• by Tom Hespos , September 13, 2004

In our quest to build relationships with consumers and potential consumers of our products and services, we often find ourselves having to deal with a highly opinionated segment of early adopters and opinion leaders who can help make or break a new product or brand. These folks can be dedicated brand advocates or, alternately, a marketing department's worst nightmare. Their activities are often first manifested in cyberspace and they tend to have the greatest impact there as well.

But what is the difference between having the support of these early adopters during your launch and having them start a bash-fest over at www.[yourbrandhere]sucks.com?

Obviously, the quality of the product is the first determinant of what the early adopters will tell their friends. You can't expect to build car bumpers out of tinfoil and have the early adopter community sing your praises. But if the product is competitive and has legs, what's the next biggest factor in getting the early adopters on your side?

I'd offer up that it's transparency - the ability to have conversations with your brand advocates (and detractors), keep them in the loop, and giving them insight into how your company does business.

Early adopters, particularly the ones who are tech savvy, have entire networks of people who rely on them to provide product recommendations. Those networks may take the form of corporate executives within the early adopter's company that have spending authority, or they could be friends - other tech geeks and such who look to the early adopter to speak with authority on the best and worst products in a particular sector. You may hold differing views on whether or not these people can make or break a product, but it certainly doesn't hurt to have them on your side as opposed to having them fight you and make it difficult for you to do business.

In order to be able to function appropriately in their role as advisor to their particular communities, early adopters need transparency. They need insights into your company and your product that other folks don't have or want. If they hit brick walls in their quests for these insights, they get suspicious, turned off, or worse.

One company that's trying to be more transparent is Microsoft. Long suffering from the reputation of an evil conglomerate that held information close to the vest, Microsoft let five of its employees launch a site called Channel 9 to facilitate communication between Microsoft and developers. The site is chock full of insight into how Microsoft works, including examples of how developers are using Microsoft products, what's on the drawing board, and more. More importantly, however, are the feedback mechanisms. The Channel 9 team responds to posts in its forums, and in doing so makes Microsoft more transparent to its developers. Slowly but surely, Channel 9 will help Microsoft shed its "evil empire" reputation among a group of influential folks who could serve as advocates.

Microsoft isn't the only company seeking transparency and dialogue. Much has been written lately about business blogging and how it can help cultivate relationships with customers. Consultant Rick Bruner writes about business blogs on his own site, Business Blog Consulting. Check it out for some good examples of corporate blogs and how they're helping overall communications efforts.

I don't mean to suggest that transparency is necessary only for the sake of early adopters and influentials. Even folks who don't fall into those two groups want to know more about the companies behind the products they buy. They want to know things like whether or not the companies they buy from are contributing back to their communities, whether a company takes steps to preserve the environment, or about the motivations behind a particular product development decision.

Online is playing a huge role in developing brands around communities where conversations are taking place. How transparent is your company? Could it stand to bring more consumers into the loop? Tell me what you think on the Spin Board.