The Social Side of Productivity

As the number of online communities grows, marketers not there yet may be temped to rush into the fray. Be careful. A headlong approach instead of a well-planned strategy can be “disastrous,” warns Dave Hersh, CEO of Jive Software. Why? A rushed approach can lead to piecemeal, siloed communities that have no integration points. Yes, a company may want to have several communities – for example, for support, feedback, affinity, developers, etc. – that have different goals, but ultimately, those communities should be linked though a holistic strategy (and probably a bit of technology…).

Imagine the potential insight from a set of connected communities that potentially link to an organization’s CRM system as well. Many of today’s online communities are about innovation, Hersh says. The potential for innovation could grow exponentially from a bit of integration.

The fact is, online communities are going to be more valuable if they’re considered a strategic asset and a competitive differentiator. Hersh gave the example of an athletic shoe company that launched an online affinity community around running—all runners welcome, not just current customers. The results are compelling: 40 percent of the non-customer participants on the site converted to the sponsor’s brand within about a year.

Hersh suggests that companies create a comprehensive strategy for their own online communities. He also recommends that companies get involved in existing industry and affinity communities. One benefit of doing so, he says, is to take what you can learn from what is being said there, bring it back to your organization, share it, and act on it. Another is the opportunity to respond openly to customers’ comments, complaints, and suggestions in a setting that potentially has greater impact that responding to one customer individually.

“With online communities companies gain specific data from the point of the problem that they can track through to resolution,” Hersh says, adding that interacting with customers via online communities can significantly improve a company’s responsiveness because the right constituents can see and action on customers’ feedback more quickly.

Hersh called online communities the social side of productivity. I can see why. We’ve written about several companies effectively using online communities to gather feedback, build relationships, and boost customer loyalty. Here are just a few examples: