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B2BM
April 2009
≤
Go to www.b2bm.biz/digital
Social media
43
Communities are not a right –
they are a privilege
With interest growing in online communities for innovative and interactive digital marketing,
Tom Chapman, social media strategist at Headstream, provides steps on how companies
can create their own
T
he foundation of social media is Create a stir Promote, promote, promote
conversations. As a B2B marketer Having identified your objectives and Once the conversation is taking shape you
you should look towards social platform you then need to target your key still need to maintain the momentum. To do
media – in particular communities – influencers. The customers willing to this you can run promotions or
as an opportunity to create dialogue participate in a community will usually be competitions amongst the community. Set
between your organisation and customers. those that provide regular feedback via up a tiered system whereby members are
Marketing is, after all, about email or surveys, or have an active presence ranked or rewarded based upon their
understanding and satisfying customer on blogs. Furthermore, these key influencers contribution to the community. Make the
wants and needs. What better way to do will help you to build the community recognitions public to encourage other
this than to provide your customers with a through dialogue with other members. members to follow suit.
community where like-minded individuals Contact the key influencers via email, If you gather real insight into emerging
can come together and interact with both informing them about your new community trends within your industry via the
the company and each other? and invite them to join first. Seed content community, why not write a report and issue
Great organisations such as Dell, Oracle such as company information into the a press release to raise awareness of the
and IBM already use communities as a community to kick-start the conversation community’s value?
channel to communicate with their and educate the key influencers on how the Through effective digital PR you can
customers on equal terms, and at the same dialogue should take shape. When the boost community activity whilst
time provide a collaborative workspace community starts to buzz, use your CRM simultaneously recruiting new members.
where they can provide feedback and email database to inform all your
assist in the development of future customers about the community and invite Integrate other business units
products and services. them to participate in the discussion. Your community should shape what your
business will eventually become – open,
Where to start honest and highly effective.
I’m certainly don’t advise following the More importantly it should be integrated
tired formula of ‘build it and they will with not just marketing but other strategic
come’. As with any plan, you need to define business units, for example: customer
your business objectives by determining if service/support, product development and
you want to: finance, this is because all units can benefit
Co-create future products/services with from the knowledge, insight and
your customers. collaboration of the community as they are
Build stronger relationships or identify all brand touch points.
current trends. Fundamentally, history shows us that
Understand how your products or those businesses that go on to succeed and
services are used.
“If you provide a platform
reap the benefits are authentic.
Determine funding
where customers can share
If you provide a platform where
customers can share values with your
Look at resources and what investment you
values with your company,
company, have meaningful conversations
can realistically dedicate to the community,
as time and effort play a large part in its
meaningful conversations with
with different business units and interact
with other community members, then they
success.
different business units and
are more likely to stay loyal to a brand.
The cost to develop a community can be
minimal and can be launched immediately
interact with other community
We’re all well aware that it costs twice as
much to acquire a new customer than to
for free, using tools such as Facebook brand
members, then they are more
keep an existing customer.
pages or groups. A community-based approach can help
So, if budgets are tight or you do not
likely to stay loyal to a brand”
lower costs at the outset but when budgets
have time to wait for them to be signed off are tight they may increase rewards when
for a bespoke interface, you can start
Tom Chapman, social media strategist,
(if) success blossoms.
building your community immediately. Headstream tom.chapman@headstreampr.com
B2BM APRIL 09 – www.b2bm.biz
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