) feedback of their consumers. This method is also used to try to motivate people to buy their products or just get the name of the company or product out there. But this group of people that the companies are putting together in this way, does not make a community. In order to have a community, the sense of community is needed. The feelings of belonging and attachment need to develop. The result of the community is that the value is more than all individual people added together.

A community within an organization will among others effect in an increase in job satisfaction and organizational citizenship behavior-loyalty.

This article shows the potential value of creating communities, for commercial reasons as for organization reasons.

Making Money in Making Playlists


In the current streaming industry, it is very hard for startups to fight against the giants like Spotify and Apple Music. Moreover, it is almost impossible to maintain a music streaming company. This is also what the founders of Kollekt.fm ran into. These two entrepreneurs started their business in 2013 while they were studying and founded a platform that transformed links to music into playlists. They soon found out that they did not have an efficient business model; their revenue model did not work properly. It was too hard to offer the service in a profitable way.

When the founders hit rock bottom, they encountered one of the frequent users of their service. He told them that he was a dj and made money from developing the playlists for coffee rooms in Amsterdam. This gave the founders new motivation. They went from shop to shop in Amsterdam and did market research about the shops’ music facilities. Eventually, the founders came up with the idea of Atmosphere, which is a service that connects shops and hospitality businesses to musicians. For a 15% commission, Atmosphere makes sure that the shops get personalized playlist which match the brand image of the companies. In this way, the company was able to make money from making playlists. However, the requirements to join the platform are strict. Only unique music curators are allowed to develop the playlists, since the company wants to maintain its high quality service. The main goal for the coming period is a collaboration with an establish jazz musician or dj, in order to raise more brand awareness.


Nowadays, approximately 20 firms are already using Atmosphere. The customers vary from supermarkets to restaurants, from clothing stores to work spots spread over more than 100 locations. The fee for the service is €30,- on a monthly basis which can be extended with €15,- for an offline streaming cabinet and for €300,- extra the company develops a custom-made website for their clients which contain all of their playlists.

Efficiency criteria

  • Currently, retailers are trying to distinguish themselves from competition by creating a clear brand image. The in-store experience is very important for customers. In developing customer centric playlists, the companies establish their brand image. This is an important strength in the business model of Atmosphere.
  • Streaming music in shops is not free, the retailers have to pay a licensing fee for copyrights. Atmosphere is aware of this legal aspect and even anticipates to this by offering their clients the service to arrange this for them to avoid difficulties.

In conclusion, I think that Atmosphere has a bright future ahead. The perseverance of the founders seems to pay off and as the company raises more awareness, the customer base will continue to grow. The streaming business will keep rising and Atmosphere must try to rise along. If the company succeeds to eventually found a community to collect playlists, the possibilities are endless.

Sources:

Tsekouras, D. (2016), Lecture 1: Introduction to value co-creation, Rotterdam School of Management.

https://getatmosphere.com/

https://fd.nl/morgen/1191244/geld-verdienen-met-playlists-maken-dat-idee-sloeg-aan

UNITED WARDROBE An Infinite Closet in Your Pocket



Imagine you bought a pair of sneakers. After wearing them a few times you realize they don’t fit properly. Even though they are as good as new, you are not able to return them. You could try to resell them online on Facebook or Marktplaats, but you have some uncertainties about safety and security. This is where United Wardrobe comes in: a hip, social and safe fashion platform.

United Wardrobe is an online platform for buying and selling second hand fashion. The key aspects of the platform are safety, sustainability and service. But United Wardrobe is more than just a marketplace platform, it is a community where you can chat with other fashion lovers, follow users and favorite each other’s products. These social functions empower users to become co-creators of value.

How does it work?
A user can create a profile and upload products for sale. The moment a buyer has paid for a product, the seller receives their contact details. As soon as the package has been received, United Wardrobe transfers the money within 14 days to the seller (United Wardrobe, 2017). This relates to what Carson et al. (1999) define as institutional arrangements, the formal and informal rules of exchange created by specific parties to a specific exchange, in this case the exchange of fashion.

The institutional arrangements of United Wardrobe meet three criteria set by Carson et al. (1999). Firstly, they are efficient in a sense that they enable joint profitability and create incentives for users to contribute. Next to this, they are feasible given the characteristics of the exchange of products. Finally, they are achievable in a sense that United Wardrobe has succeeded in growing the platform and community. These institutional arrangements allow United Wardrobe to tackle safety and security issues such as scamming, which no other marketplace platform has succeeded to do.

Users are an important part of United Wardrobe’s business model and enable more creation of value than the company could create on its own. In fact, without its users, the company would not even exist. This is the essence of value co-creation, where new ways are identified to support either the customer’s or the firm’s value-creating process (Saarijärvi et al., 2013). An interesting feature on the website is a page where you can see what the most popular search terms are. This reflects a customer value co-creation mechanism where the firm has refined user data and returned it to the users (Saarijärvi et al., 2013). United Wardrobe has won several prizes with its concept including Dutch Online Retail Experience Award 2015 and the public award of Accenture’s Innovation Awards in 2014.

From my own experience with the platform I can assure you that it is a fun and easy way to sell some clothes. Everyone has clothing at the back of their closet they never wear. A pair of trousers that you might hate another might love, so get up and make that extra money. From an environmental perspective I think this business model is a great step towards a better planet by recycling fashion.


Sources:
Carson, S. J., Devinney, T. M., Dowling, G. R., & John, G. (1999). Understanding institutional designs within marketing value systems. Journal of Marketing, 115-130.

Saarijärvi, H., Kannan, P. K., & Kuusela, H. (2013). Value co-creation: theoretical approaches and practical implications. European Business Review, 25(1), 6-19.

United Wardrobe (2017) unitedwardrobe.com. Available at: https://unitedwardrobe.com/en/about Accessed on 15/02/2017

Darahkubiru: Behind a Community Platform


Started as a platform to virtually connect with other denim enthusiasts in Indonesia, Darahkubiru has gained popularity as a trustworthy source to gather many denim-related product reviews. Later on the owner decided to start a company based on the website.

logo_darahkubiru-fancy

Since 2009, Darahkubiru has been providing many interesting articles regarding denim and other fashion products, ranging from interviews with local brand owners to a proper product treatment. The primary purpose of this website is simply to attract Indonesian youngster to the world of denim as a lifestyle instead of solely about fashion statement (www.darahkubiru.com). After being online for several months and dozens of positive feedback given by its readers, the owner released a forum section in the website to better accommodate the readers communication with fellow denim geek. In the forum, registered users are able to exchange views, comments, and passion about certain product. Within 5 years, the website managed to attract a staggering 16,312 users.

Then how do they gain profit??

Continue reading Darahkubiru: Behind a Community Platform