The Benefits Of Building An Online Community For Your Business
11th February, 2010 - Mumbai, India
An online community is a virtual community that allows internet users to engage with like-minded individuals and with organizations through use of interactive tools such as e-mail, bulletin boards, chat, blogs etc.
Building an online community for your business has multiple benefits from gaining feedback from past and future customers to promoting your products and services to an interested audience. According to a survey conducted by organizations using online communities (Beeline Labs, Deloitte and the Society for New Communications Research), the greatest value of online communities is that they increase word-of-mouth by 35%, increase brand awareness by 28%, bring new ideas into the organization faster by 24% and increase customer loyalty by 24%.
Interactive Communication: An online community enables you to reach out to globally situated customers (past and potential) without spending large sums of money on advertising campaigns.
Unlike most advertising campaigns, communication on an online community is interactive in nature, whereby you not only communicate your message but also receive direct feedback from your past and potential customers. This two-way communication is an excellent way to gain insights into your customer's mind.
Loyalty & Promotion: An online community has an extensive, interested audience that you can convert easily when promoting a new product.
An online community is not a one off activity. It is a continuous process. You need to regularly add content (relevant to your business) to your community, answer queries, address customer issues etc. This continuous effort on your part will help build strong and loyal relationships between the members of your community and your organization. This loyalty and following can be extremely beneficial when you launch a new product or service as these members already trust in your brand and so are easier to convert into customers.
Support & Feedback: An online community gives like-minded individuals a forum to meet, discuss ideas and problems and more.
Customers want to talk to each other. They want to discuss what is great about the product they bought, what is missing and what would make the product more attractive or give more value. By building an online community for your business, you provide your existing customers with a ready forum to discuss these issues. An online community can also serve as a trusted information source for new customers. These forums can serve as a breeding ground for new product and service as you gain insights into customer's wants and needs.
In short, an online community is a common forum where globally situated customers can communicate with each other, share information and ideas and start discussions via bulletin boards, blogs or even chat rooms. They are an excellent way for you (business /website owner) to take the pulse of consumers to, and to generate unique content.
Building an online community for your business has multiple benefits from gaining feedback from past and future customers to promoting your products and services to an interested audience. According to a survey conducted by organizations using online communities (Beeline Labs, Deloitte and the Society for New Communications Research), the greatest value of online communities is that they increase word-of-mouth by 35%, increase brand awareness by 28%, bring new ideas into the organization faster by 24% and increase customer loyalty by 24%.
Interactive Communication: An online community enables you to reach out to globally situated customers (past and potential) without spending large sums of money on advertising campaigns.
Unlike most advertising campaigns, communication on an online community is interactive in nature, whereby you not only communicate your message but also receive direct feedback from your past and potential customers. This two-way communication is an excellent way to gain insights into your customer's mind.
Loyalty & Promotion: An online community has an extensive, interested audience that you can convert easily when promoting a new product.
An online community is not a one off activity. It is a continuous process. You need to regularly add content (relevant to your business) to your community, answer queries, address customer issues etc. This continuous effort on your part will help build strong and loyal relationships between the members of your community and your organization. This loyalty and following can be extremely beneficial when you launch a new product or service as these members already trust in your brand and so are easier to convert into customers.
Support & Feedback: An online community gives like-minded individuals a forum to meet, discuss ideas and problems and more.
Customers want to talk to each other. They want to discuss what is great about the product they bought, what is missing and what would make the product more attractive or give more value. By building an online community for your business, you provide your existing customers with a ready forum to discuss these issues. An online community can also serve as a trusted information source for new customers. These forums can serve as a breeding ground for new product and service as you gain insights into customer's wants and needs.
In short, an online community is a common forum where globally situated customers can communicate with each other, share information and ideas and start discussions via bulletin boards, blogs or even chat rooms. They are an excellent way for you (business /website owner) to take the pulse of consumers to, and to generate unique content.
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