Community

The primary focus of the research was on evaluating how well communities took advantage of best practices to strengthen customer engagement. We were somewhat surprised to find that only 36% were utilizing a majority of community best practices. Another finding was even more startling—60% of the communities showed no signs of active community management by the brand sponsor.

Following are examples of customer engagement best practices, missed opportunities and lessons to be learned from representative online communities in each category.

Social Experimentation

Brands in this classification were well-intentioned, but usually misguided, as to how to meet customer expectations and take advantage of their participation. They often have community tabs, tools, gadgets and even Facebook and YouTube links—but there’s no “there” there. Visitors to these communities have few opportunities to share, learn and interact with each other or even with community managers.

Social experimentation was more prevalent in packaged goods and in retail than in other industries. Many seemed to confuse communities with product-centric coupon campaigns, perhaps not surprising given how the deeply ingrained this marketing approach is in these industries. A good example is Procter & Gamble’s “Pampers Village,” http://www.pampers.com/en_US/home/, which has all the trappings of a community but mostly promotes the product and the company’s “Gifts to Grow” rewards program. For example, a recent post in the Village Forum describes how to get a $10 discount on the first purchase of diapers. Although the content is well-organized and informative, member interaction is minimal and the brand does not have an active presence. When a number of posts included negative comments about the rewards program relative to the Huggies program, the community manager did not respond.

Ghost Town

As expected, these communities scored the lowest in their use of best practices. They also represented the most glaring examples of missed opportunities, because many of these brands were in industries with a large, built-in bases of passionate, even fanatical, customers (e.g., automotive and entertainment). Instead of leveraging these affinities for their products or services, the brands treat these communities as just another campaign or add-ons to product Web pages.

This was evident in the development of “Fiesta Movement” http://fiestamovement.com/, a campaign for the Ford Fiesta during which 100 young adults spend six months test driving the car, completing missions and “lifestreaming” their experiences. While flashy and hip, it has no opportunities for customer interaction. Ford has a similar promotion for its “2010 Mustang” http://www.fordvehicles.com/the2010mustang/. Although this faux community has some user generated content (“Mustang Stories”), Ford directs visitors to non-sponsored communities, and consequently misses out on these conversations. While Mustang also has a large following on Facebook (nearly 350,000 fans), it is challenging to get there from the community.

Community Overload

Only 9% of the brands studied fell into this category, which refers to brands sponsoring multiple communities for the same audience, offering too many choices and resulting in confusion. This occurred primarily among technology and consumer product companies that had several related products, which resulted in multiple doorways and entry points for their customers. Navigation was cumbersome, especially for newcomers, making it difficult to pinpoint the most relevant information.

A case in point is the “Connect with Others” tab, http://www.hp.com/#Connect, on Hewlett-Packard’s homepage, which links to 11 different “communities.” Say you want to visit the “Voodoo PC Gaming Forum.” It takes three clicks of the mouse to get there. From this forum, you’ll find a link to “The Next Bench,” which links to even more communities, “HP Envy” and “HP TouchSmart,” which aren’t mentioned on initial “Connect with Others” tab. For businesses, Hewlett-Packard has a “Business Support Forum,” a “Small Business Printing Wiki,” an “IT Resource Center Forum” and a link to an independent “HP Software Users Community,” whose members are primarily interested in business applications. With so many options and unintuitive navigation, it’s easy for visitors to get lost.

Cohesive Strategy

While the communities for most brands seemed to exist separate from each other and the social Web, about one in five brands took a more cohesive, integrated approach to their community and social media programs. These high performers typically had robust engagement tools, active community management, consistent user interfaces and cross-pollination among communities with similar audiences. As a result, their member participation levels were significantly higher than other categories.

One of these standout communities was “MySears” http://www.mysears.com/. Its tag line, “Get advice before you buy,” reinforces that this community is about helping consumers, not selling specific products. It features numerous community best practices, including prominently featured user generated content such as reviews and discussions; return/recognition motivators to encourage participation; engagement tools such as polls; and integration with Sears’ social media efforts on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn.

The community is not some faceless corporation—a number of Sears employees, including those from upper management, write blogs, answer questions and personally acknowledge members’ contributions. Sears recently added the “ideas,” forum that gives customers an opportunity to submit and vote on ideas; some of the best ideas have already been implemented.


Lessons Learned

Our research indicates that many brands do not fully understand what people want or expect from an online community or the role the brand plays in fulfilling those needs.

Engagement is a process, not a destination. Although the brands in this study were in various stages of this journey, few seemed to treat their online community as a core business asset that needs nurturing in order to achieve full potential. All could benefit from a more systematic and strategic approach to community building.

Kathy Baughman and Steve Hershberger are principals at ComBlu, a Chicago-based firm specializing in advocate-based, social marketing initiatives. ComBlu helps organizations develop and execute both on-and off-domain community strategies. For more information, visit www.comblu.com.

To read more about digital communities, watch for Marketing News' special digital marketing issue in March.