Training & Strategy | by Danny Meadows-Klue
Online communities may have been with us for more than twenty years, but it’s only since 2000 that the media and marketing industries have uncovered their power. Now the race is on to create and nurture these communities; get the formula right and you’re onto a winner
For most of us the earliest experience of online communities was deep in the AOL or scrolling through the newsgroups back in the 1980s. When the web came along it raised the scope of what was possible and made everything easy for the viewer, but only in the last few years did the commercial models behind community publishing emerge. Suddenly it’s no longer just the review sites like eBay, the friendship communities like Habbo Hotel, or the virtual worlds of online gamers. Every brand wants to create their own online community and from Dove to Mini, Charles Swab to STA Travel, the scaffolding is going up and armies of community builders have been deployed.
Why it’s ‘the big deal’
All this enthusiasm is well grounded because communities are a publishing model unique to the internet. They’re not something copied from an offline media channel; they’re digital natives that grew from core strengths of the internet. The explosive growth of MySpace, GameSpot and FriendsReunited is the product of releasing a huge demand that was pent-up. Online social networks harness the connections we all have and combine them with our eagerness to talk and listen. Anchor this around a specialist topic and you have a focus, put it on a web page with a simple ‘point and click’ interface and everyone can join.
Engagement for advertisers
For web publishers, communities deliver audience, traffic and activity, but for advertisers they deliver something even more powerful: engagement. Brands successfully nurturing their own communities are creating a home for their customers; enabling conversations in familiar surroundings - and with the right sort of people. Like all good hosts the brand looks after their guests, and though they may not lead the conversation, no one doubts whose house it is. The brand halo effect is palpable and the conversations just get louder. Get the formula right and it’s all self sustaining. Like email, messenger tools and search, social networks are part of the core group of communication channels in the digital networked society. Will they grow much more? The truth is that the real growth hasn’t even started yet.
New world; new skills
In the early nineties there was an interesting mantra in web publishing: ‘Build it and they will come’. It was true - up to a point. It worked because in the early days of the web there just weren’t that many places to go so anything that went up enjoyed an initial surge of viewers, a good write up in the trade press, and the novelty of a website often masked weaknesses in the benefits it gave. But simply being there wasn’t enough to guarantee the audience’s attention, after all why should you spend half an hour with a website rather than going out with your friends? Exactly the same is true in communities, and it’s concerning to see many firms focus just on the building blocks of the house rather than looking after the guests.
Engagement has to be earned and re-earned. There needs to be real purpose behind the community and a clear audience that will benefit. Just like all parts of marketing that proposition needs to be clear and communicated effectively. It also needs to be accurate, which means that as the host you need to bring in the right people to get the community started. The discussion may need some help: blending in content to prime the debate. And above all the community needs to be nurtured and the conversation encouraged. Get the formula right and you have an engine that then runs itself. Miss a critical element and your guests silently slip out of the room. Online social networking should be part of almost every firm’s web strategy, but get it wrong and a terrible thing happens: nothing.
Need more?
In our report about online social networks we look at the challenges web publishers face and the issues they to tackle. If you need more support building your own network then why not ask us for our one day workshops:
· Digital Community Academy – A one day intensive course to get your whole team aligned behind an online community goal
· Digital Blogging Academy – A one day craft skills course for developing and maintaining blog based communities
· Digital Community Strategy – A one day strategy workshop to take your ideas about community and turn them into a clear business plan
