09.22.2005

“HartBeat” is The Hartman Group's FREE online newsletter, providing insight, analysis, information and strategy to give business leaders the knowledge and vision to build sustainable brands.

For more Hartman Group articles on COMMUNITY, click here...

04.28.2005 "Brand Building in the Early Stages"

04.07.2005 "Trader Joe's: Cracking the Code of Lifestyle Brands"

03.17.2005 "Grow Your Business Like a Weed: Branding by Example"

02.17.2005 "Telling Stories: The Brand Connection"

12.09.2004 "Soul Logic and the Art of Keeping It Real"

11.23.2004 "The New Brand Mindset: Organizing for Cultural Legitimacy"

11.18.2004 "The Branding of Organics: What Works and What Doesn't"

07.01.2004 "Community Outreach & Your Brand Equity"

07.25.2003 "The Magic of the Cultural Brand" - an interview with Harvey Hartman

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5 Tips For Building An Online Community

People, by our very human nature, are social beings. We work, learn and play in groups. We seek others, crave attention and enjoy interaction and exchange. We have an innate need for more meaningful communication. An outcrop of this basic need is the community, the gathering place where people come together bonded by a common purpose or interest.

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Online communities are much the same as their counterparts in the physical world. In both the physical and online worlds, consumers have choices, hundreds, even thousands of them.

The difference with an online community is that it transcends the physical limitations of time and distance. This is one exciting reality of the online space, as it makes it easier to bring together like-minded people who otherwise would never meet in a physical environment. This, however, can also be a significant obstacle for the virtual space, as a community, by its very definition, is an indigenous expression of human social life; and as such is responsive to the interests and concerns of the local population that composes the community.

Successful, thriving communities (virtual or otherwise), cannot be planned, engineered and instituted - in the same manner that "successful" advertising campaigns are - from the top down. Instead, they must arise organically. How can you ensure that consumers will repeatedly come together and participate in your online community? By drawing on parallels with the notion of community in the physical world, one gains a better understanding of how consumers make sense of and participate in online communities.

Here, then, are a few tips for fostering a successful online community.

1. Give users a reason to belong. Who will want to join if they don't know what you stand for, why you exist or what's in it for them. You need to have a well-defined and clearly articulated purpose for being from the consumer's viewpoint. Craig's List is a perfect example of this: "Craig's List is about giving each other a break, getting the word out about everyday, real-world stuff." They supply the bandwidth, infrastructure and framework to allow their users to sell stuff, buy stuff, find jobs, find friends...you name it. Focus on the needs of the community and the lifestyle interests of your consumers...and then let them run with it.
   
   
2. Give the user a "voice": the consumer, not the company, drives the community. Users need an effective method to interact with a company directly and get the answers to questions that are most relevant to them. Users look to the Web to research, query, communicate and share on very specific topics that match their lifestyle - not a static corporate brochure. Build an avenue to establish a strong relationship and honest dialogue with customers. Nothing artificial, engineered or contrived here. It must be authentic. Let consumers tell you what is important to them and what they want to know and talk about. Give them an avenue up front to initiate the dialogue with you, and more importantly, with other consumers.
   
   
3. Put control of the relationship in the hands of the consumer. There are innumberable Web sites out there offering health and wellness advice or content, yet finding reliable, interesting and meaningful content on a given topic can be a daunting task. (Moreover, the user has to find this content.) So, become the purveyor of knowledge for your consumers...but do it on their terms. Give users the ability to subscribe to topics of interest on your site and deliver that information to the user via email. Email is by far the most popular use of the Internet. Email marketing and Internet systems cater to customization and a sense of community. For example, based on The Hartman Group's research, today's consumers are picking and choosing products, services and information that cater to their own lifestyle aspirations at the degree to which they want to participate. Nothing is "one size fits all." Therefore, personalized, opt-in email is a perfect vehicle for these behaviors.

   Relinquishing control isn't so easy, though. This means allowing the subscriber to have control of everything from what they read (topic selection and filters to ensure deliverability of highly qualified content) to when they read it (providing frequency options, such as "once a week" or "once a month"). If this means some customers won't hear from you everytime you broadcast information, so be it; because what this ensures is the content they do receive will be highly relevant to their lifestyle, on their terms.
   
   

4. Earn users trust. Respect the privacy of the user. Provide valuable information that is important to your audience and is created from credible, reliable sources. Handle email communication with the greatest care. Don't abuse this trust. It is critical that information sent to the user is not only useful, but high quality and highly qualified. The user will trust the relationship more knowing that they are always in control and could, for example, change or even delete a subscription at any time.
   
   
5. To grow, look to the core. Word of mouth rules. The most active users, your core, will attract more users than your best marketing efforts. By reaching out with a trusted connection with your cutomer and offer something of real value to them, a very magical thing happens: they talk, share and tell others about your Web site and your product. Provide "forward to a friend" technology to promote this viral marketing. Best practices here allow the user to decide which items to forward along with a personalized note. Again, the more flexibility and control the user has the better. The core manifests a sense of community. This attracts people who want to be around others with similar interests and like-mindedness.

To help build and extend your online community in the virtual space create an on-going dialogue with your users and engage users in the local community in the physical space by informing them of events, programs and specific topics of interest to bring them together. Keep it simple, useful, innovative, and interesting...and let users have a voice. By growing your role as a trusted knowledge provider (not just an information provider), you become more than a trusted resource...you become a Lifestyle Advocate.

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