Own your own or build a Facebook community

The concept of online community, and brands engaging directly with their customers, prospects, critics and stakeholder, is still relatively new; and many companies considering a move into social media are nervous of the perceived loss of control. Graeme Harvey, managing director of HuzuTech explains more.

So for many the starting point is Facebook. With 400 million active users spending 500 billion minutes per month it is undoubtedly important for a consumer-facing brand to create and own its own Facebook page. But it is not without issues, not least company pages created automatically, sometimes with content from unauthorised sources.

So, it’s always struck us as strange that companies should take their first steps in social media by creating a community on a social network where they have no control at all. Why give away all that valuable customer data and advertising revenue to a third party? Or limit yourself to someone elses functionality?

Early adopter brands are increasingly using social media communities as part of their customer relations strategy. Eircom, the Irish telecoms operator, has created its own, highly successful customer community – eircom connect – which complements its existing customer support services, and improves online customer communications by opening up a genuinely two-way dialogue with customers.

Could you do this on Facebook? The answer, simply, is no. To have a meaningful engagement within a customer community, you need more than the kind of forum provided by Facebook.

So, what are the key things to consider if you want to create a social media community?

What are your objectives?
Firstly, work out exactly what you want to achieve. If it is to provide a great customer service experience, you need to consider what tools your customers will expect from you. Do you want the community to act as a sales channel? In which case, you need the facilities allow this to happen.

What is the killer reason for people to come to your site?
Like any site, a branded community has to have a compelling reason for consumers to visit. That might be because you provide specialist information or unique content; or because consumers can get great deals, that they can’t get elsewhere; or because they can take part in an experience online; or because it’s your customer service hub and your customers get great service there. Plus, good communities are a two way street consumers should get the opportunity to interact with many fellow consumers rather than the one to many communication that is common in static marketing websites.

Can the community become self-funding?
Consumers are often more receptive to relevant advertising on a specialist community than they are on a generic social network. You might consider some targeted advertising; or a sponsored area of the site (for example, if you’re a fashion retailer, you might have an area of the community sponsored by a fashion label that you stock). In this way, you can create a community that actually generates value and income. Because members of communities are self selecting – they are actively interested in the topic that the community covers – they are much more likely to respond positively to tightly targeted advertising than consumers without a specific interest.

How will you measure success?
The size of a community doesn’t necessarily reflect its success. On an owned community, you can measure: what action consumers take after being on your community; what are the most profitable areas of the community; who are the most valuable members of that community – so you can reward them and encourage them to be your advocates; and what, ultimately, the financial impact has been of the community (by including a sales channel, for example). You should also keep a close eye through social analytics on areas that are not operating to plan and react quickly to any negativity or issues created.

With your own community you have a wide choice of tools that you can provide to its members, from activity streams and private messaging, through comment and rating functions to connect functions - so you can connect to Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter etc and share content between networks.

As the community manager you can utilize tools that allow you to generate income through sales or advertising; targeted content; and analyse activity and commercial success.

The level of control that a brand can have on its own community, as opposed to a third party social network page, is what makes it such a compelling proposition. If the barrier to social media take-up by brands is control, then providing a social community within the brand’s ultimate control seems to be an ideal answer.

Promoting Social CRM

For brands looking to improve their customer relationship management, customer communities can be an effective part of a planned multi-channel strategy. For many brands their customers are now the first line in customer relationship management. Consumers are increasingly likely to search for solutions online if they have an issue with a product or service, and many end up finding the answer not from a company representative, but from a fellow consumer who has encountered the same issue in the past.

Although brands cannot and should not manipulate this process, they can provide a place where consumers can come together to form a community, which will become their first port of call if they have a problem to solve or experience to share. Rather than phone the customer service team and answer a list of question to find the solution, customers can go to the community for assistance, helping to alleviate the pressure on call centres. The community becomes part of the customer services mix alongside telephone, email and face-to-face support.

Of course, not all brands will want or need to set up their own customer community. Some may find the community pages on Facebook more than enough for their customers needs. But as their fan base expands, they may want to deepen levels of brand/consumer engagement which Facebook pages currently limit.

What social CRM offers is an opportunity for brands to engage customers over social media, and respond to criticism and complaints head on, rather than burying their heads in the sand. Most brands realise that fans and haters will be there even if the brand is absent. In fact, a failure to engage can alienate the brand from consumers and help foster negative sentiment. Providing a customer community is one way for brands to show that they support and appreciate this contribution.

Other trends we’re seeing at the moment include brands starting to establish social hubs - communities where fans can engage with each other rather than the brand, and talk about interests rather than service or product issues. Brands are also seeking to engage employees and promote company ethos by turning the company intranet, previously used as a knowledge base, into a more social experience.

If you are considering setting up a customer community we have come up with a list of key things to consider, which you can find here. www.huzutech.com