Corporate America Just Doesn’t Get Community

With all the buzz around social networking and online communities, I’m not surprised that many large corporations want to get in on the action. Unfortunately, many just don’t get it. Social Networking or an online community is not something you can just “put a few good people on it for a couple months.” There is no easy “if you build it, they will come” solution.

Furthermore, building a community from scratch, is a much different beast then trying to integrate community into an existing product or service. Too many companies (partially including my own, ZoomInfo) want to take community elements and wedge them into something that may just not fit. How successful is taking a square peg and trying to make it fit in a round hole? So, how can companies get in the social media game? Using Walmarts social networking bust as an example, a company needs to build to…

Engage their existing audience, not attract a new one
Social networks and online communities are attractive to many companies because they see how many people (new people) they can attract. But in my opinion a company needs to build social features to engage and please their existing audience above all. The happier customers are, the more they will evangelize your product. A community spreads from their existing audience, outwards. Not outwards, in.

This is where companies actually have an advantage over communities that start from scratch. They already have an existing audience to work from. But making them happy should be first priority.

Walmarts attempt was to attract young teens and make Walmart products look cool. But who are walmarts core audience? Definitely not teens. Walmart was trying to attract a new audience rather then satisfy their existing audience.

Provide value to the user, not the company
Most corporations have build with the mindset of building the company. The company is at the core of these thoughts and plans. But communities are about the users, not the company behind them. Every feature needs to be designed to add value for the user, and in return the company will be provided with value from a more engaged audience.

Walmart’s attempt was purely focused on benefiting walmart. All of the features were designed around promoting and selling walmarts products. How does this benefit the user of the community?

Fit with the current experience and goals of the organization
Sometimes social features just don’t make sense. Which is why every company needs to ask themselves if social features fit with the longstanding goals of the organization. Companies need to try and enhance the current experience, not create an entirely new one.

Walmart is about providing a one stop shop at super low prices. Not being the cool hip store for young teens to buy clothes and other products. So why was the latter case the focus of their social network? They saw a hole, or what they thought was an opportunity, in their current audience and tried to use social media to plug it.

Thanks to Mark of MarksGuide.com for encouraging my thoughts for this post.

[tags]Social Networking, Social Network, Online Communities, Corporate America, Social Media Strategy, Building Community, Walmart, Brian Balfour[/tags]