A great article in the Harvard Business Review by Nilofer Merchant (@nilofer) talks about how TED lost control of its identity by not having a solid structure for their events. TED relies on their volunteer community to plan and hosts TED events all over the world. It went from 279 events in 2009 to 2,733 in 2012. To handle this growth, the TED organization licensed their format and platform for free so anyone could host an event. This brand extension, which was uncontrolled by the TED organization, started to degrade the brand. What was once a must attend event, to hear the most innovative and creative ideas, became a diluted and laughable side show with speakers talking about pseudoscience topics (like “plasmatics,” crystal healing, and Egyptian psychoaromatherapy). The blogosphere blew-up with leading community voices suggesting the end of TED.

 How’d TED respond? By Listening Loudly. They looked beyond the initial negative comments to find the bigger message. They started to engage in online conversations and not just react to the comments. They kept the conversations going until they reached the broader message. They posted on prominent websites to signal that they were listening and that they understood that they needed a stronger solution. So what did they do? They put in policies and procedures on how to stage an event and who can be approved to present. What was once a 10 step guideline became a multi-page planner with rules on branding, messaging, sponsorship, and probably most important – speaker selection.

 The article goes in more detail on how they realigned their messaging and community and how they are committed to staying an “open” forum. The main idea I received from this is that if companies are using social media or growing online communities, they need to know that these are real people who want to be a part of your company (from some reason). They find value in being associated with you. What a company does online needs to stay real. They need to have a plan on how they respond to online communities and be careful not to just send out “official” canned, automated responses to comments. Cultivating a community can rapidly grow a company but remember that your community needs to feel that they are being listened too and valued as a part of your community and not just marketed or sold too.