Deloitte, along with Beeline Labs and the Society of New Communications Research, has come out with a study showing the current challenges and rewards of today’s online corporate created “communities”. It’s created a decent amount of chatter, which is not surprising considering that this industry is in its nascent stages and everyone is trying to figure it out.
The survey, entitled “2008 Tribalization Survey” gathered information from more than 140 responding organizations in the business to business, business to consumer, and non-profit sectors. Some of the corporate communities have more than 10,000 members; others have less than 100. Those numbers weren’t put into context from what I can see.
I’ve looked around at the commentary on this and have been able to glean a decent amount of info. Much of what I’ve found confirms conventional thought (or at least my thoughts) with the smattering of a few surprises.
Ben Worthen of the Wall Street Journal Biztech blog starts out by writing…
“One of the hot investments for businesses these days is online communities that help customers feel connected to a brand. But most of these efforts produce fancy Web sites that few people ever visit. The problem: Businesses are focusing on the value an online community can provide to themselves, not the community.”
…but he doesn’t offer much supporting evidence for his opinion with the exception of siting stats on membership – 35% of respondees have less than 100 members; less than 25% have more than 100%. Those numbers show no context. But it’s my guess that he’s probably correct in that many efforts are too company-centric and not customer-centric. That’s a common criticism that community developers should take heed. While I won’t go so far to say that communities are 100% about the members/customers, I will say that they are about the customer first and the way those customers benefit from being part of the community. Companies obviously have to expect to benefit, but they need to do it through the eyes of their members and not by dominating the conversation.
I talked to Lois Kelly of Beeline to get some clarification on things. She blogs over at FogHound and is author of the book Beyond Buzz. It seems most of the respondents to this survey were relatively satisfied with their community developments at this point. But one of the biggest problems companies have had could perhaps be derived from a lack of having a clear purpose. She explained,”Some companies think that all you have to do is set up the community with the technology, and that’s it”. How true. Yet another version of “build it and they will come”.
Her colleague Francois Gossieaux noted,
This suggests to me that many companies are jumping on the bandwagon of community development without a roadmap. Or perhaps a roadmap that they’ve developed without any outside help from consultants who know what they’re doing. Sort of like the client who loves the new look of their ad agency created website – it’s all flash on the front page and now search engines can’t find it.
One of the major problems organizations had in creating effective communities is that 45% of respondents found that it had become difficult to find the time to manage them. Indeed, 30% of them had only one person working part time on these initiatives. In most cases, that’s clearly not enough. And, if an organization is simply pumping out marketing messages, then all the time in the world won’t save it.
My guess is that, in cases like this, management is taking a relatively young staffer and shoving them in the role, telling them what to say and how to say it.
The greatest difficulty found was that 51% felt it was difficult to get members involved. I’m going to give a lot of these communities a pass on this, to an extent. A lot of people sign up for stuff and never play an active role; others act as the “lurkers”, gaining benefits but contributing little. But 51% is too high and these organizations will need to learn how to create greater involvement.
About a third (34%) have had a hard time attracting members. This one is hard to put in context. There can be so many factors from the community tech structure to the industry that the community is in to the demographics of the likely members. But I see that number and I recognize an opportunity for all of us to capitalize on…as long as we understand the potential member base. What makes them tick. That’s why demographics can be so important.
A lot of the news was good. In these early stages, community members are helping the brand from what they gain in the community via word of mouth (35%) and increasing brand awareness (28%). Not sure how those were measured though and Lois didn’t either off the top of her head, but intangible ROI is still ROI.
I was surprised though, that only 24% felt that their efforts increased customer loyalty. It’s not the number per se, but it’s the fact that I would think loyalty would come before awareness and WOM that expand beyond the user base. Hmmm…
There are a lot of take aways from this study. Some that stand out:
Companies need to understand beforehand what the concept of community is about before they dip their toes in them.
It’s not about the technology, it’s not about how it’s an automatic thing to join, it’s not a marketing message delivery system.
You need to have a dedicated person who understands what they’re doing leading the way.
Membership benefits can be a constantly evolving thing.
A marketing plan for a community must elicit interest form member who will take an active interest in the success of the community. In fact, two of the most important benefits for members mentioned were the ability for community members to connect with other like-minded people (54%) and the ability for members to help others (43%) – a sure sign of selflessness.
In the end, Lois said that the community itself is not there as a direct moneymaking entity. She’s right. And that may be why companies are struggling with it.
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