This article is a guest post by Martin Meyer-Gossner. Martin is a web business- and media strategist and founder of The Strategy Web.
One of the main challenges for companies on their way to social business is the questions: Why to integrate communities in corporate websites? In a deeper sense, this question asks how to become a community-centric (and therefore customer-centric) business? And by community-centric we don’t mean collecting (email) addresses, filter and package target-groups in product categories with the mere purpose to spread newsletters or other formats of „inbox-spam“ for the next product launch.
With the rise of cloud communication and the advent of social engagement, inboxes will soon face their downfall anyway. For the digital natives, a generation that by 2020 will make up almost 50% of the global workforce, social networking, SMS and Internet chat will replace emails, landlines and office desks. Just ask IBM and Atos. Millenials want community communication and access to companies through "social portals". So, why not incorporate communities in corporate websites?
Communities enable to engage with the company value chain at the „web point-of-sale“. When customers are in shop already, why not embrace their visions, views and emotions. Why not share those with your partners immediately? Why not display the employees’ authenticity, competence and transparency inside your websites?
Communities demonstrate the company’s modern business culture to work with employees, partners and customers by using the 5Cs of Social Business.
1. Competition: Communities are business catalysts
Corporate communities open up an engaging branded ecosystem for LIKEminded, while still holding all levels of control. This is unlike Facebook and its competitors where design, content, assets and flexibility are limited within the boundaries of the network’s framework. In corporate communities, products and services of the competition are NOT just a LIKE away. Communities in websites lead customers from live conversations to lead generation to inbound upsale, cross-selling and launch tasting. Why not speed up convergence through integrated ecosystem where competitors have to stay outside?
2. Commitment: Communities are guestbooks
In order to foster brand commitment, the corporate community offers the most valuable sources a voice on the website: the ones of employees and partners. But more importantly, customers can give feedback and statements on the woes and wows of products and services at every stage of the development. When the community is connected to the website, commitment of all engaged parties is connected to brands or products. Just like a guest book that offers arguments for differentiation through ratings, reviews and recommendations – the 3Rs of the social customer. Why would you need to write case studies? And how easy is it to generate, aggregate and curate content via community knowledge? Especially, when guestbooks are being updated permanently?
3. Content: Communities are publishing houses
Like sales teams needed marketing to publish specific collatoral for sales pitches, employees can post explanatory texts, pictures or videos and connect them with product features on the website. Like analysts that have shared their insights through guest posts in media, they and customers might discuss their experience in realtime brainstorming. Like market research experts had to be paid for their consulting, partners can share their feedback in how and why the market is longing (or not) to buy the products and services (i.e. test product packaging). And when content gets changed, the user will be informed straight away, just like the McKinsey study „The rise of networked enterprise“ told us. Not to mention the benefits for engaged press members...
4. Context: Communities are „consulting-on-demand“ touchpoints
Knowledge exchange and leveraging experience is depending on when content is and people are available. Community profiles can be made transparent, links accessible and visible based on location and time 24/7. People and emails cannot. Email adresses are not even public. They are kept like secrets the higher the hierarchy. Especially, when traveling, and when traveling time zones, available contact details, location specifics or just-in-time knowledge delivery might become business critical. Communities are conversation. In communities people help people contextually. Conversation that stays and cannot disappear like on social networks. Thus, communities become trusted touchpoints. Touchpoints like Cisco's customer service community where the value of having problems solved by the community is estimated at over 120 Mio. USD every year. And when these communities are aligned to websites and mobile business needs, „consulting-on-demand“ can deliver contextual value for the right persona in the relevant buyer interaction.
5. Collaboration: Communities are teamwork
In corporate communities people don’t think in hierarchy. Like in any social network environment, people give advice, exchange information, recommend brands, products and services, and even develop ideas. External, all work for knowledge exchange towards a common goal whether customer, partner or employee. Internal, employees might help each other on projects though in different departments. Thus, product development becomes a hybrid of internal and external synergies. Through teamwork feature requests get covered faster from launch to launch to update release. Corporate and brand team spirit increases. Through clever incentives, social influencers appear and brand advocats arise. The closer the community is connected to the corporate website, the easier the interaction for all people involved. Interactive collaboration on websites will increase traffic, relevance and page rank of any corporate website.
Are you still asking why companies should integrate communities into their websites? IBM, Philips and Bayer MaterialScience know what the connected customer is longing for…
Martin Meyer-Gossner is entrepreneur, web strategist, business blogger and founder of the international management consulting company The Strategy Web GmbH. The company offers guidance, consulting and market insights for companies, brands and their investors on their way through the evolution of social business, mobile, customer engagement & digital transformation.