Celebrities love a good cause - Hurricane Katrina
I am a community manager for a niche network of legal professionals. Lawyers are tough nuts to crack when it comes to the social media game. As people who typically spend hours preparing any piece of writing, showing them the value of being in a place where they can have quick exchanges that develop into bigger ideas is not so easy.
Some of them “get it,” but as a whole the legal profession is still figuring out how these tools will be useful to them. Enter the celebrity lawyers. The guys who are well known in the industry, perhaps have written a practice area defining treatise, and are some of the smartest people you have ever met. How do you get guys like this to engage?
Again, it’s not easy. These are people whose time is precious and expensive. They are not really looking to chum around (generally) and want to make sure that anything they commit their time to has a payoff, whether it is money, recognition, or advancement. Knowing how to motivate these guys is key.
There are generally four types of spotlight members categories which the celebrity member falls into. Understanding what motivates them and their interests in the community is key to getting them to engage:
- Fame Seeker – these can be members who are either on the up and up or who have made the big time and are looking to further enhance their personal brand. For these members, maximum exposure will be the key. Any opportunity you can extend that gets them visible, whether it is a professionally written article on the member posted on the home page or a webinar starring that member and centered around their work, visibility speaks to the fame seeker.
- Problem Solver – these are members who like to be seen as the one who figure something out that no one else can. They are motivated by a good challenge that is both difficult and which others want to solve but can’t. Competitive opportunities like contests, puzzles, or hypotheticals can be a tool to engage this type of celebrity. The bigger and more coveted the prize the better, but bragging rights are also attractive if the right people will see the results…
- Networkers – these members are here for the connections. They see powerful people in the network who they can team up with to either do things in the network or initiate side projects. Since we are talking about celebrity members there is likely a lack of hesitancy in reaching out to other celebrities, but the more you can foster an ease of connection the better. Try doing things like putting these guys on panels together, inviting them to high profile functions, and simply asking them who they are interested in meeting (sometimes you’ll find that one celebrity member doesn’t know another is even on the network).
- Thought Leaders – I’ll have to admit, I find this term jargony and wanted to avoid it if I could. ”Thought Leaders” are generally people who care about a topic so much they will lend their voice to it, often contributing original ideas. Partly for the fame and partly for the opportunity to influence others, thought leaders are motivated by opportunities to give opinions early in a debate. Try inviting them to featured forum topics, either to start the discussion or give an early answer. Also, see if they want to mirror an outside blog or contribute to a regular column that is featured prominently on the site.
Of course there is always the celebrity member that wants to just be left alone. They may have joined the network as a favor to someone who runs it. For these guys, I suggest working with them to understand their privacy settings and then helping them tweak those setting to be unreachable. You can always periodically reach out to that celebrity member and try offering them opportunities you think they might be interested in, but when a guy tells you flat out he doesn’t want to be bothered, you energy is likely better spent somewhere else.
