2008 T
2008 TRIBALIZATION OF BUSINESS STUDY
How to Achieve Transformational Change
through Communities and Social Networks

A S
A STUDY PRODUCED BY:
Deloitte (www.deloitte.com)
Beeline Labs (www.beelinelabs.com)
Society for New Communications Research (www.sncr.org)
Society for New Communications Research (www.sncr.org)

THE FINDINGS IN THIS PRESENTATION ARE BASED ON SURVEYS OF OVER 140 COMPANY OFFICIALS
WHO ACTIVELY USE COMMUNITIES
THE RESULTS ARE PRELIMINARY AND MAY CHANGE AS THE STUDY PROGRESSES

OVERVIEW:
WHAT’S THIS TRIBAL THING ALL ABOUT?
WHAT ARE THE MOTIVATIONS ALLOWING THIS TO WORK?
WHAT ARE COMPANIES USING THEM FOR?
WHO’S IN CHARGE – WHAT ARE THE ORGANIZATIONAL IMPLICATIONS?
HOW ARE COMPANIES MEASURING SUCCESS?
WHAT MAKES THEM SUCCESSFUL?
WHAT ARE THE INHIBITORS + BEST AND WORST PRACTICES?
CAN YOU BUILD COMMUNITIES WITH ANY DEGREE OF PREDICTABILITY?

WHAT’S THIS TRIBAL THING ALL ABOUT?
Tribalism is the very first social system that human beings ever
lived in, and it has lasted much longer than any other kind of
lived in and it has lasted much longer than any other kind of
society to date.
(Wikipedia)

THE MOTIVATIONS ALLOWING THIS TO WORK…
People want to connect with people
People want to connect with people
People want to help and be helped
People operate either in a SOCIAL framework
or a MARKET framework

TOP USAGE SCENARIOS:
Customer service
Idea generation
Id ti Co‐innovation Amplifying Word of Mouth
New Product Development
Reputation management Product testing
CANARY IN THE COALMINE
Market research Developer relations
Public relations
LONG TAIL SALES
Employee communications
General Marketing

TOP BUSINESS OBJECTIVES:
Reduce market research costs
Reduce market research costs
Bring outside ideas into the organization faster
Generate word of mouth
Improve PR effectiveness
Increase customer loyalty
Reduce customer support cost
Decrease customer acquisition cost
Decrease customer acquisition cost
Increase brand awareness
Increase new product success ratios

WHY ARE COMPANIES SETTING UP COMMUNITIES?
Speed of innovation – extending the edges of the organization
Learning organization
Reducing cost
Building trusted relations
Transformational power and game‐changing nature of communities
Transformational power and game changing nature of communities

WHO’S IN CHARGE?
Sales
Employee communications
Product development
MARKETING IT
Public Relations R&D
Finance Customer service

ORGANIZATIONAL TRANSFORMATION…
You can start communities without changing the way you work, but successful
communities will invariably transform your organizations…
New roles
New career paths
New career paths
New business processes
‐ NEW ENERGY ‐

THE CHANGING CMO ROLE…
Is the role of the CMO about to dramatically change?
Chief Community Officer – Representing the Voice of the Customer
or
Doomed to Irrelevancy?

Measuring progress and success – web analytics
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
DISCONNECT:
Not in support of any goal…

Measuring progress and success ‐ business measures
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%

MEASURING PROGRESS AND SUCCESS – QUALITATIVE
Tonality Software downloads
Sustainability engagement
Sentiment Activity levels
Participation rate Impact on sales
Impact on cost Growth Amount of learning
Anecdotal stories

MEASURING PROGRESS AND SUCCESS…
The importance to measure the impact on business processes the same way as those
p p p y
business processes are being measured today
The importance of metrics on behavior
Beware of rear‐view mirror effects
The importance of stories

Community features contributing the most to effectiveness
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%

The biggest obstacles to making communities work
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Could lead to premature
shutdown of community

OOPS – IT WORKS…
Reach of Word of Mouth for free
Advertising Revenue
g Knowledge about customers
Knowledge about customers
Lots of active users
Greater visibility
Ideas generated by communities
Id t db iti
That our market really will tell us what they want ‐‐ if we just ask
How happy customers are with the outreach

WHAT’S GOING ON HERE?
The more CONTENT you have the more MEMBERS you will get.
h S h
The more MEMBERS you have the more CONTENT you will get.
h CO ill
The better you match CONTENT and MEMBERS to MEMBER PROFILES the more
MEMBERS and CONTENT you will get.
y g
The easier it is to do TRANSACTIONS the more MEMBERS you will attract.
THOSE PILLARS CREATE THE DYNAMICS OF INCREASING RETURNS WHICH HELP
COMMUNITIES DELIVER GAME CHANGING RESULTS

AND OF COURSE…
The Technology Infrastructure of the community is important
The Technology Infrastructure of the community is important
The Social Infrastructure of the community is MORE important
BUT THEY ARE NOT AFFECTING THE ECONOMICS OF INCREASING RETURNS
THAT DELIVER GAME CHANGING RESULTS

POTENTIAL COMMUNITY INHIBITORS…
Incentives
Corporate culture
Lack of physical component
Lack of physical component
Community moderator profiles
Community social infrastructure

COMMUNITY BEST AND WORST PRACTICES…
BEST WORST
Clear goals + purpose Start with technology
Right talent
Right talent Marketing campaign
Marketing “campaign”
Commitment + time Mixing business/consumer motives
Topic engenders passion No facilitation
Social + communal Metrics vs. business measures

CAN YOU BUILD COMMUNITIES WITH PREDICTABLE SUCCESS?
Is the focus hitting a pain, interest that people need help, want to give help?
g p , p p p, g p
Understand the importance of the size of your addressable community
If you do not have critical mass – invest in professionally developed content
If you do not have critical mass invest in professionally developed content
If your community would not succeed in a discussion group – it will not work
YOU MIGHT GIVE UP SOME OF THE EFFECTS OF THE DYNAMICS OF INCREASING
RETURNS BUT STILL GAIN MORE THAN BY USING INTERRUPT TECHNIQUES

OTHER INTERESTING FINDINGS…
Integration of the community with existing public communities – Facebook, twitter
g y gp ,
The importance of time‐based events – innovation jams, events, etc.
There are differences in community behavior – mobs, swarms, hives, tourists, fans
There are differences in community behavior mobs swarms hives tourists fans

SOME EARLY PREDICTIONS…
Communities will have a huge impact on organizational change
g p g g
Communities will transform the marketing organization and change the CMO role
A disconnect between metrics and goals and between community goals and business
A disconnect between metrics and goals and between community goals and business
goals will lead to many failures

CONCLUSION…
Communities can be build with predictable success
p
Communities are transformational
If done properly, the benefits are not level‐setting –
If done properly the benefits are not level setting
they are GAME‐CHANGING

QUESTIONS?
Contact
francois@beelinelabs.com
emoran@deloitte.com
Project web site
Project web site
http://www.communityeffectiveness.com
Blog
http://www.emergencemarketing.com