Monikas Katkute is Community Manager at LBi, one of the largest digital agencies in Europe. She is responsible for managing social communications on behalf of  leading beer brand. Also, Monika is developing  two ventures: Bit greener – sustainable business directory & community and Craft Fields –  marketplace & cultural space of Lithuanian artisans.  You can follow Monika on Twitter, Linkedin or Facebook or her blog.
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Philip is Community Manager at Zmags. Previously, he was community manager of  FIFA UK at Electronic Arts and Digital Producer at The Walt Disney Company. You can Follow Phil on Twitter and his blog.
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As a follow up to the recent post “Challenging the Old Media Business Models”  I want to get a bit deeper into the analysis of media business (revenue) models. There are quite a few them which come in different classifications and structures, but i find this diagram organized by Paul Bradshaw most suitable to discuss the subject, mainly because it is very clear, informative and well structured.

Most of these models like advertising, affiliates, premium (“velvet rope”) services have been tried and work pretty well under certain circumstance , but  “Social value” model hasn’t been explored that much or hasn’t been considered as a valuable enough on its own. According to Paul Bradshaw , “Social value” model revenue is generated through social interaction by brand community (in the form of donations, support or spin-off). Read the full story

I am not that much into religion, but was having some thoughts about social media community and it’s Teletubbic vibe or the goodness surrounding it. It brought me to this idea that goodness is very transferable and viral in it’s nature, therefore I’ve decided  to analyze what do social media people have in common with priests and what they could learn from this honourable profession.

We listen

Well we know that social media is all about good listening. Social media people are a bit like the priests in their confessionals, waiting for the users to acknowledge the “sins” about their need and wants, that they could “help” them with the brilliant content, products or services. I think one from the many things we could learn from the priests is that listening is not one way process  – you have to ask the right questions in order to get the right answers.

We preach

Well, I’m just being honest with myself – I love to preach. I bet that there quite a few social media professionals who feels the same way. The blogosphere is an ideal place for that; it’s like a big church where you can push your ideas to so many different audiences. The one thing to remember though, you have always to remember the purpose of your preachment – it’s not about you it’s about what your audience can take from your lecture.

We build communities

Religion is all about community building and transferring the values and beliefs to the community. It sound a lot like what community managers are trying to do for their clients – transferring the emotion, values and belief of the brands to the community. Social media citizens have to remember that building the real functioning community takes a lot of time, work and patience.

We work for a better cause

Ok, I’m under no illusions that blogosphere and social media enthusiast don’t want to earn money, but the thing I like about social media that you can add value for yourself by creating some added value for someone else as well. Everyone is doing what they are doing with some intention – the church leader wants to become a Pope one day as a social media professional wants to reach the new highs in his/her environment, but an important point to remember is how not to forget the main cause – to create value in order to get value.