Using online communities in business

Artesia whitepaper, September 2008

(c) Artesia ltd., 2008

Using online communities in business

"'Build a great environment, and they will come' has been the attitude of technologists, who think everything runs on physics. Instead brands and developers should think, 'Build a great community and they will come.'" -- Steve Prentice, VP of Gartner Research, July 2008

Social networking platforms are Online communities are a part of social media - usermore popular than pornography. focused communication, using their preferred
- TIME, October 2007 communication channels. While building online communities is not a universal solution for all companies and brands, they can be a powerful business tool. They can help transform all parts of your business by engaging customers during product development, spreading word of your services and products to target users and fostering sales, enabling users a degree of self-support to streamline your customer service department or assist with the enterprise collaboration and coordination. This whitepaper is an introduction to using online communities in business and includes: The basics of online communities Community types and platforms Online communities in business Quick-start guide to building your online community Examples of business online communities

Social media is a global phenomenon happening in all markets regardless of wider economic, social and cultural deelopment.
- Universal McCann Social Media Tracker Wave3

In the age of information overload, communities are a great way for users to filter information about services and products and for companies to stay in touch with their customers, business partners and employees.

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What is a community?
Online communities are a natural way of people connecting to each other, communicating and sharing information. The users have long ago embraced the potential of internet to join niche groups from all over the world; and in recent years, many companies have discovered the business potential of fostering an online community or connecting to an existing one. There are several community types and platforms, which we will discuss in the following chapters. The original community platform was the forum. Since then, new social networking and community technologies have allowed users many ways of connecting - from software platforms for real friends or business partners, like Facebook or LinkedIn, to bite-sized communications with friends and strangers via micro-blogs and tools like Twitter or Plurk. Virtual world technologies also offer exciting new ways of building communities through increased user immersion. IBM, Dell and Cisco Systems were among the first to establish a presence in Second Life and have been followed by many companies with varied success. (More information is in our Virtual worlds whitepaper). The veritable jungle of community and social networking tools presents a challenge for companies trying to get in touch with their online communities. Choosing the right tools for the job is crucial - and so is preparing the right community strategy.

Dell island in Second Life

14 % of consumers trust advertisements. 78% of people trust the recommendations of other consumers* other community members.

*Source: Nielsen Trust in advertising report, October 2007

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Community types
Communities consist of people sharing a motivation to communicate. Based on the motivation, we distinguish the following community types: Communities of purpose are communities of people who are going through the same process or are trying to achieve a similar objective. Such communities serve a functional purpose, smoothing the path of the member for a limited period surrounding a given activity.* For example, Intuit sponsors the Tax Almanac wiki, where anyone can find and contribute to this resource for tax information. Communities of interest are communities of people who share a common interest or passion. These people exchange ideas and thoughts about the given passion, but may know (or care) little about each other outside of this area.* For example, Fujifilm recently launched a social network to build a community of photo enthusiasts around its newest camera. Communities of practice are formed by users who share a common practice, which is the focus of most conversations.* For example, Visa launched The Visa Business Network application on Facebook to connect! small business users and to help them promote their businesses to a larger community. Communities of circumstance are formed by users sharing a circumstance, for example parents of teenagers or residents of a certain area. They are considered the weakest of communities in terms of the relationship depth. For example, the Todays Parent magazine hosts a community for the parents. Knowing the community type is a crucial first step for enterprises when defining community strategy and tools.
* Source: Wikipedia

Communities and social media represent a fundamental change in the way people communicate among themselves - and with businesses.
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Community platforms
max Virtual worlds Forums Service-specific (Amazon, IMDB)

Depth of interaction

Enterprise collaboration min Number of community members

max

The second step in defining the community strategy and tools is defining the target community size and depth of interaction. A useful rule of thumb is More members, less interaction; if your community is geared towards end users who number in thousands, its sensible to focus toward adding specific added value to community members (like recommendations). If, on the other hand, your community will number in hundreds, your users will get to know the others better and adding a deeper relationship tool tool like a general purpose forum might make sense. Another option is to divide the users into sub-groups, which can then engage in a more focused discussion. For example, while IMDB has an impressive amount of users, the granular nature of its forums, based on a specific movie, allow users with the same interests to congregate and communicate. Same goes for Amazon - while their users are incredibly diverse, chances are that the users buying the same books will have a lot in common - the fact Amazon wisely users to foster additional sales with Customers who bought this book also bought... Starting from scratch is seldom necessary; you can connect to an existing community platforms like Facebook or LinkedIn, create your own on a hosted community service like Ning or SocialGo or host your own using content oriented platforms (CMS) or social networking oriented ones like People Aggregator. Recently, virtual world platforms have emerged - both business-oriented, like Forterra OLIVE, to universal virtual worlds like Second Life.

Amazon.com

Forterra OLIVE

Most communities are created bottom-up, not topdown. Encourage and enable your users to form communities or connect to existing ones - it will be much easier than creating them on demand.

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Online communities in business Product development

Using online communities, you can engage your customers and business partners during the product or service development stage. This allows your company to cut expenses for market research, enables a faster development cycle and better matching with market needs. Among the more known examples are Dell Ideastorm which has attracted more than 10.000 ideas and suggestions from users in the few years since its inception, and Starbucks MyStarbucksIdea so that customers can submit ideas! for the company! which are then voted on by other users, the best of which will be implemented by the company.

Sales and marketing

Online communities enable companies to maintain a closer relationship with their customers. That translates into a better market fit, more effective marketing and bigger sales. Jeep connects with customers via a! community page! with links to photos on Flickr, the companys MySpace and Facebook pages and list enthusiast groups.

User support
User support communities enable your users to help each other, which saves your company time and money. Apple, Intel and others are already using the next level of user support.

Enterprise collaboration
Your employees are most probably already using social networking platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. But these tools are not just for personal use - your employees could use them to enable simpler collaboration and better relationships with their coworkers and business partners. IBM, JetBlue and Serena Software are among the companies pioneering the new way of enterprise collaboration.

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Quick guide to community building

1. Define the goal
Your company resources probably have limits, so its advisable to start small. Find the most promising community starting point and decide on your goal. What value will you provide to the users and what value will you receive? What kind of a community is it?

2. Define the users

Based on the goal, define the target users. What kind of social technologies and community platforms do they use and how active are they in the online communities? Knowing your users will allow you to choose the right community platform to suit their wants and needs.

3. Define the strategy

Based on the community type, the goal and the users, define your community strategy. How will you attract the users to your community? How will you make them stay? Define the metrics you will use to gauge success. Watch them closely and adjust your strategy if needed.

4. Define the project team

Your employees are sure to include some active online community members. Make them part of the project team and use their input. Another crucial part is management support of the project.

5. Get in touch!
Keep a close eye on your community and quickly adapt to users needs. Do not set up a web page or platform and forget about it; constant presence and communication are the foundation of success.

Contact us for more information about building online communities!

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About Artesia
Artesia is a start-up company, focusing on the enterprise use of social media, online communities and virtual worlds. We firmly believe that in the inter-connected business world of today and tomorrow, the successful companies will be the ones that will use the evolving social media, online community and virtual world technologies to improve dialogue and add value to their customers, business partners and employees. Making sense of the jungle of social technologies can be hard. Our Artesia SocialMatch methodology helps our clients define potential value for the users and the company - which parts of the business processes to enhance using social tools, define the best tools for the project based on target users social profiles, develop the custom software, if needed, train the company employees in the usage of the new tools and help them in the crucial first months of the project. We were invited to present the SocialMatch methodology at the Mindtrek 2008 conference in Finland. Artesia has built or optimized online communities for clients on various platforms, including a Second Life community for Slovenias public broadcaster and a web community for the Technology park of Ljubljana and its 150 member companies. Our consulting services are completely adaptable to your needs - we have worked on projects ranging from a few brainstorming sessions and a recommendation document to year-long engagements with development of custom software. Wed be glad to help your company, too. Jan Isakovic, CEO: jan@artesia.si, LinkedIn Profile, Skype: artesia-jan Alja Sulcic, platform expert: alja@artesia.si, LinkedIn profile, Skype: alja-skype
Artesia ltd., Iztokova 16, 1215 Medvode, Slovenia, office: +386 590 64-063

Other Artesia Whitepapers: Introduction to virtual worlds Building online communties

Artesia SocialMatch is a trademark of Artesia ltd. All other trademarks and trade names are properties of their respective owners. (c) Artesia 2008

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Examples of business communities*

Cadence recently relaunched its!website that now prominently!promotes the companys!community. Dell leverages a variety of social media platforms for customer engagement, including an island in the virtual world of Second Life. Fujifilm recently launched a social network to build a community of photo enthusiasts around its newest camera. H&R Block created a Facebook fan site to aggregate its social media activities, engage customers and offer tax advice/resources. HSBC built the HSBC Business Network to connect entrepreneurs using blogs, videos and forums. Intel has also developed!many social media touch points with its!software communities, which includes blogs, Twitter and virtual worlds. Intuit sponsors the Tax Almanac wiki, where anyone can find and contribute to this resource for tax information. Jeep connects with customers via a!community page!with links to photos on Flickr, the companys MySpace and Facebook pages and a list enthusiast groups. National Geographic uses Googles new virtual world, Lively, to bring people together around its new show, LA Hard Hats. Nike started a social community on Loopd to connect athletes interested in surfing, BMX bike racing and!similar activities!with the brand. Nike is also active with its iPod running add-on community which allows users to share results with other runners all over the world. Sears partnered with MTV to create!a social network around Back to School shopping. Starbucks started MyStarbucksIdea so that customers can submit ideas!for the company!which are then voted on by other users, the best of which will be implemented by the company. Toyota started its own virtual world to promote its products in Japan (site is in Japanese). Visa launched The Visa Business Network application on Facebook to connect!small business users and to help them promote their businesses to a larger community.

* Source: Mashable

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