The Secret to Predictable Results
O’Reilly Radar has an interview with Francois Gossieaux about online communities in business. He’s led some interesting research, and highlights something that’s been on my mind:
Most businesses begin planning a community with traditional objectives (lower support costs, drive innovation, increase customer loyalty etc.). On the Social Web this is the equivalent of entering a personal relationship with an ulterior motive (which never works out quite right).
So how do you turn those ulterior motives into something that works? Either re-frame the goals in terms of serving something that the community needs or revise your expectations to follow the community wherever they lead you.
We run into the goals issue all the time. A customer will ask if we can provide a permanent community and we respond with a limited yes, “We can provide software that will support a permanent community.”
One reason, of many, that we do so many conference communities is because we like giving an unqualified yes. Attendees go to your events to network. They pay thousands of dollars in registration and travel, endure socially awkward situations, and rely on chance encounters in order to make a few friends or business contacts.
Will they adopt a tool that helps them plan those meetings ahead of time, put names to faces, and connect with more of the right people? Will the conference CrowdVine network be successful? Yes. Not because social networks are trendy, but because you’re serving a need.
Tags: community management