Marketing Interactions

Joe Pulizzi Talks about Junta42 and Content Marketing

Joe Pulizzi is the master mind and Chief Content Officer behind Junta42 - the new community site that's all about content marketing and custom publishing for marketers. With their recent posting of the Junta42 Top Blogs list for content marketing insights, and the site formally coming out of beta, I thought it was time we got to know a bit more about what Junta 42 is all about.

What is content marketing?

Joe Pulizzi (JP): Content marketing is the idea that businesses can and should be their own publishers. Technology, as well as significant changes in buyer behavior, has given businesses the opportunity to communicate directly with their customers without going through the media as distributors. Content marketing isn't just any content though...it is the creation of valuable content that meets the informational needs of the target audience. By delivering meaningful content on a continuous basis, businesses are positioned as thought leaders, experts and solutions providers for their customers.

Which marketers does Junta42 aim to bring together?

JP: We are trying to create a place where marketing professionals of all shapes and sizes can learn and interact with other marketers who believe that content marketing should be a significant part of their business model. Junta42 was created out of a frustration of the lack of educational sites around the creation of great business content. There have always been sites out there to help distribute and market, but simply not enough about bringing the content equation together.

Why do these marketers need an application like Junta42?

JP:The biggest complement we've heard from marketers is that they don't feel alone any more. Also, marketing professionals are now saying, "Yes, we've been focusing on content marketing, we just didn't know what to call it." Ultimately, it comes down to the fact that businesses can't market the way they used to. Buyers today are smarter and technology is better. In order to engage our customers, we need to give them information to help make them smarter - to help make their lives better. Businesses can't just sell products anymore, they must provide solid, consistent, educational information.

What's been the return on Junta42 for you so far?

JP: When we launched the site, the plan was to work to create a community around content marketing, and it's all beginning to come together. We wanted to do that first before we launched any "revenue-generating" products. We've turned down advertising to this point as well - it's too important for us right now to just get the community going. Content marketing is just starting to catch on - and we are glad to be a part of it. This practice is just way too important.

Is 'digg for content marketing' an accurate description for Junta42?

JP: Technically, we are probably somewhere between a social media and a business bookmarking site, but "content marketing community" probably best describes it. As we continue to launch new products and initiatives, we'll probably end up looking like more of a media site than anything else.

What makes Junta42 unique? What about alternatives such as vertical groups in diigo, blinklist or simpy, beetoobee, ...?

JP: Those are all good sites and serve different purposes, but we are the only ones that really focus on the practice and evolution of content marketing - how to create it, distribute it, market it, and measure it. We may be close to sites like marketingprofs or even BtoB magazine, we just happen promote the social media aspect of content more.

What does Junta42 offer that these alternatives don't?

JP: Other than the above, it will be the continual focus on just content marketing and nothing else.  Those other sites get into all aspects of business information and marketing...we are working to keep a laser focus on business content and the marketing of it as the future of marketing communications.

Why should content marketers and custom publishers engage in Junta42?

JP: We are the only online location that can bring these two business groups together. With the launch of Junta42 Match this spring, marketing professionals will have the only place where they can find the perfect match for their business content needs. For custom publishers, new business is the most challenging part of the business. We believe that Junta42 Match will be the perfect place for custom publishers to find opportunities to help businesses generate the best outcomes from their content marketing initiatives.

How will the Junta42 project be sustainable in the long run?

JP:Junta42 Match will be the revenue component to the business (free to marketing professionals, a paid service for publishers who wish to be a part of the system). Over the next 12 to 18 months we will be launching premium educational initiatives for both marketers and custom publishers, which will continue to grow the business. Other than that, we'll continue to have fun trying new things to solve the challenges of today's marketing professional.

If there's anything else you'd like to know about Junta42, post your questions and I'm sure Joe will be happy to answer them. If you haven't checked it out, now's your chance.

In case you don't have it yet, Joe has also co-written an eBook Get Content, Get Customers, which can be downloaded free from the Junta42 blog - so go get a copy.

The Craft of Connections

For many organizations, an intranet, sales or customer portal is about having a place to display information of relevance. What if these online portals can create a connected base of expertise that organizations can tap to improve performance, as needed?

There's an ongoing debate about the difference between information and knowledge. In the past, online initiatives have been about making information available. However, that information is only as rich as it's presentation. In other words, how often does it change to keep up with market, industry and company changes? How do insights in practice get applied to the information available on a portal?

By creating a database of "experts" and giving them the interactive tools to connect to each other at the right time, you can improve and extend the knowledge of your organization beyond traditional boundaries. The idea is to create "communities of practice" by connecting people to those who can help them learn what they need to know to be more effective in real-time situations.

Creating a portal as a community, whether it is internal (intranet), goal-specifc (sales portal) or reaching outward (customer portal) is one way to start. But, it's not about just the exchange of information. It's about connecting expertise that can be useful. Which isn't easy. A community effort needs facilitation to generate participation. This is not an "if you build it, they will come" situation.

In an article, The Craft of Connection, by Tim Laseter and Rob Cross, they state, "People participate because they see value. Experts get recognition. As time goes by and people in the community start to know each other, they develop reciprocity. An individual in need today may be tomorrow’s expert providing the knowledge to help solve a problem. Gradually, we see much higher trust, and the community changes from the mode of ‘getting the right information to the right person at the right time’ to truly start building on each other’s ideas to find a solution to a problem. In other words, that’s when we start creating knowledge.”

They talk about using "natural brokers," the natural leaders that people gravitate to for information. These people usually have more connections throughout your organization than others. They are the ones who can help boost participation and be proactive in helping others make connections.

"...the greatest challenge in the world of intelligence gathering occurs not in data collection, but in making the connections that generate insight. A poorly connected intelligence community has a lower chance of turning data into useful knowledge..."

By creating a knowledge base of experts, your organization can begin to share the insights that are useful in obtaining strategic objectives. Give each person a profile. Include their picture. Also include a few professional details that help people who don't know them personally engage them in conversation more easily. Have each person select from a keyword database that will help others find them when their expertise, insights and opinions can help with a problem, project or innovation.

Use your natural leaders to facilitate discussion forum topics and encourage others to submit thoughts, comments and even articles about related issues they are passionate about.

If you are skeptical about the impact of establishing communities of practice, read the article. Some of the achievements companies have made are tremendous. The way to achieve improvements of scale through interactive expertise portals is to facilitate participation. If you don't connect the people in a meaningful way, then you'll have an information portal. Somehow, I think having an active community of practice portal leads to greater effectiveness and to a better experience.

What's a Sales Portal?

As my last post for 2006, I thought I'd spend some time talking about Sales Portals. I do a lot of work closing the loop between marketing and sales. It still amazes me the blank responses I get when I start talking about the usefulness of a good sales portal.

Part of that may be the word "portal" itself.

A portal is an online interface that delivers information and interactions that help accomplish a goal. So, a sales portal should increase sales effectiveness through delivering actionable information and tools that help salespeople close deals. It should also be an internal collaborative community for the organization.

Realistically, every department in the company has some kind of role in Sales. Since sales is the end-goal of a company, then  everyone from HR to Finance to R&D to support & service has a role in the sales process.  The context may vary, but everyone plays a part in either getting customers or keeping them.

The sales portal should inform, educate, nurture and connect the employees of a company to help them engage with each other in productive activities that increase the company's overall success at achieving strategic objectives.  Yes, all based around the customer. Existing customers, future customers and perhaps most importantly, lost customers.

Participation should be encouraged and enabled.  Ask yourself the following questions:

• Do you know what each person's specialty or expertise is at your company? 
• Do you know who's working on what projects in what capacity?
• Do you know all the initiatives underway at your company?
• Do you know what's coming down the pike for new product launches?
• Do you know the best uses your customers have found for your products?
• Do you know why you lost customer X last year?

Suffice it to say that you can "do you know" yourself to death and probably come up with the "No" answer more than the "Yes" answer. Streamlining processes and creating transparency between departments that improves customer experiences dramatically is the goal of the sales portal.

Okay - I know some of you are rolling your eyes, thinking, "No - a sales portal is for salespeople."

I will agree that there are some tools that should be specifically for authorized/permissioned salespeople - like quote and proposal tools and such, but think about this for a second. Shouldn't everyone at your company know what values your products/solutions/services deliver? Shouldn't your front-line service and support staff know  what customers are being promised so they can deliver on those promises?

Insight should be available about what leads have been exposed to, what they've pulled to them and used and what they've participated in with your company. From the lead nurturing process to the sales process, marketing's efforts should seamlessly transition to sales processes and be available to see on the portal.

If Sally finds out her neighbor's company is looking for a solution you offer, shouldn't Sally be able to enter a lead and submit it to the sales process? If Evan finds out why a lead is looking at a competing vendor, wouldn't it be helpful if he could log that information and alert the sales rep working on that lead? Yes, some structure and process is needed here, but this is a blog post...

If you enable the participation of all employees in relevant ways, your company is building a knowledgebase that will evolve as it is used.  An actionable knowledge system that organically grows with each addition and provides insights to customers and about the workings of the company that many of your employees may not currently have.

It never ceases to amaze me that many companies still operate on a "need-to-know basis." Is that an illusion of grandeur or just over-controlling at it's finest? The more horizontal your company can become, the more in-tune it will be with creating and sustaining valuable customer experiences.

Finally, consider how much email could be cut out and how much knowledge reused if the sales portal is built for and encourages participation. How much knowledge is floating around your company being shared between a few individuals and lost to the company as a whole? How much could customer experiences be improved and how would the sales process be impacted by creating an actionable sales knowledge system, AKA a Sales Portal?

What activities will your company take next year to build better customer experiences?

Making Knowledge Sharing Easy

In March, a survey conducted by IBM found that 80% of CEOs see collaboration as being critical to growth. Yesterday, I wrote about how difficult it is to get salespeople to buy in and use a sales portal managed by Marketing. Yet, if the two departments continue the standoff, the ability of companies to meet their strategic sales objectives will stall.

I see part of the problem as "ownership."  Salespeople "own" their knowledge and they are resistant to sharing because they see allowing their knowledge to become a company asset means (to them) they are expendable. Salespeople are competitive.  By their very natures, they are driven to be the best at what they do. For the sales portal to be effective, it has to give them tools that make a difference in elevating that perception.

Marketing is charged with providing the messaging, value propositions, information and presentations that sales is supposed to use to sell. But sales says it doesn't work. Marketing says they ask Sales what they want, give it to them and still, Sales turns up their collective noses.

Salespeople probably don't know what will help them be more effective in a way they can articulate. At least not when they're asked directly and they aren't in the midst of experiencing a frustration. This is why it's critical to have the sales portal be a collaborative zone that connects the two departments.  But, in order for it to be a bridge, contributing to it has to be easy and it has to come from both sides.

Sales needs to be allowed to contribute without much effort. Their contributions will aggregate and provide marketing a better idea of what's missing and how to deliver tools Sales can actually use to be more effective at selling.

Some ideas are:

• comment boxes that allow portal users to add notes and reactions to content


• rating systems that allow them to quickly check a box that says "this content is worth a 1 - 5 in my sales arsenal


• a WYSWYG content editor for them to post sales success or loss stories that are tied to the materials they used (your system can be smart enough to know this)


• discussion threads with company experts around competitor objections


• suggestion boxes that post the suggestions to the portal and make marketing accountable for responding (not necessarily doing them, but acknowledging the suggestions and saying what they can do and by when)


• Notifications to sales when something new is posted to the portal so they don't have to search. And for heaven's sake, put it out there prior to the free world getting knowledge of the latest campaign. Sales should always know what's going on before they hear about it from outside.

It may sound like this is putting a lot on Sales, but Marketing doesn't get a free ride here.  What they do get is feedback on what value their materials are providing to sales. They are able to see usage rates for content and know if something is falling flat or not being utilized.  If the CRM system is hooked in to track the materials salespeople access when planning for a phone call, email, meeting, demo, presentation, and proposal, then marketing can track which content is used and how often. 

Marketing can also produce metrics about how strong a roll they play in contributing to the company meeting it's overall sales goals. The materials used by salespeople to close a sale will be tied to the lead.  Marketing can start to see trends by segmentation as to what's effective and what's not working.

Important to remember that collaboration is conversation between people, not something tossed over a wall. Response is important and it needs to be constructive.

The key is that Marketing has to modify and adjust content that doesn't work and they need to do it quickly. They need to be responsive to whatever knowledge the salespeople share. If they are not, then this whole collaboration thing is for naught. There will be no bridge and marketing and sales will continue to work at cross purposes.

Sales will find out their knowledge becomes bigger and better when used collaboratively and their success will increase demonstrably through having better tools and messaging that works. They will spend less time researching for every meeting and sell more.

The company's brand will become stronger through consistency.

This isn't an easy process and it may not be particularly pretty at first, but as Marketing strengthens their relationship with Sales through collaborative work that provides better tools, the respect will grow.  Being able to produce metrics that tie it all together for the C-level will give Marketing the credibility it needs for that seat at the executive table.  And for bigger budgets that have demonstrable ROI.

What efforts are being made at your company to bridge sales and marketing?  Is it working?

The Problem with Lurkers

One of the most common "problems" with creating conversations in the online world is that many people are lurkers.  There's a ratio that gets bandied about that most all of the content comes from one or two percent of the users who access a site/portal. Which means the majority of your site users are lurkers.

But, is this a problem?

Many of my clients want everyone to participate.  They think that the folks lurking are not interested or engaged and that this is a problem that needs to be solved.

I don't think this is going to happen.  At least not with the results they would like to see.

Think back to school.  In your classroom, I bet there were the kids that always raised their hands.  You know, the ones that made you nuts because they always knew everything. Or thought they did. The participators.  The brown-nosers, we used to be called.  Yes, I was one of those.  Sigh.

How about conversations you participate in offline?  Do all of you talk equally or do one or two people monopolize the conversation?

Let's get back to our online lurkers.  They are the audience.  They are participating, maybe not by contributing dialogue or input with words, but by paying attention.  That's a terrific thing and should not be minimized.  They wouldn't be there if there wasn't anything of significant value for them to get.

You need to think about the purpose of the site.  Is it to educate? What interactions are happening there?  If content is being read, downloaded and used, then the site is likely interacting with your users in a way that works for them. That's what's important.  Plus, if there's no audience, who are you talking to?

If your site is an internal portal, are you seeing a shift in something your content is designed to impact? How does the content you add to the site/portal impact the direction of the conversation?

I've been doing a lot of thinking about this type of thing and will be releasing an eBook about the subject of online interactions in the next couple of weeks.  Stay tuned.

In the meantime, if you're interested in finding out more about lurkers, Jack Vinson has a post you should read that also links to another post by Jakob Nielsen on the same subject.

Then make sure to remind yourself that the feedback you get from that one or two percent may not be representative of the entire set of your site users.

Comments?

Collaborative Storytelling

What pumps you up? When you come into the possession of new knowledge, what is it that makes it valuable to you?  It may be good enough to have confirmation that an idea you had is valid.  It may also be that you need to go out and share it with others.

Storytelling is usually the result.  What do you think happens around watercoolers?  In fact, the whole reason for watercoolers is sharing stories.  Stories are powerful.  They are personal expressions and, in a company context, they shape corporate culture. 

If you want to build a collaborative exchange on your external websites or internal portals, then I suggest you utilize stories.  Anecdote did a survey in Australia and asked 400 executives to share information about awareness and attitudes of story and narrative techniques in organizations.  They've culled 7 story forms valued within organizations that are great examples of effective knowledge sharing.

Some of them can be effectively utilized on your websites and portals.  In fact, you may use some version of them now.  But, look at how you're presenting the information.  Is it in an engaging format or is it dry, boring and maybe too technical to have your people or your customers fully embrace and "get" it?

• Hero stories for sales - these should be shared on your sales portal.  They can be utilized by the sales team whenever they are facing similar circumstances and insights about how to replicate that success can be learned by others.  The salesperson who supplies the story can become a resource for their peers in these situations.  Plus, they make everyone feel good.
• Success stories - probably case studies now.  How much story is in them?
• Lesson/Learning stories - these can be really powerful.  They can also be painful. Usually they stem from something that has gone wrong.  Instead of sweeping them into a file cabinet, use them.  Find the insights in what happened and turn them into solutions to the obstacles that caused a lost sale or a way to save a defecting customer.  Make them inspirational. The same can be said for your white papers.  Are they interesting for the reader?  Or are they all about how great your products are? Read them again with an eye for what you want the reader to get out of them.

If you can get people to share stories, you've got a conversation that's interesting, most likely effective and will help up your participation levels on portals and websites.  Try using this tactic with your discussion forums to get people talking about an issue that needs insights and exploration. 

Getting people to share experiences can be a huge bonus for companies that need to capture actionable knowledge in order to promote growth.

Which is probably all of us.

What are you doing to facilitate storytelling in your organization?

Facilitating Collaboration

Back in 2000, my company started trying to make an impact with collaboration. Didn't work then, but we kept trying.  Slowly, it has evolved into interactive websites and portals that are embraced by our clients because they don't label it collaboration.  Interestingly enough.

The biggest problem is facilitating the use of the tools and getting people to interact through them.  What I've seen is that if the tools make life easier [and I'm talking substantial difference here] adoption will come.  The problem is when what makes life easier happens AFTER the tools are in use.  Depending on what type of tools, let's say a discussion forum, there's nothing to say or react to until there's a discussion going, which means posts and building an information base that people can act on.

There are a couple of posts about why collaboration tools are underused that are good for thought.  Dave Pollard has a very thoughtful post that lists some reasons to consider:

• People are unfamiliar with the tools
• Tools like Skype, Blogs, Wikis and discussion forums are not intuitive
• Most people have poor collaboration and interpersonal skills which can be exacerbated by the tools
• Training for the tools isn't geared for how people learn (watching, doing)
• People don't know who to talk to or, if they do, those people aren't online

None of these are insurmountable problems.  In order to facilitate the use of collaboration, the way the tools are introduced is critical.  The biggest problem I see with clients is the "if we build it they will come" problem.  Instead of creating the frustration that's bound to occur when this type of approach is used, why not consider hiring a facilitator to direct, guide and train in a team environment and show the users how effective an interactive portal community can be?

The trick of collaboration is to have it be useful.  But the very nature of collaboration requires participation to be valid. One person, alone, will not make the difference. When you implement collaborative tools, the first thing to consider, as always, is what value you are adding to the lives/work of the people you want to involve in the conversations.  How does their participation make their life/work/experience/productivity/success better/faster/richer?

Shawn, over on Anecdote, offers some further ideas about how we could improve collaboration tools. Most importantly, he makes the point of introducing only the tools that are needed and that the volume of content needs to be managed in a way that's workable.

So, how smart your tools are and how well the discussions and content are managed, indexed and displayed in context will influence how successful your collaborative efforts will be.  But learning and facilitation are key points that will get the initiative off the ground. If you are going to invest in the tools, then you should actively manage the adoption and the results by demonstrating the value to the users you are trying to enroll. Reward their participation or they will leave.

How are you facilitating collaboration in your company?

The Zen of Participation

Participation is the driving force behind the emergence of social software.  Control is shifting. It used to be that companies would publish information on the network or their websites or portals and people could read but not contribute. Dictatorial in style.  That's different now.  Or it should be.  Or maybe it's that it soon will be, if it's not already changing in your company's network, websites and portals.

Scott Karp's post, The Zen of 2.0, made me stop and think.  "The Zen of 2.0 is about networks — and the connectivity, interoperatbility, and “network effects” that networks enable. No medium, unit of content, individual, application, action, or unit of data exists in isolation. Every action has a ripple effect throughout the network. The term “social” as applied to Web 2.0 is really about networks."

The key for me in his statement is the word "isolation." It's kind of like, if a tree falls in the woods and no one's there to see it, does it make a sound?  As portals become more interactive and encourage the contribution of actionable knowledge that's real, road-tested, sincere and honest, people will be affected by those contributions. Their outlooks will change.  The way they do things may shift to incorporate best practices that were previously unknown. Process improvement may become more holistic as those who excel help those still learning.  Voices previously unheard from may discover they have something to contribute and choose to actively participate and leave their passive role behind.

He also says, "The Zen of 2.0 is a different way of thinking about media, software, content, commerce, etc. that is in many ways completely counterintuitive to the 1.0 way of thinking."

The comparison to 1.0, which pushed static content to people with no invited participation other than perhaps a download, is startling in contrast with many of today's network experiences.  Expectations have changed and there's no putting the lid back on that. In order to grow and flourish in today's marketplace, encouraging interactions and providing rewarding experiences in exchange will become the norm.

"...the reality of the Web is that everything we do, even at the level of clicking links and loading web pages, is contributing to the network."

Which is all about participation.  And the thing here is that not everyone has to contribute, but  everyone who engages, by being there and using the contributed information will end up spreading it through how they internalize it into their own actions.  Whether they gain insight about a new sales tactic from a colleague's success story shared their company's sales portal or learn about how to solve a tricky issue with a product through an exchange between a customer and a support rep, the act of participation (active or not) will increase knowledge faster than static content ever could.

Reminds me of a line Keanu Reeves had in a movie (shamefully can't remember the title). "I'm awed by your ability to show up." (Exact quote not guaranteed)

There's something timely about interactive exchanges.  The immediacy of them elevates their importance on your radar.  The idea that things are changing and you might be missing out on something spurs people to some level of participation. To encourage active participation, take a look at this post by Kathy Sierra about Being Provocative. Her insights give you some ideas about how to drive attention.

Here's the takeaway.  All of it counts. Showing up can make a difference. All of it has impact on the thinking and actions that people partake in because of their connectedness and experience with fluid and actionable information.

In closing, Scott says, "Understanding how participation in the network enhances the value of the network is the Zen of 2.0."

What are you doing to understand participation within your company and how it impacts the work that gets done?

The Promise of Technology vs. Status Quo

What keeps you from taking on an online project that you've never done before? Chances are, one of the biggest reasons is the status quo. 

The status quo says that everything should stay the same.  Status quo clings to the If It's Not Broken Don't Fix It theory.  Status quo says taking chances is too risky.  Status quo is ultimately about playing it safe, protecting egos and fighting inevitable change.

When you're trying to evolve a business, status quo can be your worst nightmare.  In today's marketplace, change is happening at record speed.  If you don't join in the new, more socially driven, interactive environment developing on the web, will you get left behind?

Maybe so, maybe not.  But take a look at your interactions with your customers.  Do you see any room for improvement that can provide positive impact for both you and your customers?  (Remember that your employees and partners are also "customers"). 

Seth Godin's post, Top Ways to Defend the Status Quo is a great list of all the reasons you'll probably hear inside your company when the subject of change is brought up.  Some of my favorites are:

• "I don't think our customers will go for that, and without them we'd never be able to afford to try this." [Have you asked them?]
• "We'll let someone else prove it works... it won't take long to catch up." [You're choosing to be second, third, or....?]
• "It's never been done before." [God, what an opportunity!]
• "We're already doing it." [Really? Are you sure?]
• "That will never work." [Why not? This one is like the proverbial brick wall. Sheesh!]

When you're considering an online project, you're biggest concern is what will happen if you fail?  You can't afford to have your new effort fall short.  Or even worse, not pay off as projected. On the other side of the scale is all the bad things that will happen if you don't undertake the intiative.  Like, we'll stagnate, our competition will get the advantage, our customers will choose another vendor, we'll lose our place in the analyst line-up.

Those are real pressures.  They are worth considering.  But the object of online projects is to add to your flexibility, agility, and growth.  Battling the status quo is the reasoning behind a phased implementation.  Do a little at a time, verify it, tweak it to high performance and then move on to the next piece.

The real problem that causes status quo to kick up is often that companies bite off more than they can easily handle.  The longer the time to launch, the more time for doubt and second-guessing.  The more time you allow for the marketplace to keep changing while you're still building the big thing that will change the world.  And yet, by the time you complete it, the world will have moved on, proving that all the doubters were right.

Innovation can be a messy situation.

But, if you take small steps and phase your implementation, building in measurements for success along the way, you can benefit from the following:

• small wins that get good attention
• the ability to shift perceptions
• adoption and input that help refine further phases
• the possibility of shuffling initiatives to meet changing needs as they happen
• BUY IN

The most important thing to realize is that standing still gets you no where.  Inertia gets you left behind.  But incremental change is easier to swallow.  It's only a mouthful instead of the whole enchilada and people can handle something they can chew on. 

What are you doing to make sure the status quo doesn't paralyze your company?

Communities Take Work

Transitioning your website from a marcom destination to an interactive community experience takes a lot of work.  You might think you have the best idea in the world and if you build it, they will come.  But that's not necessarily true. 

Most communities are not MySpace.  What I mean by that, is that they won't become overnight phenoms. With B2B, it's even harder.  Endeavoring to offer something valuable that business people will spend their time participating in is a difficult challenge.  Time is precious.  Worthwhile experiences are hard to come by. 

So, what do you do?

Getting people to participate in a community is a relationship-building challenge.  You can have all the bells and whistles in the world, but if your content is not continuously fresh, if your purpose is not perceived as valuable, and their experience isn't worthwhile they won't come back.  Communities are built by creating that need to return because the experience you deliver meets a continuing need.

It can't be a one-time need or, once they've visited and found the solution, their impulse to return is diminished.  This is why customer portals can be viable if focused on delivering a perceived customer value. It can't be just the place at the end of your URL.

When evaluating or building your community, think about and focus on the following:

• Why do/would your customers log on to the site?
• What interactive tools can/will they utilize to meet their needs?
• Which tools are used most? And how can you build off those features to deliver more and deeper value?
• What are you learning from your users? This includes site analytics, feedback, participation levels, support requests.
• How fresh is your content? Continuously?
• How involved is your participation? A community won't thrive in a vacuum.
• What benefits is your company getting from the community?

That last one threw you, didn't it? A community is a mutually beneficial experience.  Or it should be. If you don't perceive a value or utilize the community to benefit the company, then you won't manage it in a way that builds loyalty and participation. Enthusiasm and sincerity must shine through or your community will be the worst thing you've ever done in providing customer experience.

One of our customers is building a fantastic community for their global customer base.  They created it as an extension of their marcom website. It's obvious to new customers there are benefits beyond the initial purchase. It's also obvious that the company's customers have lasting relationships with them and receive value from their extended participation.

• They work on it daily. 
• They have team meetings three times each week. 
• The entire company is invested in contributing to the online community's success. 
• They continually refine existing tools and design new experiences from what they learn.
• They are responsive. Immediately.

They are successful because they believe in what they're doing and in providing the absolute best experience they can. Then they try to make it better.  It isn't easy. But it's very effective.

What are you doing to build community with your customers?