Don't Start An Online Community For Any Of These Reasons

There are many things online communities do very well. They help retain customers, increase sales margins, develop a competitive advantage, generate great feedback, recruit future staff, cut advertising spend, crowdsource work and improve the way your company does business.

But most businesses that want an online community, don’t want any of these. They want an online community for one of the following:

• Attracting new customers. An online community is a bad platform to attract new customers. It's not impossible, you can always encourage your existing members to invite newcomers for example and you might get some stragglers join. People might even hear about the community before they do the products, but, generally, an online community deepens your relationship with existing customers rather than attracting new ones.

• Generating sales. You can (and at times should) sell things through your online community, but it’s not going to replace your physical stores just yet. There are ways to generate sales via an online community, but there are also much better ways through much better tools.

• Building anticipation for the launch of a new product. Unless you’re Apple (or someone really special), you’re not going to have thousands of members talking about a product you haven’t launched. Don’t imagine thousands of people want to spend their free time in an online community for a product that doesn’t exist.

• Boosting search engine results. Creating an online community might improve your search engine standing, but it’s not a good reason to create one. There are far cheaper, quicker and more effective ways to improve your SEO.

• Anything short-term. I haven’t seen a successful online community for a short-term project. If the community is part of a fixed-term campaign, you’re going to be disappointed (as are our members when you quit on them).

I get it, all of the above have visible results. You can show them to your boss. Only you wont, because you wont achieve any of them.

You should want an online community to build an engaged audience that can offer you long-term benefits. It takes time, but in the long run it’s worth it.

Comments

[Will England]

Just used this post in our social strategy meeting at our Fortune 50 telecom company.

Thanks - great timing!

[edward boches]

Not sure what you're smoking, but you should study up on Adidas, Vic Secret, Tide, Panera and a host of other brands that are defying your premise. In fact for Olympus we launched a product and sold out nationwide by building community and using social to spread the word. You are doing a dis service to marketing and the medium by talking in generalities like this.

[Jason Peck]

I agree with most of these here, except for #1. Well maybe you shouldn't start a community for the sole reason for attracting new customers but it definitely can be a good by-product. When you encourage your customers to invite their friends and family to join something and they join, this an incredibly low-cost, high quality form of acquisition. Your best customers are your current customers...your next best customers are their friends and family. This can be a nice way to get new people into a company's database.

[Jason Peck]

But I do agree that focus should be on retention/deepening relationships with existing customers. As others have said, "retention is the new acquisition."

[Richard Millington]

Edward: Have you got the links of both your community and those you mentioned? Would be interesting to see how they achieve any of the effects listed in the post.

Jason: I think you agreed with this post there with "maybe you shouldn't start a community". It's a good point. As I mentioned you can invite customers to invite friends. But it's not the best way to reach new customers.

[Paul Beaulieu]

I disagree a little with the SEO. It depends how competitive the segment you are in is. If you are in a highly competitive segment, no amount of organic SEO will get you the rankings you desire. With Google and others using real-time search results, social media can be an cost-effective ways to boost visibility and search rankings.

[Richard Millington]

Social media and online communities are different though. If your sole reason for launching an online community is to boosy your SEO, you're going to be disappointed.

[Katie Moreno]

I believe these are some valid points. Richard what kinds of brands have you worked with that give you this take? I'd be curious to see how small or large they are. A community for Victoria Secret is definitely going to be successful no matter the type of data you are analyzing because the brand is that well known. @Edward it'd be great if we could get those links from you, and tone down the hostility a bit. Richard is a generous contributor and we should be thankful for the time and effort he puts into being a thought leader for us in this industry.

[Marinanelson]

Google: edward boches olympus = http://edwardboches.com/10-steps-to-launching-a-new-product-using-social-media