A lot of these figures are coming from a study conducted by Deloitte and Beelinelabs: Tribalization of Business Study
How are companies measuring success? (in order of prevalence)
- Greater awareness (50%)
- Number of new ideas (43%)
- More referrals (25%)
- Increased sales (25%)
- Others…
Biggest obstacles to making communities work (according to survey respondents)
- Getting people to engage
- Finding time to manage the community
This is an interesting point emphasised by the presenters. “Getting people to engage” implies that you are trying to get them to do something you want them to do, which belies the true dynamics of communities. Finding time to manage the community is similar, in that if you are getting the funadementals right, a lot of the work in managing a community will be done by the community itself.
How companies are incorporating communities:
- Usually managed by marketing department, not a job for interns, take it (and resource it) seriously
- 58% of survey respondents are spending less than $50,000 on community management
- Investment in community building is relative, $50,000 may be ample if the fundamentals are right
Takeaway #1: Communities are about delivering game-changing results
- Communities can increase revenue per customer dramatically i.e 50%
- Communities will increase product introduction success ratios
- Communities amplify everything you do – increasing effectiveness and decreasing costs
Takeaway #2:
(missed this one, was too busy twittering, sorry)
Takeaway #3: The need for new management thinking
- Mismatch between community goals and associated investments
- Major gaps between community goals and what is being measured
- Communities have to combine with major talent initiatives
- Communities will transform most business processes. (You can start communities without changing the way you work, but eventually it is going to impact on the way you work)
Takeaway #3.5 : The worst practices enjoy wide adoption
- The build it and they will come fallacy
- The let’s keep it small so it doesn’t move the needle phenomenon
- The not invented here syndrome (especially applicable for newspaper and magazine publishers - people already have a vibrant social network on facebook, myspace, bebo, they do not want to rebuild networks on your site. Engage people where they are.)
Early predictions
- Many community initiatives will continue to fail
- Communities will eventually transform the role of the the CMO
- Early adopters will force industry-wide changes
- Companies will find out how to build predictable communities
Prediction #1 for publishing industry: Have your community cell-phone ready
(*Based on data from Deloitte’s “State of the Media Democracy” Survey, 3rd Edition)
- A third of US consumers are using their cell phone to entertain themselves, over half of Millennials
- Almost 50% of consumers, 40% of Boomers, and a surprising 35% of Matures are interested in ease of access to product information via product bar code scanning on their cell phone/hand-held
- Although a very small percentage, almost 5% of every generaiton considers cell phone advertising as being the MOST influential form of online advertising
Prediction #2 for Publishing: Media will never travel alone
- In order to optimize subscriber and ad revenue potential, media companies must create new product development and advertising strategies
- Package of channels around content, not separate and distinct, but integrated, convergent
Prediction #3 for Publishing: You will need to provide the full capabilities of the digital media menu
- Customizable interface
- Personalized content
- Personalized recommendations
- Extensive content selection from all sources
- Sophisticated content search
- Active/Passive viewing
- Free/Ad supported option
- Supports multiple platforms
- Same menu on each platform
- Transfer content license across platforms
- Integrated cross-platform builling
- Purchase, rental, free w/ads
- Off-line viewing
- Single integrated sign-on
- High speed, real-time streaming
- High reliability
- [Wow, that's a lot to be ready for!]
Key message: “Social is embedded in everything.”
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7 comments
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11 February, 2009 at 10:59 am
James Tolbert
Does anyone know if this online advertising works?
http://i-web-marketing.com
16 February, 2009 at 9:15 pm
genevieve
Terrific that you’re speaking at TOC, Kate!
17 February, 2009 at 2:23 pm
Paul
There’s a lot of fascinating information there. It sounds more like a blueprint for commercial manipulation of communities than how to build one though, Kate. The only viable communities on the internet are ones that evolve naturally. They evolve inside, as subsets, of larger platforms. There is no way of artificial creating a true community and any community of adults that feels it is being ‘managed’ (especially by a corporation) will dissipate instantly. The internet is anarchic in its basic principles of operation and organisation and all these businesses who think they are developing ways of using internet communities to make money are in for a long hard lesson in futility.
19 February, 2009 at 11:28 am
Thursday Linkfest | petermball.com
[...] Eltham has two posts full of notes about Building Online Communities from the Tools of Change for Publishing [...]
20 February, 2009 at 10:01 pm
electricalphabet
Hi James, I haven’t come across that one before. Will check it out…
Kate.
1 March, 2009 at 6:28 pm
Mike
Just passing by.Btw, you website have great content!
_________________________________
Making Money $150 An Hour
7 March, 2009 at 7:39 am
lemnisk
Under the Early Predictions heading, the possibility that “many community initiatives will continue to fail” seems directly related to both the items in Takeaway #3.5 and Paul’s point about puppetmasters (which is somewhat related to the third bullet under 3.5 but otherwise generally absent from what I see here). This appears, however, less of an exploitation blueprint and more a general casing of a new opportunity to do business. (What a difference wording makes!)
Facebook and the other social nets certainly can be vehicles for corporate (mis)management of communities (dubious, hyper-concentrated efforts or neglect), but the fact that companies seek out such clusters of jaded consumers (readers or authors, I guess), that perceive loyalty-via-created-community as negative if that community does not benefit all parties, suggests that, at least in some sense of the word, companies are willing to pander to one’s expectation of participation in place of a passively open mouth or stock purchase. (Now more than ever, maybe: $50,000 or less is a pretty enticing price tag for any initiative in this economy.)
Community content doesn’t require meddling: it requires investment and upkeep. The startup where I work, Creative Byline, posts articles by published fic and non-fic authors, weekly discussion topics on author news and interviews from around the web, and updates on new main-site features on our Facebook page, and we’ve begun expanding the scope of our company blog. If our members appreciate our content, if they are engaged, they tell us by participating in the conversation and our company, or expressing how useful or informative it is or isn’t and what we need to do to improve.
Especially in these times, companies of whatever size must not create communities for the sole purpose of exploiting an asset (or the perception that they are doing so). People will tolerate it now even less than before.
Anyway, Kate, these are great posts. Thanks for documenting the seminar so thoroughly.