Online Communities:

10 Things for Marketers to Know

walter.adamson@kinshipdigital.com

m: +61 403 345 632 @adamson

www.kinshipdigital.com

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Online Communities:

10 Things for Marketers to Know

1. It's all about understanding customers better

2. Communities enable the collaborative trend

3. Communities are a path to a bigger goal

4. Community strategy is key

5. Communities are market intelligence

6. Communities give marketing a stronger seat at the leadership table

7. Communities feed brand development

8. Communities enable speed to market

9. You must Plan, Do, Check, Act

10. Communities need to be planned as part of a total social

architecture

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#1 Communities & Marketing are Aligned

It's all about understanding customers better.

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#2 Communities Enable Collaborative Trend

Marketing is becoming a collaborative effort between brands and their customers.

Communities enable and enhance this collaboration.

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#3 Communities are Path to a Bigger Goal

All social initiatives need to be serve a broader goal.

Ideally you have a big vision.

Communities are a path towards that vision. They

themselves are not the goal.

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#4 Community Strategy is Key

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Poor strategy is the #1 cause of failure

#5 Communities are Market Intelligence

Building a large, engaged following of consumers / businesses is a huge asset to any brand.

You can [must] analyze all aspects of the community, content, behaviour to determine the key topics/issues that resonate most and will drive marketing initiatives.

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#6 Communities give Marketing a Stronger

Seat in the Leadership Group

CEOs are saying they want to create a more collaborative environment to change their approach to markets, by developing their products and services and interacting

with their customers.

Communities can position Marketing in a leadership role in this discussion (and action).

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#7 Communities feed Brand Development

Effective use of communities allow you to differentiate your brand, create loyal customers, mine for marketing

insights and influence the market.

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#8 Communities enable Speed to Market

Social platforms including Communities help you scale and create speed that allows you to capture market

share so it’s a competitive differentiator.

It allows you to grow faster, particularly in new emerging markets where you may have a difficult time

connecting otherwise.

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#9 You must Plan Do Check Act

Community Monitoring & Improvement

Monitoring and Analysis is vital.

Continuous Improvement and Strategic Alignment.

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1. Assess

2. Strategise

3. Create

4. Protect

5. Participate

6. Share

7. Engage

8. Monitor

Social

Business

Community Framework

Participating Listening, establishing reputation

(I’m one of you)

Managed Listening, supporting, building

reputation, marketing

Owned Listening, supporting,

building relationships,

collaborating

External

Communities

Closed Network

Internal

Communities

Example: customer communities

Example: channels, members

Example: Intranets, communities of practice

Wikis

#10 Communities need to be Planned

as part of a total Social Architecture

Examples

Examples

Cisco Learning Community (B2B)

• 2m+ members, education, training, hiring

• Has become Industry resource e.g. far more than just Cisco products

• Unrivalled insights into technical needs, HR trends, product innovation

Samsung Nation (B2C)

• Allows Samsung to connect to buyers, otherwise unknown (buy at retail store)

• Strong Gamification and rewards

• Buyers solve problems and become advocates

My Starbucks (B2C)

• Ideation – product innovation looking for new ideas

• Year 1 75,000 ideas, 43 implemented

• Strong advocacy, brand development, product launch success guaranteed

DELL Ideastorm

• Looking for improvements to existing products

• Massive customer contributions to improve products

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