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Went to Forrester, but the doc is not available for individual download...will it?
Just curious...wanted to jump on the chance to get it...
Thanks for this question: "Are we suggesting that companies build their own community, or are these overall best practices"
Answer: This is an overall best practices document, it applies to companies that have built their own community platform, or those that have joined existing ones on Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, or others.
The second document in this series is coming soon. it answers WHEN a company should build their own community platform, and WHEN they should join an existing one, and includes some very strategic recommendations.
In the long run, companies will end up doing both, but for the next few years, expect some segmentation.
Thanks for the critique, keep me updated with your community plans.
(& happy valentine's day too :)
I work with Jeremiah at Forrester. Thank you for pointing out that the link wasn't working correctly! We've taken care of it and you should be able to individually purchase and download the report now at: http://www.forrester.com/go?docid=44795
Tracy
-Jeremiah, Charlene did something cool a few months ago. She had a deal with bloggers that if they promised to blog the report (without giving the farm away.) Maybe you could try something similar?
RE: Charlene - if bloggers promised to blog the report, they could get a free copy of it. Although knowing you, you've probably already had this conversation with the head office. ;)
You're welcome to blog what you thought (esp if you don't agree) of the report, of course without giving away the sauce.
Since I interviewed 17 community type folks, they will all get a copy of the report (standard practice) nearly all of them are bloggers, and many of them are pretty well known, like Jake McKee, Bill Johnston, Shel Israel, Connie Benson, etc.
"First of all, many companies have a hard time being successful with their community if they want to control it too tight. The most successful companies let go of the control and acted more like a host, rather than a policeman. Secondly, many companies had a hard time kick-starting a community, just because you build it, doesn’t mean they’ll come."
I was able to access the report through my MBA library. My question is that you talk about influencing senior management. Specifically you call to show management the ROI of an online community. My question is how to quantify such an intangible effect as building a strong community. I intuitively understand the benefits, but I am having trouble quantifying the benefits.
I am thinking from the position of establishing a new online community strategy in a company that does not have one. It will be very hard to quantify in this situation, yet it will be one of our most important sells.
Overall great effort! Keep up the great work!
"does the report in any way address online communities for physical products"
Yes. Since communities are about people first, it doesn't matter what the products (or services are)
"Specifically you call to show management the ROI of an online community. My question is how to quantify such an intangible effect as building a strong community."
Great question, In the ROI section of the report, I spell out costs on left and benefits on right, you can make predictions on the values at the start of the project and fill it out in specifics as you move forward in real time.
There comes a point in every company where online social communities will just normalize, and everyone will say 'duh' this is no-brainer, improving communication with customers is a core function of every company.
It's just like email a few years ago, scary at first, but we no longer measure the value of email, we just know it's place and value.
"There comes a point in every company where online social communities will just normalize, and everyone will say ‘duh’ this is no-brainer, improving communication with customers is a core function of every company."
--
This gets at a point I've been trying (somewhat unsuccessfully) to articulate for a few months - online communities are simply the next iteration of customer communications.
Phone > Direct mail > Corporate Website > Email > Blog > Customer Community.
The communications leap that comes with community is that it's 3-way communications (Company to Customer, Customer to Company and Customer to Customer).
Yes. Since communities are about people first, it doesn’t matter what the products (or services are)'
Uh, I vehemently disagree. Has your team specifically looked at communities for, say, devices? Ilounge, Slingcommunity, AVSForum, TivoCommunity, etc? They are *VASTLY* different than a Twitter community. They grow differently, they converse differently, they are very dissimilar, and should not be lumped into the same bucket, at all.
Can you give some specifics on how a product based community is different than any other community?
They both have interactions, and people gathered around focused on similar interests.
Not to take the conversation in too far of a different direction, but I like the marketing aspect of what you just did. You've used the site to build an active following and for many old-school "info-media" companies done something anathema: given "content" away for free (your posts).
Coming from one of those old-school info-media companies that struggles with this type
It's certainly been said before, but these types of activities (community building, free content) are going to be the future of marketing for many companies. Moving beyond the canned whitepaper or brutal cold-calling, customers are going to flock to companies that provide value as part of the conversation that results in a sale. These companies that paradoxically give things away are going to reap the benefits in increased sales.
Out of curiosity - it'd be neat to see if your report's two week sales outperform other new report's over the same period (two weeks post launch).
-Tony
The goal I'm trying to is to demonstrate my passion over this topic, I guess if folks need more help, they know they can always ask for my time as an analyst to really dig in.
We've a whole team of social media experts standing by ready to help if need be.
The branding and messaging value you describe is really just coming into view to the average enterprise. This idea has really just taken hold this year, so you're on the cutting edge! A few years ago, the ideas you present just wouldn't have made sense to many people.
Great work!
I like the conceptual model of "Life Process of a Successful Community" and would add to that that the hockey-stick growth isn't always so consistent. Most of the high-activity communities that I have helped to create have been more of an upward growth with large spikes of activity that were in direct relationship with major product and/ or marketing initiatives. Often, communities are unprepared to deal with increased community activity spikes and all of the associated needs that accompany it (site performance, moderation needs, spammers, increased support, etc).
On the other side of the coin are companies that believe that "if we build it, they will come" and we know that successful communities require planning, management and marketing commitment.
I really appreciate the effort you take to review and cover the social media 'space'. I consider myself a contrarian, meaning I'm more sceptical than most about the 'upside' to social media, at least from a commercial perspective. I do my own research into this space, with a specific focus on the Australian market (www.victrixmedia.com.au).
One concept I have developed is the Id Index, which categorises social media types, which in turn determines their effectiveness as an advertising/marketing vehicle.
I would appreciate feedback from you or your readers re: this concept. I think we all have an obligation to question the validity of any technology, no matter how painful the findings.
Regards,
AR
sind wir zufällig Kunde von Forrester?
Viele Grüße
Susanne
@24. Jeremy Toeman - while the technical and interaction dynamics of something like the Tivo forum vs. twitter vs. a blog might be different in various ways, at the core the social dynamics of people grouping up share more similarities than differences.
d
My name is Emil Sarnogoev, I'm Skalfa eCommerce, a social tech
company, http://www.skalfa.com/
I believe we just launched something your readers would like to know
about - a free hosted social network site builder that allows to build
a convincing community home within like 10 minutes.
Feel free to take a look at http://wackwall.com/
Our coverage: http://www.skalfa.com/press/meet-wackwall.html
As I noted in the post, the service is early beta and we are working
on the overall integrity non-stop. There are also features to be
developed. In current state though it gives a good idea of what we are
about. Second look also demonstrates users' benefits of managing their
multi-network presence at one place.
I would love to answer your questions if you have any. We want to
improve so I appreciate any feedback, commentary, and analysis that
your blog is famous for.
Thanks in advance,
Emil
The specific metrics are key in my view - both in terms of measuring ultimate sucess but also to advance the community across the lifecycle stages. For example, which are the right metrics to target for each stage - e.g. # hits, # inbound links, # return visits, etc? And how does one set the right target values for a given community?
Thanks again - happy to blog about.
We often measure by activity in the last 30 days. The specific metrics to measure your success will vary on your objective. You've forgotten to mention quite a few other attributes such as interaction, number of comments, influence, and perhaps very importantly: sentiment and tone.