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What is an online community

In both professional and personal life, human beings naturally form cliques and groups based on mutual commonalities based on affinities and expertise. We gravitate towards others with similar interests, beliefs, and opinions. Most of us belong to real world networks that form organically. Not surprisingly, these networks rapidly migrated to the online world. Online communities has existed in various forms for nearly a decade, and has acquired strong public attention in the past few years.

Online communities take many forms, and are created for many reasons. Online communities commonly exhibit a number of the following concepts:

Profiles – Each member in a network has an online profile that serves as the individual's identity in the network. In the professional context, profiles often contain information regarding the individual's life, education, interests and affiliations, as well information about the individual�s skills and resources.

Connections – Online communities enable individuals to make connections with others in the network. In some cases, these connections are implicit, and derived from past actions (such as sending an email to another member of the network). In other cases, the connections are explicit, and are set up and created by the members themselves.

Deceptively simple, online communities contain great power. They change the online space from one of static web pages and stale marketing messages to a live, vibrant network of connected individuals who share their abilities, hobbies, and accomplishments.

Why should our organization care about online community?

Customers have lost trust in traditional sales, marketing and service (the three areas commonly referred to as CRM, or (Customer Relationship Management). According to the Edelman Trust Barometer, "the most credible source of information about a company is now a person like me, which has risen dramatically to surpass doctors and academic experts for the first time." The survey relates that in the U.S., trust in "a person like me" increased from 20% in 2003 to 68% today.

The connections brought about by online community enable humanity to indulge and regain trust in business. In other words, the organizations that will succeed are the ones that most easily allow individuals to build relationships, connect, and create communities with people they trust.

Isn't "online community" just for high school and college kids?

Don't be thrown by the word "social". Although online community such as MySpace (known as a hangout for high schoolers) and FaceBook (which targets the college crowd) have garnered much press in the online community space, other professionally-focused online networks are utilized in many ways in the business and association realm. The initial use of online community for businesses and organizations has been primarily along one dimension, recruiting. That is, a recruiter for an organization navigates a network of known individuals (e.g. current members of the organization) in order to find potential applicants (either contacts of those individuals, or contacts-of-contacts) who have the skills and experience needed to fill a job opening within the organization. While this application of online community is beneficial (especially to professional recruiters), there are many other areas where online communities can be used; and are more broadly applicable.

The top ten ways businesses, associations and organizations can use online community:

Customer and Member Relationship Development Customer satisfaction is at an all-time low, most likely as a result of reduced business focus on actual relationships, and an increased focus on "customer relationship management" systems emphasizing restriction of data rather than personal connections. Online community allow a prospective customer or prospective member to easily facilitate a real, human level connection with individuals within an organization. This spawns genuine business relationships and puts an authentic life-form to the interaction, changing the external perception of the organization from a sterile, faceless behemoth into a collection of individuals who are ready to help.

Customer support (connecting the customer with the right resource):

Successful customer support achieves a number of goals. Basic customer service includes, of course, assisting customers when they have problems or questions about an organization's products. However, online networks enable exceptional customer support that goes beyond the basics, allowing customers to connect with experts in an organization who have deep knowledge in a particular area. Similarly, a strong online network enables experts within an organization to be alerted when a problem that requires their knowledge comes into the customer support queue. This technology facilitates the creation of strong communities in the form of valuable user groups and member networks.

Use the network to find an expert or locate implicit knowledge:

Only a fraction of an organization's "knowledge" exists in databases. Another fraction exists in the form of explicit documents and reports that may be found on an organizational intranet. The vast majority of organizational knowledge, however, exists only in the heads of its members. Inside an organization, online networks with even basic profiles of its individuals' experience, location and interests can greatly reduce the time required for organizational problem-solving, thus enabling faster connection between a questioner and the person who has solved similar problems in the past.

Ease post-acquisition integration:

Even though acquisitions are on the upswing, a majority of mergers and acquisitions fail within three years of inception. The most common cause of failure is lack of alignment and understanding between individuals in the acquiring and acquired organizations. Online community giving a view to the "real" individuals within the organizations, aid in the creation of understanding between both parties by allowing members of both organizations to view each other as a collection of individuals, rather than an amorphous "them".

Provide the "whole product":

It is rare that a single organization can provide all the pieces needed to meet a customer�s entire need. For example, even though a real estate agent aids in the process of buying a home, an entire network of other service providers (including title companies, banks, insurance agents, contractors, and others) is required in order to fully meet the customer's need. Like any large project a team is needed - each to their own role. By creating a strong network of complementary providers with similar philosophies and business practices, a single service provider can provide a much greater value proposition to a prospective customer than an individual working without the benefit of the network.

Understand and visualize the actual communication paths within the organization:

While an organizational chart may show the reporting or budgeting hierarchy of an organization, the connections in the network itself create the actual flow of information for an organization. Explicitly creating an online community within the organization can help all members better understand how information is shared. Additionally, it highlights the areas within the organization that are truly responsible for effecting change, turning the "company directory" into a living, breathing knowledge network.

Supercharge meeting facilitation and preparation:

The unfortunate part of meetings and conferences is the lack of connection with the people you really want to meet until the final day of the event, when you meet them randomly in the buffet line. A dedicated online community created before the event enables attendees to use their time at the event more efficiently, by determining with whom they want to connect before leaving home.

Increasing the value and extend the "shelf life" of conferences:

Similar to the above point, creating an online community of event attendees extends the �shelf life� of a conference, enabling the attendees to remain connected and take action on the items discussed at the event. This can evolve a meeting, event or conference from a "one time" occurrence into the catalyst of a community that more effectively achieves its goals.

Share knowledge:

By connecting an online community with basic subscription technologies (such as RSS, or "Really Simple Syndication"), an individual can easily "subscribe" to updates from customers and colleagues. This enables a straightforward way to stay abreast of the changes in projects of interest, as well as a way to share knowledge within an organization without additional effort. It also addresses the issue of email overload, as knowledge is pulled by those who have a need or interest for updates, rather than updates pushed to those who may have only tangential interest in an issue.

Pull together the "All-Star Team" that's right for this customer:

Having the right skills and culture are both key to creating a connection with a prospective customer, especially in service organizations. An internal online community system enables the individuals responsible for creating relationships with prospects to pull together the "right" team to meet both the prospective customer�s needs and, at the same time, form a unique group of individuals who will resonate with the prospect at a personal level as well.

Differentiate your service with brand you:

In a number of industries, the adhesiveness between customer and service provider is the differentiator. If a customer can easily identify his or her areas of commonality with a prospective service provider such as a financial planner, real estate agent or insurance provider, that customer can have some assurance that the service provider will understand the customer's point-of-view, and provide the type of service that the customer expects and supports.

Prepare for coming demographic changes in business:

Although online communities are relatively new to business, the MySpace and Facebook generation has grown up with them. For these individuals entering the workforce, online community is simply a part of the fabric of business. Accordingly, the organizations that have determined how to best integrate online community into their operations will be the ones that are most successful.

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