Participating in online communities and social media peer groups has become the norm for professionals as part of their daily activities.
Two studies that were tracking how companies leverage communities and social media as part of their business were unveiled at the SCNR Symposium last week.
The 2nd Annual New Symbiosis of Professional Networks Study by Vanessa DiMauro finds that over 80% of respondents access social networks one or more times during the day and consider them reliable sources for their decision making process. They are increasingly turning to social networks, which have evolved from ‘social’ to knowledge & communications networks.
Why is this the case?
An emerging trend in the study says DiMauro, is that “Professionals share and consume quality content with their professional networks as a way of exerting influence.” According to Francois Gossieaux co-author of The Hyper-Social Organization: Findings from the 4th Annual Tribalization of Business Study, “Humans love status and power. It is used to get them better food and better mates. Humans also like to horde information; knowledge is power, knowledge is status.”
His research identifies that knowledge sharing is key to effective online communities, but leveraging social networks is disconnected from the development process in most organizations. Gossieaux posits that organizations that have online communities with a tribe mentality; a group of individual with shared interests, passion and pain, are best positioned to leverage the collective knowledge and output of these groups. (IBM is sited as an example of a company who embraces this concept.)
Further, professionals and organizations are now being defined by the quality of content they create and curate. As DiMaura describes, over 60% of study respondents identified the desire to “establish and increase my professional network” as their top reason for engaging in online communities. The value of an “endorsement” (re: read, share, like, RT) is increasing in importance as a quantifiable metric that can influence decision-making.
Social business is also occurring within these professional communities with 80% reporting that they are able to “accelerate decision process and strategy development” by participating in them.
This study shed light on the types and numbers of communities that professional typically engage in, 1 to 2 large networks and 1 to 2 niche communities. The more gated the community the more open the communications, the bigger the networks the more cautious the community. Intimate communities are characterized as open & sharing and can include anywhere from 1000 to 3000 participants.
Business professionals are utilizing social networks for sharing and collaboration, but allocation of future budgets are not directed to enhancing the participatory nature of these networks. The top area sited for investment is “more marketing programs and campaigns.”
Similar disconnects between the users of online communities and the sponsors of these social networks are consistent with the results from the Tribalization of Business Study.
Respondents were asked to identify the top 5 business process reasons that companies use to establish online communities:
- Marketing Thought Leadership
- Marketing and Promotion
- Marketing Insight/Research
- Branding
- Customer Support
The budgets allocated to these communities seem insufficient to support the objectives – approximately 50% of those surveyed will be spending less then $50,000 a year on their social networks. The majority of respondents internally staff the management of these communities with 38% of them doing so only on a part time basis.
Still, the business objectives that these organizations have been successful in achieving are in lockstep with the goals of online communities. Win!
- Education/Knowledge Sharing
- Connecting with Peers
- Collaboration
- General WOM
Interestingly, the metrics used by companies to track the progress and success of their communities do not reflect the reasons that individuals choose to participate in social networks, which is sharing and collaboration.
What are the top business objectives your company has been successful in achieving via online communities?
- Increased sales
- Increased market and competitive intelligence
- Greater awareness
- Improved customer satisfaction
- More referrals
The disconnect between the value of the communities to the participants, and the stated objectives of the sponsoring company will ultimately result in declining memberships.
This is why companies should nurture their communities and let them develop into tribes. By definition tribes are a social division in a traditional society consisting of families or communities linked by social, economic, religious, or blood ties, with a common culture and dialect, typically having a recognized leader.
Great examples of online communities as tribes are Walmart, SAP Developer Network, and Best Buy.
Another excellent example of a tribe is the Occupy movement.
So let your tribes develop and they’ll want to occupy your community!
image: rajkumar1220
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Anne Weiskopf spent the bulk of her career as a publishing and media executive in the high tech arena. An experienced sales warrior, Anne was instrumental in launching and leading the move to integrated sales across off and online channels at UBM TechWeb. A social creature to begin with, she became enamored with social media and was on the launch team of TWTRCON (now The Realtime Report & Conference.) You can find Anne blogging here, and, at RipOffTheRoof.com.
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