Communityishness

Francois at Beeline Labs is sharing a very helpful report on what makes an online community. They have looked into what works and why.

(Hint: it is the same as what we like about our real world).

Below is their SlideShare. Below that is a summary of the report.

Now go and make nice!

2008 Tribalization Of Business Study Quantitative
View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: community social)


THE MAJOR TAKEAWAYS

#1: Communities are about Delivering Game-Changing Results

  • Communities can increase revenue per customer dramatically, i.e., 50%
  • Communities will increase product introduction success ratios
  • Communities amplify everything you do- increasing effectiveness and decreasing costs

#2: The Rise of the CMO 2.0?

  • Communities should be an important part of the CMO’s toolset (but for many large companies - there is an under-investment and scale problem)
  • Companies should evolve the role of the CMO into Chief Community Officer (but that will require drastic changes in attitude and approach to marketing)
  • If done properly, communities will transform the way marketing works (reduced costs, improved effectiveness, new opportunities)

#3: The Need for New Management Thinking

  • Mismatch between community goals and associated investments
  • Major gaps between Community Goals and what is being measured
  • Communities have yet to combine with major talent initiatives
  • Communities will transform most business processes

#3.5: The Worst Practices Enjoy Wide Adoption

  • The “build it and they will come” fallacy
  • The “let’s keep it small so it doesn’t move the needle” phenomenon
  • The “not invented here” syndrome

COMMENTARY + CONTEXT

We have been writing extensively about the study and communities in general over the past few months as we’ve conducted interviews and gathered data. A sampling of recent articles: