Leveraging Customer-Centric Communities
(Private Branded Social Networks)
for Customer Loyalty
An eWayDirect White Paper
January 2009
Copyright © 2009 eWayDirect • All Rights Reserved. • 888.655.0464 • info@eWayDirect.com• www.eWayDirect.com
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Table of Contents
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ................................................................................................................................................................ 3
INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND ..................................................................................................................................... 4
THE CONCEPT: CUSTOMER-CENTRIC COMMUNITIES................................................................................................... 5
THE STRATEGY: HOW IT WORKS............................................................................................................................................ 6
THE NUMBERS: PROOF IT WORKS .......................................................................................................................................... 7
CONCLUSIONS.................................................................................................................................................................................. 9
Copyright © 2009 eWayDirect • All Rights Reserved. • 888.655.0464 • info@eWayDirect.com• www.eWayDirect.com
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Executive Summary
Standard popular social networking sites — MySpace, Facebook, et al. — have proven
difficult for marketers to monetize for a number of different reasons. What marketers really
need is an opportunity to focus a private social network on a brand, product, or service,
and allow the subsequent viral activity to flourish within that focused area.
These private branded networks, which we call customer-centric communities, work for
nearly every emarketer wishing to leverage the power of social networking while staying
on-message and in their customers’ minds. Marketers create and use customer-centric
communities to acquire customers, improve customer retention, provide a forum for
customers to give feedback, and generate incremental revenue virally.
Copyright © 2009 eWayDirect • All Rights Reserved. • 888.655.0464 • info@eWayDirect.com• www.eWayDirect.com
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Introduction and Background
A company’s marketing strategy typically revolves around acquiring customers and/or
subscribers, improving customer retention, inviting customers to provide feedback, and
looking for new ways to generate incremental revenue virally. While each of these
components could be provided by a variety of applications, a single application that
provides all of these benefits and integrates them into the company’s existing email
platform and strategy, as well as its search programs, is clearly useful.
Social networking has proven beneficial for myriad organizations, and the inability of
marketers to access and use this resource has been frustrating. A study by the Howard
Rheingold Associates noted some of the benefits of social networks that could clearly
apply to marketers:
1) create an early warning system (if a product isn’t taking off or customers have
complaints about it, a social network is the first place that the issue will surface)
2) connect people and build relationships
3) create an ongoing, shared social space for people who are geographically
dispersed.
4) amplify innovation – when groups get turned on by what they can do online, they go
beyond problem-solving and start becoming more than the sum of their parts.
A symposium held at Temple University examined the risks and benefits of social
networking as a business tool i and discovered that while blogs are universally accepted
across all businesses, businesses in general are still not sure how to leverage or regulate
social networking.
If marketers could harness the power and popularity of social networking and leverage it
to create communities centered around their brand, product, or service, it would increase
brand loyalty, inspire viral growth, and develop devoted customers.
Copyright © 2009 eWayDirect • All Rights Reserved. • 888.655.0464 • info@eWayDirect.com• www.eWayDirect.com
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The Concept: Customer-Centric Communities
(Private Branded Social Networks)
In this model, marketers use a social networking portal to enable community members
(customers, prospects, subscribers) to set up personal social networks akin to private
discussion groups—but that are clearly branded and provide access back to the
emarketer’s website.
Within these social communities, members share content, photos, and files. They give the
emarketer feedback on products and services via forums, click on links at the community
homepage that generate revenue for the emarketer, and — as they become more
involved in and committed to the network — invite their friends and family to join their
discussion group(s), providing viral growth and content development that enhances
search engine optimization mileage as they link back to the emarketer’s site.
Copyright © 2009 eWayDirect • All Rights Reserved. • 888.655.0464 • info@eWayDirect.com• www.eWayDirect.com
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The Strategy: How it Works
The company starts by setting up its portal (community landing page). It then invites
subscribers to join its community by sending out email invitations and by posting
invitations on its website and as part of ongoing advertising campaigns.
When people accept the offer to join the community, they receive their welcome message
and are given a tour of the community. Part of this introductory period includes giving new
community members tools to send invitations to their friends, family, and business
associates to become a part of their personal company-branded network.
As they become involved in the community, members use community tools to share
content, photos and files with other members of their personal network(s).
They can use they community landing page to invite more people to join their personal
network(s), participate in forums posted by the company, and create opportunities for
growth as their network(s) change over time.
As part of the reward for getting involved in the network, the company can offer member
benefits such as special discounts on products or services, members-only sales and so
on.
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The Numbers: Proof it Works
Community Statistics
Totals
Subscriber Overv iew
Total subscribers 8798
Subscribers that completed widget download 5433
Subscribers sent a widget followup 3364
Subscribers that completed widget download post followup 434
Tota l widget subscribers 5867
Current email active subscribers 2931
Average weekly portal visits 26519.8
Sub-Network O verv iew
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Click Summary from 2008-12-21 to 2009-01-20
Totals
Message Center Cl ick Sum m ary
Total Visits 6056
Unique subscribers 738
Average visits per subscriber 8.21
Unique links tracked in portal 9
Total clicks 1321
Average clicks per subscriber 1.8
Link Cl ick Sum m ary
Link 1- Shopping 496
Link 2 – Message Boards 457
Link 3 – Partner Advertisement 52
Link 4 – Company Blog 51
Link 5 50
Link 6 36
Link 7 27
Link 8 24
Link 9 20
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Conclusions
Customer-centric communities are used by companies to allow their customers to create
their own personal social networks or discussion groups related to the company’s
products or services, and to communicate directly with their customers for the purpose of
research and feedback. This creates both the social aspects of community that
consumers are looking for within a theme they can and want to relate to. For example, a
company in the fashion industry could enable customers to build personal networks
relating to fashion shows, fashion do’s and don’ts, what’s hot and what’s not, great deals
on the latest clothes, and so on – letting their members take each of the personal
networks wherever they individually want it to go.
Customer-centric communities build brand awareness, improve search-engine ranking,
keep customers engaged for a longer period of time, and add a powerful acquisition
program to any company’s overall marketing strategy.
i
“Social Computing and Networking: Business Tool or Consumer Fad?” Fox School’s Institute for
Business and Information Technology, Temple University, March, 2008.
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