I recently had some conversations with software companies who expressed interest in building online communities and ecosystems as a strategic resource for marketing, sales, and customer retention. I don’t think that there is any question about how valuable such a resource can be if the strategy is clear and the resource is carefully designed, built, and managed. Unfortunately, the attempt to build and establish a community can also be a significant waste of time and money if these elements are not properly handled. Here’s a a quick overview for those who may be thinking about building an ecosystem for their company/product.
The Ecosystem Strategy
Let’s begin with the Strategy. Why, specifically, do you want to do this? What is the desired outcome and how will you measure it? What’s it worth to you? How much are you willing to invest to accomplish it? Be clear that “Because my competition is doing it” and/or “Because the [insert title of senior exec] thinks it would be a great idea” and so on are not acceptable answers to the strategy questions. You need a foundation that you can tie all the elements directly to with no ambiguity.
Once you have a defensible strategy in place, we can proceed to the tactical issues. An ecosystem development project has three main phases: designing the community communications resource, identifying and recruiting appropriate members, and ongoing moderation/maintenance and expansion of the community and its activities.
Building the Ecosystem Foundation
For the first phase, there are several options for platforum. These include a LinkedIn group to serve as an initial attractant and filter, and an external community platform such as Slack, Discord, Gainsight’s Communities, Circle, Vanilla Forums, etc., to support the real communications. They all offer much the same functionality. Design, however, is critical, and must consider the ideal member profile as well as the nature of the desired conversations to determine which features to implement and emphasize. Metrics are vital – you need to be able to know who is participating and who is not, what is being read and in what order, what engenders reactions and comments, etc. Topical sections will be required, for the contents must remain visible long enough to be read. A forum that publishes too many new topics (in hopes of catching eyes) will soon discover that nobody is reading anything because it scrolls by too quickly. As the old joke runs, if you blink, you’ll miss it! The Search feature is another vital capability, but to use it, the content must be properly tagged and the search itself be easy to use. (Here is where ai may be especially useful.)
The Ecosystem Membership
The second phase, identifying and recruiting appropriate members, starts with identifying the ideal member profile. Who is the audience? What do you want them to do? What rewards will you offer for the best players? How will you encourage the community to become aware of itself as a distinct and vibrant community? Throughout all of this work, the question of WIIFM – What’s In It For Me? has to be clearly addressed and answered for all involved.
An effective community is not a one-time building project, it will take ongoing effort and management if it is to thrive. The recruitment process never ends, for even the most ideal members may change over time and depart. Conversations need to be monitored, and occasionally redirected when/if they wander off-purpose. You may want to expand the community conversations with in-person events, or extend the membership to other kinds of people. All of this will require community managers or Moderators to encourage conversations and participation.
That’s the overview. As you begin to engage with the strategic and design issues, look ahead to see how these will interact with each other and with the functioning of the community.
Join in the Conversation
We’re discussing this topic in The Customer Success Forum on LinkedIn. To join us, first log into LinkedIn, and then use this link:
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7356814741702365185
Recommended Reading
The Lessons of the Customer Success Ecosystem
Online Communities and Customer Success
Product As A Community
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Mikael Blaisdell
Mikael Blaisdell built his first online community on CompuServe in late 1979, back in the days of 300 baud acoustic coupler modems and when you could only log in after 6 pm local time. Many others followed, on AOL, Delphi, The Whole Earth ‘Lectronic Link (W.E.L.L.) and LinkedIn. He founded The Customer Success Forum on LinkedIn in 2009, beginning with 350 members and building it to its current63+K worldwide.
Are you looking to design and build out a community and corporate ecosystem for your company and product? Want to take an existing one to the next level? Mikael Blaisdell & Associates offer a variety of services from design through implementation and ongoing maintenance.
