Collectives are the future~

1. 2008 TRIBALIZATION OF BUSINESS STUDY
How to Achieve Transformational Change
through Communities and Social Networks
– Results of the Quantitative Survey –
(7/15/08)

2. A STUDY PRODUCED BY:
Deloitte (www.deloitte.com)
Beeline Labs (www.beelinelabs.com)
Society for New Communications Research (www.sncr.org)
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3. THE FINDINGS IN THIS PRESENTATION ARE BASED ON SURVEYS OF OVER 140 COMPANY OFFICIALS
WHO ACTIVELY USE COMMUNITIES
THE RESULTS IN THIS PRESENTATION ARE THE RESULTS FROM THE QUANTITATIVE PORTION OF
SURVEY
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4. What is the purpose of your online community?
45%
40%
35%
30%
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
Companies are leveraging communities both to get
market ideas and insights inside their company as well
as to get their message out in the marketplace
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5. Is your community focused:
21%
Internally
Externally
79%
While a majority of communities are externally focused
we interviewed a fair amount of internally focused
communities – primarily in support of product innovation
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6. What are your business objectives for this community?
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
A majority of community efforts are focused on
improving the top line revenue instead of reducing cost
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7. Which of your objectives have you been most successful
in achieving?
40%
35%
30%
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
Communications‐related benefits seem to dominate the
objectives which are most often achieved with success
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8. Which of your objectives have you been least successful in
achieving?
35%
30%
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
Many community efforts are too new to decide whether
or not they did not met their business objective
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9. Measuring progress and success ‐ business measures
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
While the major business measures seem to be inline
with the community business objectives, many business
measure are sales focused even though that was not one
of the key business goals.
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10. Measuring progress and success – web analytics
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
There is generally a mismatch between the web stats
that companies track and the stated goals for the
communities.
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11. Community features contributing the most to effectiveness
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Leveraging the social aspects of communities seems to
be the most important factor contributing to community
effectiveness
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12. The biggest obstacles to making communities work
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Companies deploying communities seem to have a
problem in attributing value to the community lurkers
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13. UNEXPECTED BENEFIT HAVE YOU REALIZED FROM YOUR COMMUNITY
Reach of Word of Mouth for free
Advertising Revenue Knowledge about customers
Lots of active users
Greater visibility
Ideas generated by communities
That our market really will tell us what they want ‐‐ if we just ask
How happy customers are with the outreach
This shows that many companies are still confused about
what to expect from business communities
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14. WHAT ONE PIECE OF ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE
Get commitment from top management
Start slowly Start with the business strategy
Keep activity level up
Content is king
Have an attractive and a short name
Participate, do not control...the community does not belong to you
Focus on enabling community interaction
Get professional help
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15. How long has your community been running?
20%
Less than six months
37%
Six months to one year
One to three years
More than three years
26%
17%
A majority of communities are less than one year old
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16. Which department is responsible for this community?
2%
Customer Service
While communities spring up in every part of the
organization, they eventually tend to get consolidated in
marketing
6%
IT
4%
Sales
12%
Public relations
40%
Marketing
8%
Product development
4%
Market research
25%
Other
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17. How many active members do you have?
In general there tends to be a mismatch between the
9%
More than 10,000
size of the communities and the goals of the
communities relative to the size of the organizations
deploying them
8%
5,001 ‐ 10,000
8%
1,001 ‐ 5,000
13%
501 ‐1,000
27%
101 ‐ 500
34%
< 100
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18. Is the community:
9%
Open to the public
Private
32%
Other
59%
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19. Do you manage the community:
10%
8%
Internally with our own
employees
Outsource to marketing
services firm
Other
82%
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20. How many full time people manage this community?
34%
None: part time job
27%
One
13%
2 ‐ 5
8%
6 ‐ 10
8%
More than 10
9%
Other There is a mismatch between the resources allocated to
communities relative to the goals of those communities
and the relative size of the companies setting them up
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21. What is the approximate annual operating budget?
58%
< $50,000
24%
$50,001 ‐ $200,000
8%
$200,001 ‐ $500,000
5%
$500,001 ‐ $1 million
6%
More than $1 million Here again, there is a mismatch between the
investments made in communities relative to the goals
of those communities and the relative size of the
companies setting them up
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22. Over the next 12 months will your investment in the
community:
4%
Increase
Stay the same
Decrease
44% 52%
Companies tend to start small and grow their
community efforts organically.
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23. What is your role with the community?
21%
Executive sponsor
42%
Community manager
18%
Consultant/agency
19%
Other
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24. What are your company’s annual revenues?
29%
Under $1million
22%
$1 ‐ $10 million
14%
$10 ‐ $50 million
7%
$50 ‐ $250 million
2%
$250 ‐ $500 million
3%
$500million to $1billion
23%
More than $1 billion
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25. My company is best described as:
20%
Business to business
43% Business to consumer
Other (i.e., healthcare, non‐
profit, etc.)
37%
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26. How do you learn about online community trends?
53%
Conferences
85%
Social media (blogs, communities)
48%
Friends and colleagues
51%
Media
28%
Analysts
26%
Consultants and agencies
8%
Other
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27. QUESTIONS?
Contacts:
Francois Gossieaux, Beeline Labs:
francois@beelinelabs.com
Jen McClure, Society for New Communications Research
jen@sncr.org
Ed Moran, Deloitte:
emoran@deloitte.com
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