A Growing Role for Social Media

A recent blog post by Forrester analyst Jeremiah Owyang on his report “Online Community Best Practices” has generated an interesting comment thread that not only contains the sorts of tips teased in the title, but also highlights current thinking about communities as platforms for both media and marketing.

The post is primarily an ad for the full report, which is only available to Forrester clients (I haven’t read it). That document is based on interviews with 17 community leaders and aims to uncover commonalities in successful online communities. However, Owyang shares a few high-level tips for free. “Above all,” he advises, “remember that control is in the hands of the members, so put their needs first, build trust, and become an active part of the community.” The most successful communities were created by people who “acted more like a host, rather than a policeman,” Owyang observes.

Once they launch a community many companies face hurdles making it grow, he continues. Owyang recommends thinking of a community as a product in development. To build and grow it you need to define the objective, create a roadmap, assemble the right team, and be prepared to adjust plans as needed. To maximize the chances of success launch the community with backing from its most enthusiastic members and stay engaged as it grows, he advises.

The blog also shares a slide from the full report that correlates various stages in the community’s lifecycle to different growth rates. In the early strategy and research phases growth is slow. Member activity ramps up steeply beginning with launch and proceeding through kick-start, growth, and ongoing management—what Owyang calls the community’s “adolescence.” After a time, following the classic “S-curve” of product adoption, the community reaches “maturity,” when increases in activity are only incremental. At this point the sponsor’s role shifts to ongoing management and continual improvements, Owyang says.

As enlightening as Owyang’s brief summary of the report are some of the comments it generated. Among the highlights:

• Unrealistic expectations can doom a community project. It’s important to get everyone on board with achievable expectations early in the process
  
• Focus on engaging, useful content instead of pushing your brand objectives too hard
  
• Get management on board with a community by demonstrating ROI
  
• Communities are about people first; the underlying products or services aren’t really important
  
• Successful communities don’t succeed on their own, they require planning, management and marketing commitment
  
• Community growth may not always be a smooth curve; often there are big spikes that correlate with, for example, new product releases or marketing initiatives. It’s important to anticipate spikes and be prepared to deal with the issues they create, such as site performance, moderation and support needs, and spam.

Both Owyang and his readers also share insights into the future direction and value of the social media movement. Owyang foresees it becoming a core business function, almost like email. At some point, he says, “online social communities will just normalize, and everyone will say ‘duh’ this is no-brainer, improving communication with customers is a core function of every company.” A commenter agrees, “online communities are simply the next iteration of customer communications,” one that empowers members to interact directly to one another, in addition to dialogue with the community host. Another reader ventures that communities are “the future of marketing for many companies.”

Having both started and managed online communities I agree with these insights and am glad to see more high-level thought and discussion around community dynamics. Above all, anyone contemplating using a community for marketing or content generation needs to do so not reactively--because it’s a fad or because a competitor has one—but as a thoughtful and purposeful attempt to solve specific business problems, such as the cost or content or brand engagement. Communities both large and small are rapidly rising features in the online landscape; social networking is joining ecommerce and media as a true wealth-making “killer app” of the digital age. For those of us making it happen it’s exciting to join the discussion about the big picture and help frame the vision of how best to channel this powerful force for change.