1. Fortune 500- How do you know when you need a community?

    Thursday, 18 Feb 2010 View Comments Posted by: Sean McDonald

    I recently met with Barry Tallis,  (Jive Software) to learn if more of the Fortune 500 companies are lining up to start an online community. Barry shared that more companies are jumping into the community game, sometimes without a clear objective, other than our competitors are launching a community. Barry also highlighted that the new generation of companies starting communities require more education than early adopters from 3+ years ago.

    When should a company start an online community? Watch to hear Barry’s suggestion.

    • Canoer
      Some more thoughts about companies pretending to listening. A few ideas behind this:
      1. Company has not staffed a company conversatilists, but instead existing PR team is focused on only positive mentions and avoid negative commentary- this limits dialogues with the public.
      2. Company only talks when they have a planned message, the company lacks the process or interest to participate in ongoing dialogues with the public.
      What have you witnessed with companies failing to listen?
    • canoer
      @ Seanmcd, sorry, got sidetracked for a bit there.

      Companies failing to listen - I suppose the current poster child is Toyota. Too many people are complaining that the company is being secretive; I have seen their ads on community sites, but no "official" responses on the car forums I frequent.

      All products have problems; you may as well train your tech staff to be proactive and try to help people wherever the problem crops up. Not just your own company community (and hopefully you have one), but also reach out to posts or tweets whenever you run across one. You won't be able to help some people (customer abuse, too far out of warranty, etc.) but even then, people appreciate that you are listening. And don't wait for the extreme rants (UPS ran over my dog, UAL smashed my guitar). Stay out in front and watch your community (and customer base) grow.

      btw, I have seen some good PR efforts at the community level. It usually is just a means to an end (generating some positive spin for a story geared to a wider audience), but the asking for opinions in the community often results in good feelings about the conversation, even in the PR staff winds up with some negative feedback they weren't looking for.

      Another rant if you please - if you are an owner or exec, forget about the customer always being right. Frequently the customer doesn't even know what they need. But your front line people know. Treat them as your "customers" by lavishing support and tools on them, and they'll take good care of your revenue stream.
    • Canoer,
      Great last point about front line employees know A LOT of what is needed for your business to operate better and delight your customers.
    • Canoer
      I agree that listening can be issue with early adopters as well - my take is they are missing the core element of being social - listen first.
      Right on- Online community is to build relationships. Healthy relationships spawn more relationships that can turn into revenue. But don't start with a revenue goal and then squeeze the life out of the community to deliver on your revenue goals.
    • canoer
      Barry said "lot of companies still aren't listening". Unfortunately that can also be applied to many companies who jumped into social media early, some of whom date back to the days of Compuserve or Genie. They are going though the motions but still aren't listening - they make it too hard to join in the conversation, or they reply with a stock response if they reply at all, and most don't emphasize how their company goals can mesh with their customer needs.

      I think part of it is focusing too much on monetizing the community in the short term and forgetting that a community member reaches more people by word of mouth via the net than they ever did just complaining (or praising) to their local network of family or friends. That kind of word of mouth must have increased by a factor of ten, if not a hundred.
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