How Communication is Shifting from Audience to Community — Interview with Mark Bonchek

Mark Bonchek likens the shift in communication to a hosting a great dinner party: don't do all of the talking; instead, bring others into conversation.

Transcript

Communication is changing. The way to think about that is a real shift from audience to community. That as we go from one-to-many to many-to-many, from broadcast to social, who you're reaching is no longer a passive audience, but an active community. You can post things out on Twitter, you can post things out on Facebook, you can broadcast a message to a, quote, “social audience” with some results. But it’s not really tapping into the full power. Real power is when you start to tap into the many-to-many nature of social media, and instead of just broadcasting out to your customers or your stakeholders, or listening to what they have to say - convening them, bringing them together, connecting them. So, I sometimes liken it as a dinner party, you know, if you’re the host of a dinner party, your job is not to do all the talking. Your job is to connect people together, and the more people are connecting together and talking to each other, the better a party it is, and at the end, they'll thank you for hosting a great party.