Comments on: An open letter to companies planning online communities

By: Debi P

Debi P — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 16:31:56 +0000

Can I just tell you I think you are doing a great service. I have been preaching this to my clients for years now. Still, it’s hard to get people to understand that the purpose of social media is not to drive people to your website or build sales or anything other than (in my opinion) build vibrant communities. I love your perspective. And you speak to it so beautifully. Thank you.

By: Don�t build an online customer community « Social Media Building Blocks

Don�t build an online customer community « Social Media Building Blocks — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 20:02:48 +0000

[...] and he�s happy to share his expertise. I commented on a post that resonated with me, An open letter to companies planning online communities. In this post, Martin does a great job covering all the points for building a community as well as [...]

By: Heather Strout

Heather Strout — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 21:15:21 +0000

@Jim, I wrote a whole blog post in response to your comment. In short, your customers will find plenty of places to complain about your products. Wouldn’t you rather know what their saying and have the opportunity to address their concerns?

You can read the full post here: http://farlandgroup.com/blog/don%E2%80%99t-build-an-online-customer-community/

Heather Strout | @heatherjstrout

By: Don�t build an online customer community « Farland Group | Blog: Voice of the Customer

Fri, 16 Jul 2010 21:08:36 +0000

[...] and he�s happy to share his expertise.� I commented on a post that resonated with me, An open letter to companies planning online communities.� In this post, Martin does a great job covering all the points for building a community as well [...]

By: jim

jim — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 20:47:42 +0000

Communities can be a double edge sword, gives a place for customers to complain about your products.

By: Simon

Simon — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 04:58:00 +0000

Businesses still dont understand the importance of online communities and how they can have their employees promote (or demote) their services.

controls and systems need to be put in place for all this stuff…

By: Jerome Pineau

Jerome Pineau — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 14:09:33 +0000

I’m a day late and a dollar short to this party (should have discovered this blog a long time ago) but I have to say the key phrase is “You need to be willing and able to change as a company”. As a matter of fact, in my experience, as Ron White would say, you can’t fix stupid and, applied to this context, you cannot fix a company not wanting to change – no matter what technical or intellectual resources you throw at the CM endeavor. At the end of the day, nothing overcomes a stagnant corporate culture. Just my 2 cents

By: Mark

Mark — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 09:48:19 +0000

Most businesses fail to define how they will benefit from an online community. This is what can lead them straight into a sales pitch, make them impatient for results or make them measure the wrong outcomes as you mention in your post. For most businesses, the best benefit they will achieve is a close dialogue with people who care about and buy their products or services. They will get to know their market better than anyone else. For this reason, your points about universal buy-in and support for the community are critical – there is no point in only the community manager benefiting from this dialogue. Everyone needs to be involved.

By: Matthew

Matthew — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 09:42:55 +0000

Great post! I agree that online communities need to be about the bigger picture, about what the customers want, rather than focussing on individual products. You need to get to know the consumers. This is the mistake many companies make – not mine however!

By: Meesan

Meesan — Sun, 30 May 2010 16:54:05 +0000

Great post! This will definitely help everyone looking to create a business community. It’s just another strategy to help your business become more personal with the other people around you. If people can see your business in a more accessible yet professional way, you’ll get more interested people! Anyways great advice, i know i first blindly went into this myself. This’ll keep me from making some other mistake too! Thanks again!