The World Wide Web is undergoing a major metamorphosis. Just a few short years ago, it was primarily a place to go for information. Today, it is also a place to shop, to contact customer services, or to interact with others. Recognizing the opportunities afforded by this last activity, many companies are choosing to build interactive communities on their Web sites, whether for customers, their own employees, or both. What's emerging is essentially a virtual network that allows two-way interaction from customer to customer, customer to organization, and employee to organization.
The marketing benefits of an interactive community were discovered almost by accident by an early pioneer, TuneUp.com. The TuneUp Web site was originally designed as a destination where users could go to check their computer for problems. As an afterthought, the owners of the site added a message board and a chat facility. Before long, customers started using the message and chat functions to offer advice and support to each other. The owners had created value where there was none before.
In an effort to determine what kinds of community-building functions or services are important to companies, Frank Cohen, chief technology officer for Inclusion Inc., polled 215 organizations through the Stanford World Internet Center. Forty-four percent of the respondents ranked the ability to download files as the most sought-after or valued function for building a community. But that function was followed closely by the ability to create interest groups that branch off from the larger Web community.
Creating a Community
In creating an online community, it is necessary to consider the different types of users who will be accessing it.
Some users are strictly looking for information. They have no particular problem that needs to be solved and probably won't participate much. Others are interested problem solvers who can offer help based on past experiences. Some users are team builders, who assume a leadership role and work toward building the community. Still others simply enjoy contributing to a discussion.
Your task is to build a hierarchy of participants to direct the activities of the community and encourage participation. The goal is a self-supporting fellowship along the lines of the Usenet newsgroups, some of which have existed for years with no formal oversight beyond the vigilance of individual members.
Of course, what keeps Usenet groups going is the members' shared fascination -- less charitable folks might call it an obsession -- with the central topic. Some businesses are fortunate enough to offer goods and services that inspire similar levels of passion, but most will have to do a little work to make their online community a compelling place to visit. An interactive forum where users can download text or binary files could prove a powerful attraction. Other helpful features might include a self-service sign up for members and a method of information distribution from you to your community. Such information can be distributed by FAQs, an automatic response system in answer to routine questions, or even an e-mail list to members.
Like the owners of TuneUp.com, Julia Gomoll found that simply providing a chat function was enough to get Excite Communities off the ground.
"If you establish chat at your site, people will access it," she says. "Many Web sites have used chat as a framework and have built content around it." Offshoots of Excite's popular chat rooms include special events, e-mail capabilities, people finder facilities, and links to related sites all over the Net.
Another effective strategy is to establish programs that encourage users to visit on a regular basis. Set up specific dates and times for discussions limited to specific topics. Have your CEO periodically host a chat session. And don't overlook tried-and-true promotions, like sales or discounts on products or services.
As with any Web-based marketing effort, there should be search capabilities for your site so that members can find what they're looking for, as well as a commerce engine for selling your goods and services. Keep all materials fresh and up-to-date, and provide an easy-to-navigate Web site to where the interface itself isn't an obstacle to participation.
This last point is easier said than done. Web-site developers tend to get so close to their work, they forget that most people are still struggling to figure out how to send e-mail. That's why Gomoll believes in having users outside of your organization test your interfaces. "The more testing you do, the better off you'll be," she says.
Don't assume people understand product functionality, and don't be too dogmatic about those functions. Make it as easy as possible for visitors to use the products as they choose. "If they want to 'chat' on forum boards, let them," says Gomoll. "Many users who have been online for 6 to 12 months still don't know the difference between a search engine and a browser, or a desktop and a browser, and they shouldn't have to know."
The Rules of the Road
When planning your community, figure out the best-case scenario and quadruple it, then think about what you'll have to do to manage it. "Remember that technology isn't the only thing that you have to scale," says Gomoll.
For instance, don't underestimate the work involved in monitoring activity on your site. Chat rooms and message boards on the Internet range from tightly controlled, heavily moderated forums to anything-goes free-for-alls where profanity and colorful elaborations on the truth (read: potentially libelous statements) are given a full airing. To avoid misunderstandings about the ground rules for your site, it's important to establish a program and standards for that program in the very beginning.
Before you lower the boom, be aware that from a legal standpoint, if you issue policies stating what is okay and what isn't at your site, you'd better be prepared to enforce them. "If you say there will be no profanity, be prepared to moderate everything," says Gomoll. One way to handle this situation, she says, is to attach a note to all messages stating that the users are posting of their own volition, and the company accepts no responsibility for the content.
If you decide to take a more proactive approach, and your staff doesn't have time to read all the messages, consider getting select people in your community more involved by issuing a password and letting them moderate. Many companies that use volunteer moderators reward them with certain benefits for helping with their online communities. However, this practice is coming under scrutiny from the IRS, which has suggested that those perks may be taxable.
Oddly enough, Excite has found that moderators from outside the community, or even experts in certain fields, don't work as well as those drawn from the ranks of the community members. That's usually because they're not really involved in the community, and have no personal stake in the discussions.
Almost inevitably, your community will be invaded by miscreants with no other goal than to provoke fights, or to hack their way into your system and rearrange your site just for laughs. Don't let them get you down, says Gomoll. "Get to know your troublemakers. Find out what they know, and use it to help you," she advises. Your site policy should include rules and procedures for removing scofflaws, but remember that flexibility is the name of the game. Rules may change every week, as you experiment to see what works best. On a more positive note, consider giving more privileges, visibility, and leadership roles to people who are obeying the rules. Make it worth their while to take an active part in your community.
Your rules should also set editorial policies for your site. If you have a chat moderator, make sure that moderator understands your editorial policy and steers discussions away from topics as necessary. At the same time, remember that people will talk about what they want to talk about. It's important to offer suggestions that will guide your participants toward meaningful discussions, but don't be too tyrannical about it. If the participants aren't interested, the conversation will die.
Regular Checkups
Once you've established your online community, you'll need to review it on a regular basis to make sure it's still doing its job. Frank Cohen recommends setting up a measuring system early in the design phase: establish weekly or monthly goals for recruiting new members, then work toward them, documenting your progress along the way.
"Running community-interest groups is not cheap to engineer," Cohen acknowledges, "so you need to be able to show your business or financial manager the value you're creating by involving the community."
As your community matures, determining its viability becomes less formulaic. Cohen says that if the number of interest groups that are forming in your community is greater than the number fading out, your community is thriving. Another way of measuring its health is if 20 percent of your new members are coming from referrals from existing members. This indicates that your members are satisfied and involved in the community.
The symptoms of a dying community are even easier to recognize. For example, if you check your message boards and see that the message threads are typically only five to six messages deep, your community isn't working. Or if you see a lot of messages going out from community leaders that say that the message isn't right for that topic, your community may need to be revised. And that may require some soul-searching on your part.
"When developing your community," Gomoll cautions, "don't assume you can be objective. It's very easy to get so involved in what you're trying to create that you forget who your users are." Above all, your users are your community. If they can't get what they need from you, they will leave for greener pastures -- and there goes the neighborhood.
More info
TuneUp.com
Inclusion Inc.
Stanford World Internet Center
Excite Communities
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Published in Marketing Tools
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