Future of Online Communities

© AberdeenGroup 2008

Leveraging Social Interaction in Online Communities to Drive Business Value

Jeff ZabinVP / Research FellowAberdeen Group

Dan LatendreCEOIGLOO Software

September 15, 2009

Connie AllenCommunity FacilitatorMotorola

2 • © AberdeenGroup 2008

Introductions About Jeff...

About Connie…

About Dan…


When it comes to brand recommendations, who do you trust?

Recommendations from a friend are far more credible and effective than any traditional marketing message.

People love to refer things, whether it’s a

book you read, a movie you saw or a product you loved. That’s what we do

as social creatures.

Diana LeClair, Marketing Manager

Marty Collins, Senior Product

Marketing Manager


A few key concepts Social media marketing Social media monitoring Social media integration Customer advocacy Peer-to-peer customer support Customer-driven innovation Online communities

A lot of social media tools do a great job of telling you

what’s being said and who’s saying it. What we really want to know is who’s listening to the conversation and how

does it permeate outwards.

Adam Brown Director, Digital Communications

Cathy Halligan, Chief Marketing Officer

We’re seeking to connect our community of 130 million customers in an easy way, and one that’s not solely

geographical. We’re continuing to evolve our community elements of the

site as well as in the stores and connect the two together so there’s

online/offline activity.

Inherent in the power of Web 2.0, the emergence of online communities, and the

transfer of power from big, centralized command-and-control structures like

corporations to large groups of disseminated individuals like customers is the need to move

from push information to pull information.

Matt Smith, Vice President, Marketing

Social media provides a platform for peer-to-

peer sharing of information that allows

your brand to reach new audiences.


The evolution of online communities…Our beta testers are using our online

community platform to provide feedback on upcoming releases. The platform has been a huge

success in terms of cost reduction. The resources that it takes to

manage the entire process are significantly less. Also, the time that it takes to get the information back to the team is a huge advantage

because it allows us to respond to issues very quickly.

Kim Josephs, Director, Online Communities

The online community platform enables customer-to-customer

thought sharing as well as Motorola-to-customer and customer-to-

Motorola thought sharing. Time and cost savings are huge benefits."

Connie Allen, Consultant Events Manager


Best-in-Class vs. Laggard companies

Customer advocacy Consumer insights Market research costs

Top pressures:

Performance criteria:

17%

19%

26%

27%

45%

47%

48%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%

Improve customer research capabilities

Improve customer support capabilities

Increase customer acquisition

Increase customer retention

Increase customer advocacy / word of mouth

Increase product/brand awareness

Increase customer loyalty

Percentage of Respondents, n = 301

17%

19%

26%

27%

45%

47%

48%

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%

Improve customer research capabilities

Improve customer support capabilities

Increase customer acquisition

Increase customer retention

Increase customer advocacy / word of mouth

Increase product/brand awareness

Increase customer loyalty

Percentage of Respondents, n = 301

The Adidas online community consists of customers from multiple sports

interest groups, including soccer, U.S. football, running and basketball. We

recruited people from multiple different databases to build one large

community.

Chris Murphy, Director, Digital Marketing


Measuring for Success


Some recommended actions

Define best practices for utilizing and deriving actionable insights from online communities.

Train selected employees to engage in online conversations with consumers.

Use social media monitoring capabilities to identify and measure the value of key influencers.

Identify and segment consumers engaged in online conversations about the brand.

Integrate social media marketing in online communities with other marketing tactics / media buys.

Correlate customer advocacy to financial outcomes.



Motorola User Groups

Online Community launched December 2008 Built on the IGLOO online community platform Private or “gated” community 1,100 active members Focus is user groups: Trunked User Group, Mutual User

Group, Mobile Data User Group Wanted to facilitate conversation and support the needs

of its Enterprise Mobility customers Host events in an online forum to maintain dialogue,

continuity and interest


Main intent to connect to customers outside of face-to-face meetings Manage and coordinate over 100 distinct user groups and their activities Gather feedback on product features and set up test groups on new

products Connect users via product usage & product forums Create and disseminate customer testimonials & stories, product

specifications Their ultimate goal was to create product evangelists.

Motorola required a more sophisticated, flexible and secure way to interact and connect with hundreds of users online. They needed to:


Solution Branded 100% Motorola in adherence to standard corporate guidelines Members are organized into groups based on specific product categories

(roles & perms) Members populate and use personal profiles; connect with other members

related to specific product interests; control privacy of their personal information.

Use the event calendar to set up and promote local user group meetings in their territories online.

Facilitation of product “test groups” and offer a variety of feedback mechanisms such as rating, commenting, discussion groups, expert bloggers and messaging.

Use wiki pages for disseminating best practices, SOP’s, rules etc. A knowledge library for storing, managing and disseminating customer

testimonials and stories, product specifications and documentation.


Suggestion Box

Blogs, Wiki, The survey..? Connie, this is where we’ll need some of your input/screenshots


Insights

The community has exceeded expectations in terms of benefits. It enables customer-to-

customer thought sharing as well as Motorola-to-customer and customer-to- Motorola knowledge exchange. Time and costs savings are a huge

benefit, as is employee productivity


Customers and employees alike become spokespeople for the brand Helping customers to succeed by sharing best practices and lessons

learned Immediate feedback drives new product development, reduces beta

testing and increases customer adoption The platform facilitates cross-sell activity, simply by having user groups

in such close proximity – for example users of 2 way voice radio are being exposed to products related to broadband wireless networks; the community presents unique selling opportunities

Motorola has gone beyond building brand advocates and product evangelists


What Do We Do?

We help organizations build, deploy and manage successful online

communities and social networks.


3. Connect employees and key stakeholders who are on the road, in different offices or

who work in other time zones.

2. Stop vital corporate knowledge being trapped in information silos like email, laptops and

enterprise applications.

1. Expand your understanding access and utilization of your

organizational expertise.

Web 2.0 Value Proposition

“ Social interactions drive business transactions – personal and team

perspective”


Business is both a personal and social

activity... Companies don’t build products, do deals or make

service calls...

...People do!


Managing people is hard.

• Know-how• Skills• Ideas• Conversations• Experience• Expertise• Relationships


Managing teams is even harder.

• Focus• Control• Buy-in• Ownership• Goals &

Objectives

• Collaborate• Share• Problem Solve• Measure• Learn


Managing your entire company without the right tools is darn near

impossible.





Solutions NOT Software

COMMUNITY SOLUTIONS

COST EFFECTIVEVIBRANTVIRALSTICKYSUSTAINABLEMEASUREABLE

• SAS 70 • PCI DSS• CIC 5970 II

• Secure• Integrated• Extensible

• Support• Professional Services• Training• Community Facilitation• E-engagement• SEO, SEM, SMM

• Configurable• Customizable• Design

• Planning• Design• Deployment• Growth


Community Playbook


Questions & AnswersWe now have time to answer a

questions. We will take questions via WebEx at this time. Please introduce

yourself and your organization.


Thank-You!The proof is in the pudding…

Sign up for a Trial Community today and we’ll give you 2 hours of consulting services

to show you how you can benefit from online community solutions.


[email protected]

Contact

Check out www.igloosoftware.com/frostbites IGLOO’s digital media center –

learn more about online communities and IGLOO

solutions.

Technology

Future of Online Communities