Most of our communities are tragically undervaluing members like Steven.
The top 0.000001% (that 1 special member in 100,000) posts thousands of times a year (sometimes a thousand times a month).
That’s a lot of answers to a lot of questions. If each answer is seen by just 20 people who need it, that’s 20 people who don’t need to call support or file a ticket. If each call costs $5, each then each answer becomes worth $100. Now we measure the value of Steven’s thousands of contributions per year in six to seven figures.
Of course, most Steven’s don’t just answer questions, they create blog posts, share advice, remove spam, advocate etc…
If the lifetime value of a customer is what they buy over the course of their lifetime, the lifetime value of a member is the total value of all their contributions. Someone like Steven is easily worth millions of dollars.
You shouldn’t just be flying people like Steven in to meet your company, you should be flying them first class, putting them up in a penthouse, helping them plan the most amazing week of their lives. Investing $20k…even $50k…on members who are creating millions of dollars in value is an absolute bargain.
You shouldn’t have them connecting with junior community managers, they should be connecting with the senior managers and other senior leaders.
Sure, you can offer badges, access, and insider looks on future products to motivate people like Steven. Each of them plays a handy role. But it wouldn’t even compare to photos of Steven sitting in a First Class airline cabin with the CEO on the way to the next annual conference.
What could be more motivating to the next Steven than seeing photos of the very top members sitting in first-class sharing a drink with the CEO?
Don’t do the minimum required to keep Steven happy…blow his expectations completely out of the water.
It’s a bargain.
