Every self-respecting communications agency nowadays has a Chief Community Officer. The CCO is responsible for the nurturing of a brand community. Every self-respecting brand wants a community of users, aficionados, evangelists and anyone else remotely engaged. The reasoning behind this craving is costs and exposure. What is more convincing then an unsuspected group of people proclaiming their brand preference? Word of Mouth and Peer to Peer is the best recommendation you can get as a brand. And it is free of charge!
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Practice what you preach. A common saying, but nonetheless not being practiced widely I think. This is especially true for organizations. How many times have you been preached at, while the ‘preacher’ does not act like it? Not very motivating.

When we talk about co-creation, it is very important to practice what you preach. It’s still very difficult to measure the value of co-creation in amounts of money. That is even more true when we talk about the short term. Like other value creating methods, it pays on the long term, it needs investments in time on the short term that is not paid out immediately. You have to plant seeds, make the soil fertile and make sure heavy storms and bad weather doesn’t wash away everything making your time invested worthless.

Practice what you preach is true for everybody, it refers to your trustworthiness. If you can be trusted, if you dare to be transparent, if you do what you promise, then people will act more similar to you. That doesn’t mean you can be naive because you practice what you preach, but your seeds may start to grow.

For some people the saying can be more of application than it is for others. And even more in organizations. People that have important or key functions within companies are being watched and judged by more eyes and minds, their credibility is constantly being questioned, or at least negotiated. That brings opportunities and threats. It brings power, it gives tools to accelerate projects, makes it possible to connect with people to achieve something. However, if this power is misused, people will lose trust in you and it becomes even more difficult to rebuild it.

The moral of the story, it doesn’t matter who you are, or what ‘power’ you have, but always practice what you preach. When you plant a seed, nurture it well and you’ll be amazed what you can accomplish.

For the second time I did a joint session at Picnic with Albert Boswijk, director of the European Centre of Experience Economy. Our topic was Beyond Co-creation (I must admit this title sounds a bit trite..).

Our audience was the usual eclectic mix of students, designers, consultants, software engineers and an occasional marketing or innovation manager. I was pleasantly surprised to notice that compared to last year, people were far more familiar with co-creation. They were more interested in our concrete co-creation experience than in a visionary exposé about its potential virtues. So, in the end, the title was more apt than I presumed.