The Missing 8th Component of the Seven Components of Successful Community
The use of social media is becoming more mainstream, and many companies are just starting to use it to engage their customers, partners, and employees. As this is happening, it continues to amaze me how many companies rollout a social media initiative without the proper planning. (See my post: Proper Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance (The Six Ps).) Instead, they focus on what they (the company) wants to get out of the engagement, and the platform/tools. By doing so they bypass (among other things), strategy, initial and ongoing planning, resource allocation for community management, and measurement – and then wonder they why the return on their social media investment is mediocre at best.
This is precisely why the “Tools / Rollout” component is the seventh component of my Seven Components of Successful Community. While selection and use of the right tools is a critical component, tools themselves are not what makes a social media initiative successful. It takes a congruent strategy where all the initiative stakeholders are involved, planning for ALL components of the initiative (not just the tools), and continued nurturing of the program and community. I thought seven components covered it. My bad. Twenty lashes with a wet noodle are due.
Special imported lashing noodles, straight from Italy.
I can’t help but be even more pained when I see a company take the time to go through the time and effort to develop a strategy and plan… but without any social media expertise. By comparison, you wouldn’t hire an accountant to design your house – so why would you rely on an IT developer (albeit a great one) to design a new online community that needs to foster communication? You might end up with an online community without any of the social media tools. Yes, really.
I won’t name the company, but a recent visit to the new, re-launched “Community” pages of a well known and growing mid-size SaaS software company in Boston brought it home in spades. Beyond a developer network, this new online “community” is nothing more than an online library – there’s literally no conversation. The kicker is that they spent a considerable amount of time on strategy and planning! Granted they do have a wealth of great content available, but it’s not community. If you think it is, I challenge you to go to your local library, stand between two rows of books, and try to carry on a conversation with nobody else there. If you are able to, congratulations… we’ll send the nice men in the white coats with the rubber van. They’ll give you candy if you behave.
Not only did they not leverage social media expertise, but beyond the developer network, there is no social media functionality (TOOLS) in these “communities”. Instead they have a great library for each of their defined verticals, containing Thought Leadership (primarily white papers), Case Studies, Products and Services (product announcements), and News and Events (including webinars). No forums, no blogs, no inbound or outbound RSS feeds, no profiles, comments, no idea share or innovation collaboration,… nothing.
Because of the opportunity lost, sometimes misguided efforts are sometimes worse than no efforts at all. I’ll be posting about that in the near future. But for now, my message to companies just getting started in social networking: If you don’t have the expertise, GET IT. Otherwise, your prospective membership will see that you don’t.
And welcome to the group, Expertise. The other Seven Components of Successful Community have been waiting for you.
Thoughts? Comments?
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