WATERTOWN, Mass., Oct. 4 /PRNewswire/ -- New advice for companies
looking for proven ways to inject social networking into their marketing
programs: build communities -- and make them private, keep them small, and
treat members as advisors to the company. These best practices and several
others are offered by Communispace based on its experience building and
facilitating over 225 online customer communities for global corporations.
(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20060118/NEW020LOGO )
According to Communispace, online customer communities can help
companies deeply connect with their customers and prospects, capture
marketing insights, and build brand advocates. But some of the most
successful techniques for running communities are counterintuitive for
marketers.
"We've found that panels, chatrooms, blogs and focus groups just skim
the surface compared to what marketers can learn from continuously talking
with people in their communities," said Diane Hessan, Communispace CEO.
"We've also observed that companies' instincts on how to manage their
communities are often too self-serving, relying on research techniques
rather than social networking engagement principles. The key is creating an
intimate sense of community among people with common interests, and then
tapping into the community in multiple ways, through a variety of
methodologies, to get into the hearts and minds of customers."
Communispace's best practices for managing online customer communities:
1. Invite the right people, keep it private and small. When you find
people who have a common interest and put them together in a
community (fewer than 400 people), their energy explodes. Screen
people to uncover interests, passions, and willingness to
participate, and avoid using only simple demographic and geographic
criteria. Second, keep the community private. More of the right
people are likely to participate in private communities than public
communities because they feel more comfortable in an environment
where they know what they say will only be seen by other identified
community members, the facilitator and company representatives.
2. View members as advisors to the company. Think of community members
as valuable advisors to your company, not as a market research panel.
When you treat community members as advisors they will go to amazing
lengths to help your company -- and for very little compensation.
People in one of Communispace's shoppers communities recently drove
over 100 miles to check out and compare competitive stores despite
high gas prices. An important note: be sure to let your community
advisors know how your company is using their ideas. The more you
reciprocate, the more people will help your company.
3. Find the social glue, make it member-centric. The more focused the
community is on topics of shared interest and relevance to its
members, the more involved they are likely to be. Don't base a
community on just your product or company. Rather, find the
commonalities among potential members that are also relevant to your
business, and ask people for help in better understanding that
particular topic or domain. For example, one pharmaceutical client
is exploring the emotions behind a disease and how people make
treatment decisions rather than just testing drug ads. A financial
services client is exploring not just how people feel about their
brand or even just their category, but how and why members have come
to consider themselves consumer activists.
4. Work at building the community. Communispace clients are often
stunned when they learn that, on average, 68 percent of community
members are actively participating within 48 hours of joining the
community. One reason for such high participation is this best
practice: create community building activities that help people
quickly understand what the community is about, make them feel
comfortable participating, and allow them the means over time to get
to know one another. Some of these community building best practices
are creating "rituals" like Tuesday night chats or "random thoughts"
weekly polls asking people to post personal profiles, share personal
stories relevant to the community's focus, or upload photos, like
pictures of their favorite pet or the inside of their medicine
cabinet.
5. Be genuine, encourage candor. The community's facilitator should set
a genuine, open, and candid style and tone for the community. When a
new member starts a conversation, make a big deal about how much you
value the comment as this will reinforce the behavior. For example,
the facilitator may respond, "Hey, great idea. We want to hear
everything so please say what you want." Or the reinforcement can be
a spontaneous award. Make a conscious effort to give people
permission to be honest and say what they really think.
6. Just plain ask. Companies often over-think how to phrase a question
or issue to community members. The best way is to just ask, simply
and straightforwardly. One client came up with a dozen ways to try
to understand why African Americans didn't use their products.
Communispace advice: just ask African Americans flat out "why?" A
retail client was worried about customers' reactions to a number of
store closings. The best advice: post the press release and ask
members what they have to say about the closings. Another technique
that is consistently successful is to ask members these questions:
"What are we missing? Is there something we didn't ask about that
you wanted to share?" Members almost always say something useful.
7. Pay even more attention to what members initiate. While companies
regularly poll members and ask them to take brief surveys and answer
questions, the best insights often come from discussions started by
members. How members talk to each other about how an issue or
product "fits" into their lives can be incredibly revealing, as is
how members influence one another. Within 24 hours of launching an
investment community, there were 11 different dialogue topics
underway and only four of those had been seeded by the community
facilitators. The rest were created by members around issues they
care about. Listen more than ask.
8. Don't squelch the negative. One of the most common mistakes marketers
make is to try to squelch conversations about negative feedback. "We
can't let them talk about that!" is a common reaction. However, some
of the best lessons come from hearing about those things that annoy,
disappoint or outrage customers. Encourage members to give the good
bad and ugly.
9. Don't ask too much, too often. As marketers get to know their
community, many become overly-enthusiastic about the ability to ask
customers all the time, any time, about everything -- new product
ideas, advertising concepts, competitor moves. Don't ask members for
too much too often or they will become fatigued.
10. Use the right mix of technologies and methodologies, and keep
experimenting. Make sure the community is built on multiple
underlying technologies and methodologies so that people aren't stuck
just answering surveys or posting to message boards, and so you can
mine the insights with the right analytics. Engage members through a
variety of functions: conduct live chats, create visual member
profiles, use icons to classify discussion replies, upload
advertisements; ask members to review products, keep diaries.
Communispace recommends blending a range of methodologies and modes
of expression including ethnographic, storytelling, mystery shopping,
role playing, video diaries, and polling. Similarly, keep
experimenting with ways to more deeply involve people, create a
richer community experience, and analyze what the community's
conversations mean to marketing strategies.
About Communispace
Communispace Corporation (http://www.communispace.com), headquartered
in Watertown, Massachusetts, is a leading marketing technology and services
firm that specializes in creating online communities used by major
corporations to build relationships with customers that produce continuous
insights, foster co-innovation and increase loyalty. Founded in 1999, the
company has created more than 225 customer communities for global
corporations including: Kraft, Hewlett-Packard, Charles Schwab, Hallmark,
Unilever, GlaxoSmithKline, Avon, Starwood Hotels, General Mills, the
Chicago Tribune, PepsiCo, and many more.
SOURCE Communispace Corporation
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Related links:
http://www.communispace.com
Photo Notes:
NewsCom: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20060118/NEW020LOGO
AP Archive: http://photoarchive.ap.org
PRN Photo Desk, photodesk@prnewswire.com
CONTACT:
Janet Swaysland, +1-617-549-9366,
jswaysland@foghound.com, or Lois Kelly, +1-401-333-5464,
lkelly@foghound.com both of Foghound for Communispace
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