enterprise best practice for community

L E A D E R NETWORKS

Enterprise Communities: Best Practices and Lessons Learned

Vanessa DiMauroCEO, Leader Networks & SNCR Fellow

@vdimauro

NewComm ForumApril, 2009

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Enterprise Communities are Good Business

• Break down geographical barriers globally • Connect people in different ways through online interaction

• Allow for more detailed and sustained conversations• Deepen customer relationships

• Offer interactive access • To people, relevant content and tools professionals need to succeed

• Build trusted relationships • Providing better communication channels with staffs, clients, prospects

and partners

• Generate revenue or business returns • While ultimately serving member needs

Copyright © 2009 Leader Networks 2


Online Communities The Centerfold of Social Media

3Copyright © 2009 Leader Networks


Guiding Factors for Enterprise Communities

• Integrating interactivity into the enterprise business model– Companies need to think more about ways to bring online participation into

their business models in ways that serve the business and the customer goals alike.

– People’s expectations are changing.. They no longer want to be passive recipients of information and experiences.

• The human process & trust factor – what works in the face world will work in an online environment – but broken

process in real life can’t be fixed by putting a tool atop. – Need clear definition about what are the behaviors the business wants to

support before launching a tool to support it.

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Enterprise Communities Require A Business Process Redesign

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Strapping new tools onto an old process won’t yield the desired results

Copyright © 2009 Leader Networks


Enterprise Community Strategic Planning

Begin with the end in mind

Find the overlap & build for relevance to both audiences

What does the business need for the community to be successful?

What do community members need from the community to get value?



Three Types of Enterprise Online Communities

1. Information Dissemination The organizing body defines content, message and outcome. Highly controlled, paternalistic environment

2. Shop-Talk Discussion groups that focus on accomplishing a task, exchange of transactional information or getting help. “How can I?” “Where do I?”

3. Professional Collaboration / Learning Communities A safe, private online space purposefully designed to foster conversation. Tends to be membership-driven or subscription-based.



Enterprise Communities Differ From Consumer Communities

Consumer Communities (B2C) Large numbers – types and audiences Users share an experience Focus on low-touch services Forums, ratings and self-serve

offering Typically quick to scale but users have

weak ties Interpretive mission Business model: Scale = financial

success

Enterprise Communities (B2B) Number can vary Members share a purpose Focus on higher-touch services Programmatic membership offering

(custom content, events ...) Typically slow to scale but members

have stronger/more persistent ties Mission that is visibly embraced Business model: Hybrid. Relevance

and target audience drive partner and member revenue



Enterprise Community Audience

Consumer Communities– Target general public – many and more– SEO, advertising and blogger outreach drives traffic– “accept” (celebrate!) all who join

Enterprise Communities• Target highly defined memberships by business process or solution focus

– Invitations and WOM drives traffic• Google tracking and SEO often ineffective for private (gated) communities

– Develop clear membership guidelines and adhere to them strictly to yield credibility

– Membership acceptance criteria often a gating factor (role, title, buying relationship)



Enterprise Community Design

Enterprise communities must be more intuitive and simplified than consumer communities

• Consumers are more agile users than business users • B2B users are more focused on solving problems ...• ... and are less tolerant than consumers• Make no assumptions about Web 2.0 usage

– “basic” Web 2.0 tools may not be well understood



Enterprise Community Content

Enterprise community content must support a business process

• Enterprise communities connect information with a purpose • Solve a business problem or support a business process• Each content piece must be useful, usable and engaging

– Concierge approach to interactions and information for the members– “The Neiman Marcus Model”

• Must offer information that cannot be obtained elsewhere



Member-Generated Content• Profiles / home pages• Product ratings• Product reviews• Interviews and high-value content creation

Member-To-Member Interaction• Discussion Forums• Blogs, Wikis and social media entries• Member created podcasts• Phone calls

Events• Guest events• Expert Seminars• Virtual meetings / Trade Shows

Outreach • Newsletters• Volunteer / Leader programs• Polls / surveys

• Driving Participation: Interaction management and facilitation. ( Driving Conversion: All other site interaction. IE: polls / surveys, answering specific questions, rating content, participating in events…etc

Typical Enterprise Community Programs



What Can you Expect From Your Members?

Visitor Novice Regular Leader

Visitors: People without a persistent identity in the community.

Novices: New members who need to learn the ropes and be introduced into community life.

Regulars: Established members that are comfortably participating in community life.

Leaders: The most active “regular members” who volunteer to facilitate and monitor discussions, get involved in the operational decisions and product definitions for the community, and helps the community evolve and run smoothly.



EXAMPLES OF SUCCESSFUL ENTERPRISE COMMUNITIES

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Enterprise Community Categories

• Enterprise Buyer /Audience Communities– The Palladium Group XPC– Cognizantii - community for Cognizant’s clients– EMC community– CIO Magazine’s CIO Counsel– IntegrativePractitioner.com

• Professional Market Makers– Martindale-Hubbell Connected – Sermo.com– Inmobile.org– TheFunded.com– WegoHealth.com

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INmobile.org



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ENTERPRISE COMMUNITY BEST PRACTICES

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Constituency Identification Is Key

Understanding who you serve and in what ways provides the driving business rationale for an enterprise community program.

This leads to members who engage with each other and the enterprise and sustains their interest.

The who dictates the where, when, why and how.



The Most Important Thing To Get Right

• Pick the right interactive model to support the community • Profile your constituency• The “who” dictates the how and the why

Offer a value proposition that is so compelling (from the user’s POV)that they must engage to survive professionally

Only then, can you create• High level feature maps to figure out the right tools• Wrestle with a content plan that meets their needs• Design engagement activities which support member

and enterprise goals and values



Online Community Success Equation

(R1) The right approach to leverage a key business opportunity

+(R2) The right people – both

constituents and staff+

(T) Tools well-matched to serve the interactive goals=

(S) Successful execution

R1 + R2 + T = S



Misstep: Business Goals Don’t Match Community Features

Intention and outcome need to be aligned

The WHO should dictate the HOW and the WHY



Misstep: “Tool Talk” Before Business Strategy



Misstep: Building Mausoleums instead of Sherpa Tents

Evolutionary sprints are keyBuild, learn, evolve, build, learn, evolve, build ...



Misstep: Excessive Exuberance

Monitor and Measure to Know and Grow

The Right Metrics Matter!



Misstep: Lack of Business Integration


• Leverage what you learn internally

• Mine the raw data for trend analysis

• Report findings and outcomes to sales/marketing/product development

• Link to CRM systems


Metrics in Context for Enterprise Community

1 to 9 to 90: Leaders to activists to members

Interactivity Ratio: 25%

One-quarter of community members participate in a given time period

Best Practice: Determining Value to Xa) Identify the business value drivers for the communityb) Research normative returns for community, industry and companyc) Develop KPIs and KRI to measure activityd) Establish data tracking and reporting system



Sample Metrics for a Enterprise Community

Financial Metrics: revenue generated (direct and indirect i.e. client retention or pass through revenue gained through bundled services) – Minus operational costs

Operational Metrics: Fully burdened costs of community operations including technology, development, content acquisition, staffing

Business Metrics: Click-throughs/logins, industries serviced, # of members who are clients, title portfolio of membership

Marketing Metrics: New member acquisition costs, Cost per Member (CPM) against Revenue per Member (RPM), Event or campaign outcomes

Editorial Metrics: Cost of content creation, % of UGC, content ratings/rank

Member Metrics: # of members login/time, % of profiles complete, return rate, premium conversion rate, revenue generated per member, number of posts per member, average page views per member or group, engagement metrics



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Enterprise Community is NOT Marketing• Community members provide valuable information, content & feedback to

marketing/membership.

• Marketing/membership provides value added services and products to members

in exchange for interaction.

• Identifies and sells the community to prospects• Hands the new members over to the Community team

Hand O

ver

Hand O

ver• Manage the member lifecycle• Create value for members• Establish trust • Create Leaders and “Most Valued Members”• Create opportunities for Marketing to interact with the membership

Community Team

Community Team

Marketing & MembershipMarketing & Membership


Initial Challenges

• Governance– Strategy– Staffing

• Brand Execution – Promotion

• Technology– Selection, Implementation

• Evolution– Member Acquisition– Member Engagement model– Operations

• Continuous Improvement– Leading Metrics



An Enterprise Community Project Plan

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Tools & Techniques

System DesignPlan Goals and Key Objectives

Metrics and Milestone

Innovation Design Development Assessment

Align with

MarketingPrototype tools

Identify key goals: i.e. reputation management, peer group collaboration, thought leadership, evangelization

Design document:Who – do you want to attract or connect withWhat – is your point of view: expert, learner, specialty, toneWhen – timeframe for mini-milestones that support goalsWhere – digital channelsWhy – measurement goals.

Features & Business Requirements drive tool choices

Defining success,measure and review

Copyright © 2009 Leader Networks

Revisit goals & continue


Strategic Success Factors for Enterprise Communities

• Solve a business issue or enable a business process improvement – faster or better than in person

• Be easy and intuitive• Involve users in co-creation• Have a strong executive sponsor who is willing to lead

by example• Generate clear revenue or returns• Outcomes of use must be linked to key internal

functions like marketing, sales, product development• Have a well crafted user engagement plan (beyond

the 100 days plan)

Copyright © 2009 Leader Networks32


Thank you

Vanessa DiMauro, Leader Networks

Contact:http://[email protected]

@vdimauro617-484-0778

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