The Wall Street Journal provides some good advice on building successful online communities in, The Fans Know Best. It begins with the observation that most often with most successful online communities are not started by companies but by their fans. The company versions tend to be too controlling and stifle participation and contribution.
The first tip follows form this observation: Stop controlling everything. Most company-run communities host discussions about their products and service but allow nothing they consider off this topic. They are often afraid on getting content about their competitors or complain about their products. However, they fail to realize that people with these thoughts can go to the many other communities on the topic. Then the company loses the chance to respond and the opportunity to learn about genuine concerns with the product that might need fixing. Just because the comments are not allowed on the company site, does not mean they go away. In fact, they may come back with a vengeance on other sites.
A great example of consumer revenge is the United Break Guitars video that had 5,692,353 views they last time I looked and my be making a career for the song writer who had United Airlines break his guitar and refuse to compensate him after a year of effort to get justice on his part. An open community might have let United become aware of the danger of their lack of response before the passenger was driven to write a song over his efforts.
The second tip is to welcome diversity. Many companies actually limit visitors to existing customers. This seems to defy logic. I would think they would want to use the community to bring in potential customers and have them talk with customers to learn the value of the product from a more trusted resource. Having a diverse community will also enable more creative insights for product use.
The third tip is to allow community members the ability to interact. Some company led communities only allow visitors to interact with company representatives. What are they afraid of? People are much more likely to believe another customer than a company person. I have experienced this may times myself. However, fan run communities by definition support this exchange.
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