{"id":74,"date":"2016-09-02T04:00:23","date_gmt":"2016-09-02T03:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.feverbee.com\/roi\/?p=74"},"modified":"2023-05-03T10:53:00","modified_gmt":"2023-05-03T10:53:00","slug":"the-benefits-and-value-of-an-online-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.feverbee.com\/roi\/the-benefits-and-value-of-an-online-community\/","title":{"rendered":"The Benefits And Value of An Online Community"},"content":{"rendered":"<section class=\"content standard\"><div><\/p>\n<p><aside class=\"\"><\/p>\n<h1>4<\/h1>\n<h2>The Benefits And Value of An Online Community<\/h2>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-7\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/09\/sponsored-by-sap.png\" alt=\"Sponsored by SAP\" width=\"113\" height=\"65\" \/><\/p>\n<p><\/aside><\/p>\n<p><article class=\"\"><\/p>\n<h3>There are many reasons why an organization might create an online community. They might notice competitors poaching their customers and decide to build a close-knit community for their customers. They might notice employees duplicating work and create an internal community to share information. They might want to reduce their customer service costs.<\/h3>\n<p>Very often, communities are created without a specific target to hit. Sometimes, they are created by accident (taking over a fan community) or by an employee who has since departed (yet the community survives). Occasionally, they are created based upon the immediate whim of the CEO.<\/p>\n<p>The benefits of an online community vary by the type of community. \u2018<em>Online community\u2019<\/em> is an umbrella term describing a broad range of approaches to achieve a range of goals. The common element within them is using member to member interaction to achieve the organization\u2019s objectives.<\/p>\n<p><div class=\"tweet\">\r\n\t<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=%E2%80%98Online+community%E2%80%99+is+an+umbrella+term+describing+a+broad+range+of+approaches+to+achieve+a+range+of+goals&amp;url=https:\/\/www.feverbee.com\/roi\/the-benefits-and-value-of-an-online-community\/\" target=\"_blank\">\r\n\t\t<h3>\u2018Online community\u2019 is an umbrella term describing a broad range of approaches to achieve a range of goals<\/h3>\r\n\t\t<span class=\"tweetButton\">&nbsp;<\/span><p class=\"tweetLink\">Click to Tweet<\/p>\r\n\t<\/a>\r\n<\/div><\/p>\n<p>These objectives might be directly related to revenue (e.g. increasing spending from existing customers) or they might be one layer removed (e.g. improving net promoter score). In this chapter, we have reviewed each of these. This is not a comprehensive list, but an attempt to tackle the most common benefits.<\/p>\n<p>It is not easy to classify benefits as different terminology is often used to describe the same objectives. Where possible, we\u2019ve tried to be clear about the most common terms used, what they mean, and how they relate to each other. The structure reflects the broad goals of the organization.<\/p>\n<p><\/article><\/p>\n<p><\/div><\/section>\n<section class=\"content fullWidth grey\"><div><\/p>\n<p><article class=\"\"><\/p>\n<h2>Classifying The Benefits of Community<\/h2>\n<table>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td rowspan=\"3\">\n<h3>Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Increased spending from existing customers<\/span><\/td>\n<td><b>Retention rates<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Length of time an individual remains a customer of the community<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Customer loyalty<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Customer sentiment<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Customer satisfaction (CSAT)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Customer churn<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><b>Share of wallet<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">% of spending within the product category spent with the organization<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Average order value<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Frequency of purchase<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Upselling, downselling, cross-selling<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><b>Ads served \/ CPM<\/b><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Quantity of ads delivered<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Advertising rates<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td rowspan=\"2\">\n<h3>Customer Acquisition<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Attracting new customers to the business. <\/span><\/td>\n<td><b>Lead generation<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"># of leads generated by activity<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lead identification<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Customer advocacy <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Net Promoter Score (NPS)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Search engine traffic and search rankings. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Reach \/ Mentions<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><b>Lead conversion<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">% of leads who convert into paying customers<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lead conversion time.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Visit to lead %<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lead to customer %<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td rowspan=\"3\">\n<h3>Reduced Marketing Costs<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Attracting new customers to the business. <\/span><\/td>\n<td><b>Customer Service Costs<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Reduced cost in customer service attributable to the community<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Call deflection<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Indirect call deflection.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">First contact resolution<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Average handling time<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><b>Customer Acquisition Costs (CAC)<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Reduced costs of acquiring a customer. <\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Web traffic<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lead generation<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lead identification\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><b>Research Costs<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The equivalent cost of gaining similar insights from elsewhere<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Focus groups<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Surveys<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Interviews<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Idea generation<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Idea validation<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Alerts of potential problems<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Bug identification<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Trending topics<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Improved speed to remove problems<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<h3>Reduced Recruitment Costs<\/h3>\n<\/td>\n<td><b>Recruitment Costs<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Reduced cost in hiring and training a new staff member<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Cost per applicant (CPA)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Cost per qualified applicant (CPQA)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Time-to-full productivity<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td rowspan=\"3\">\n<h3>Social Return<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Improved lives of individual stakeholders. <\/span><\/td>\n<td><b>Capacity Building<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Increasing the ability of stakeholders to handle their environment<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">More informed members<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Social support<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Improved social structure<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><b>Social Impact<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Influence change on a broader social level<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Petitions<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Protests<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Crowdsourcing knowledge\/revenue<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><b>Donations<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Eliciting donations from community members<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Peer to peer fundraising<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Social proof<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Challenges and milestones<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We will explain each of these benefits and how they are related to the community over the next few pages.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><\/article><\/p>\n<p><\/div><\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-74","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorised"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.feverbee.com\/roi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.feverbee.com\/roi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.feverbee.com\/roi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.feverbee.com\/roi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.feverbee.com\/roi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.feverbee.com\/roi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.feverbee.com\/roi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.feverbee.com\/roi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.feverbee.com\/roi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}