The one constant that all social media platforms share is their competition for more loyal, long term and active users.  How do these communities keep their existing users engaged, while simultaneously recruiting new users?  Yelp.com has an advantage over the other platforms and communities with which they compete.  Simply put, they have found the missing link.  Not only have they found it, they are working it like James Brown.

Experiential marketing is their secret.  Experiential marketing creates an emotional attachment with the brand via an in-person interaction or a contest of some sort.  Brands like Sprite and Scion have been doing this very well in the last 5-6 years, but social media companies have not fully embraced it at organization-wide levels; That is, except for Yelp.

Like any other area in marketing (yes, including social media), there has to be 100% buy-in at the top of the organization and an unwavering follow through by the staff when it comes to integrating an experiential strategy.  Yelp does this with aplomb via their official parties.  They have managed to fully bridge the gap between the digital and real worlds through their frequent and consistent parties and events.

It’s simple.  Yelpers (what Yelp calls their community members) feel important.  Taking it a step further, Yelpers truly feel like Yelp gives a damn about them.  They make it even more memorable by granting “Elite” users early and exclusive access to said parties and events.

I’ll give you one example of many that I have experienced with Yelp.  Last week they threw a party at the Museum of Latin American Art (MOLAA) in Long Beach, California to “celebrate” Dia de Los Muertes.  The event was replete with fire dancers, DJ, face painting, free all-night tequila tasting, gratis draft beer, complimentary food from local restaurants, an ice cream truck giving away ice cream bars and an endless supply of Jarritos.  They let the Elite members privately enjoy the party before the rest of the Yelp community was allowed to enter.  In total there were easily 450 people there.

Think about that.  A social media company was able to bring together nearly 500 people at their party on the night before Halloween (one of the biggest party nights of the year).

The interesting part of all of this, is that this Dia de Los Yelpos party was not a 1-off event for them.  They do events like this all of the time all over the USA and London.  Yelpers have come to expect it and Yelp consistently delivers.  Too see how powerful and compelling these events are, this party has a full 5-star rating and has been reviewed more than 80 times in less than a week.  Put in context, local restaurants are thrilled to have 30 4-star reviews of their establishment over the course of a year.

Other social media brands are not delivering these types of experiences and cultivating legions of brand advocates and evangelists like Yelp.  You be the judge.  What’s more compelling to you as a human?

Free homemade Mexican food, organic tequila, meeting new people, tamarind Jarritos and fire dancing?

OR

An updated homepage featuring a newly shaped button?

The website called highDEAS has mastered simplicity.  They feature cannabis drenched ideas from people that are experts in getting high and pontificating about “astronaut weed” and “finding your Romulan” after a big night of partying.  The folks at highDEAS are contributing to a new form of website content to which Texts from Last Night or Overheard in New York would top their respective hats.

Web content, like products from the Industrial and early Information Ages, is evolving at a breakneck pace in an attempt to match pace with our ever-dwindling attention span.  Though more people are understanding and brainstorming on ways to utilize user generated content (UGC), few are doing anything about it.

Along with websites like Fail Blog and Twitter accounts like ShitMyDadSays, highDEAS is delivering content that is highly targeting groups of people that either smoke pot or that have met a weed smoker that pukes-out a “highDEA” .  I fall into the latter.  I don’t smoke pot, but I have met plenty of pot smokers that have ideas that verge on the cusp of brilliance.  No kidding.

As the number of people contracting critical cases of “social networking fatigue” continue to increase, community and social networking sites will have to devise ways to engage people on terms dangerously close to “uber niche”.  Yep, you read that terrible term here first.

Let’s get serious for a second.  Though sites like highDEAS aren’t social networking sites, they compete for the same mind-share that Facebook and Twitter do.

How many people do you know that have been on either end of the “unfriending” trend in Facebook or Twitter?  It’s becoming a big trend that will affect you soon; if it hasn’t already.   Running parallel to this trend (and arguably springing from this trend), is the reality that people are spending less time on Facebook, Yelp, Twitter, etc.  But, they are not closing their collective laptops.  They are choosing to go to other websites.  For lack of a better way of describing it, they are “content surfing”.

…In comes highDEAS serving-up funny UGC that people can’t get anywhere else.  They have the right idea.  In the last few months they have enjoyed 15K hits per month.  For a young brand, they are doing something right.

What other “uber niche” sites have you come across that are getting it right?

First off, I have to state that fully support any sort of movement to reengage our elders.  With that said, MyWay Village has come to help lead the charge by bringing social networking to senior citizens.  You may be thinking that you don’t want your nanah commenting about her tuna melt she made for lunch on your Facebook wall.  Relax.  MyWay Village isn’t equipping our gray haired friends with Twitter, Linked In or Facebook accounts.  They have been created Connected Living.

Connected Living, launched a few months ago in Chicago and Boston, has seen a quick adoption rate among residents at select senior communities; boasting an adoption rate of 66%.  The application gives the users a customized home page that gives them the freedom to choose from any number of activities:  sharing and viewing photos, sending/receiving electronic messages, listening to music and audio books, recording their own memoirs and getting updates from their facility.

To those of us that are younger, this may appear to be nothing more than another illustration an out-of-touch group playing catch-up on technology; akin to the first time your parents or grandparents purchased a VCR.  Social networking for seniors is something all together different.  Products like Connected Living enables seniors, who are notoriously analogue, to communicate in new ways.  Think about that for a second.  Imagine the joy your grandfather or mom would feel if they were introduced to a communication tool that helped give them a louder, more creative and more up-to-date voice in a society that is notorious for silencing seniors.  Better late then never!  We love MyWay Village’s mission statement:

To enhance the lives of seniors by empowering them to connect with family, friends and community.

We look forward to more progressions in social media like this.  Seniors have a wealth of wisdom to share with us and amongst themselves.  We’ll definitely be on the lookout for Connected Living at my grandmother’s assisted living facility.