Enterprise Best Practice For Community

Enterprise Communities: Best Practices and Lessons Learned Vanessa DiMauro CEO, Leader Networks & SNCR Fellow @vdimauro NewComm Forum April, 2009

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

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.

Enterprise Community Strategic Planning What does the business need for the community to be successful? What do community members need from the community to get value? Copyright © 2009 Leader Networks Begin with the end in mind Find the overlap & build for relevance to both audiences

Three Types of Enterprise Online Communities

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

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

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

Typical Enterprise Community Programs

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

What Can you Expect From Your Members? 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. Copyright © 2009 Leader Networks Visitor Novice Regular Leader

EXAMPLES OF SUCCESSFUL ENTERPRISE COMMUNITIES

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

The Palladium Group Execution Premium Community Welcome to the XPC Conference attendees continue the discussion and networking on XPC. [read more] The Premier Community for Practitioners Seeking to Achieve an Execution Premium . Takehiko Nagumo Senior Vice President, Union Bank of California Patricia Bush Welcome to the XPC Mohammed Al Dhaheri Etihad Airways MaryCarrera State Street Bank Jim Rodgers Boeing Ralph Simon Vivendi Before taking this position, he was VP of Corporate Planning Division in NY both at The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ . Takehiko has successfully implemented the BSC twice… Lucia Fortini Frank Del Rio Lessons in how to manage through today’s downturn from companies that made it through the last one. [read more] In Association With:

ENTERPRISE COMMUNITY BEST PRACTICES

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

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 X a) Identify the business value drivers for the community b) Research normative returns for community, industry and company c) Develop KPIs and KRI to measure activity d) Establish data tracking and reporting system Copyright © 2009 Leader Networks

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

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 Over

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 Marketing & 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 Tools & Techniques System Design Plan Goals and Key Objectives Metrics and Milestone Innovation Design Development Assessment Align with Marketing Prototype tools Identify key goals: i.e. reputation management, peer group collaboration, thought leadership, evangelization Design document: Who – do you want to attract or connect with What – is your point of view: expert, learner, specialty, tone When – timeframe for mini-milestones that support goals Where – digital channels Why – 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