Building and Sustaining Brand Communities 60% business said their communities are open for public interaction and feedback 53% respondents said that permitting users to connect with like minded people was the top feature contributing to success 43% said that permitting people to help one another was the second most important feature contributing to community success 45% recognize that finding enough time to manage the community is one of the biggest obstacle in making communities work 25 % see facilitation, and 35% see quality of the community manager as two features that greatly impact the communities effectiveness e.g of online communities A discussion forum where conversations develop A custom application with profiles and connections A group within an existing social networking site or email service A network of blogs Comments on a rating site Anywhere conversations and people connect and share

1. Building and Sustaining Brand Communities
by
Regalix Inc – Aug 6th, 2009
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2. Presenter – Ritu Josan
Directs account strategy at Regalix
Regular speaker on “social media” and “online marketing” topics
Worked with Fortune 500 and start up companies
Worked on various successful marketing campaigns for B2B and
B2C clients
Has vast experience in customer acquisition programs
Worked with brands like Citigroup, Apple, National Instruments
in the past
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3. Table of Content
Why care about Social Media?
Marketing in a Web 2.0 world
Why Build online brand communities?
Building an Online Community
Examples of Brand Communities
Challenges
Building Blog Communities
Best practices
Establish your metrics
Recommendations
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4. Why care about Social Media?
YouTube = 10 percent of all internet traffic
(Source: Ellacoya Networks)
YouTube and Wikipedia among top brands
(Source: brandchannel.com)
Five of the top 10 websites are social
(Source: Alexa)
Over 100 Million blogs exist
(Source: Technorati)
120,000 new blogs launched everyday
(Source: Technorati)
1.5 Million post per day (17 per sec)
(Source: Technorati)
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5. Why care about Social Media?
 Social Network Sites grow 47% Y-O-Y and reach 45% of web users
 Accounts for over 10% of consumers time online
 Its grown 3 times faster than other online channels
 Have a high retention rate
 Sites like MySpace, Facebook, MSN groups have a retention rate of over 50%
 Have evolved to be more mainstream, not just limited to the young audience
 Highly interactive and engaging medium
Source: Nielsen
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6. Why care about Social Media?
People Finding People
 60% business said their communities are open for public interaction and
feedback
 53% respondents said that permitting users to connect with like minded
people was the top feature contributing to success
 43% said that permitting people to help one another was the second most
important feature contributing to community success
 45% recognize that finding enough time to manage the community is one of
the biggest obstacle in making communities work
 25 % see facilitation, and 35% see quality of the community manager as two
features that greatly impact the communities effectiveness
Source: Deloitte
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7. Why care about Social Media?
®
Social Technographics helps marketers understand buyer’s propensity to engage socially
Publish a blog
Publish your own Web pages
Creators Upload video you created
Upload audio/music you created
Write articles or stories and post them
Model audience Post ratings/reviews of products/services
Critics Comment on someone else’s blog
propensity to use Contribute to online forums
Contribute to/edit articles in a wiki
social media in
decision making / adoption Use RSS feeds
Collectors Add “tags” to Web pages or photos
activity “Vote” for Web sites online
Maintain profile on social networking site
Joiners
Visit social networking sites
Read blogs
Watch video from other users
Spectators Listen to podcasts
Read online forums
Read customer ratings/reviews
Groups include people participating in at least one
of the activities monthly.
Inactives None of the above

8. Why care about Social Media?
Buyers are a socially active crowd
Rules of active engagement:
Advertising must be a
conversation rather than a push
model
77%
Active The tone of advertising must be
more authentic
Advertising should be about
adding value
Inactive
Groups include people participating in at least one of the activities monthly primarily or in part for business purposes.

9. Marketing in a Web 2.0 world
Create a Two way
relationship communication
(Not an event) (Not one way)
Build Communities
(Not websites) Organic
(Not synthetic)
Integration Being everywhere
(Not interruption) (Not just in your
domain)
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10. Online Community
What is an Online Community?
 An online community is an interactive group of people joined
together by a common interest.
 It’s also one of the most powerful tools a marketer can deploy for
customer retention, word of mouth, and customer insight.

11. Online Community
Examples of Online Communities
A discussion forum where conversations develop
A custom application with profiles and connections
A group within an existing social networking site or email service
A network of blogs
Comments on a rating site
Anywhere conversations and people connect and share
Source: Forrester

12. Online Community
Why Build online brand communities?
Idea Generation Customer Service
Amplifying word of mouth
Project Collaboration Capturing Knowledge
Public Relation
Long Tail Sales Capturing Knowledge
New Product Development
Reputation Management
Market Research General Marketing
Employee Communication
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13. Online Community
What Motivates People To Participate
 Expressing  Support  Sharing
Themselves
 Listening  Recognition Power  Organization
Culture
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14. Building an Online Community
Develop a Plan
Goal Contribution Examples
Listening •Direct customer insights •Insight communities
•New product ideas •Scan and monitor
•Beta Testing communities
Speaking •Create an emotional •Marketing campaigns
attachment •Advertisements
•Advertising based on
network
Energizing •Excite your biggest fans •Applications, Widgets
•word of mouth •Media
Supporting •Peer-to-Peer Support •Customer- Created
groups
Embracing •Members become •Ideastorm, Salesforce
contributors
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15. Building an Online Community
Life Cycle of a Successful Community
STAGE 1 STAGE 2 STAGE 3
1. Focus on the 1. Launch community 1. Give the member
objective with backing of your control of the
most enthusiastic community
2. Chart a road customers
Map 2. Community would
2. Start engaging as grown organically
3. Assemble the the community grows
right team
4. Plan to be
flexible
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16. Building an Online Community
Prepare For Costs and Benefits
Don’t run out of steam, prepare for all costs
Hidden Cost
 Kick-Start Labor
 Internal Education
 Ongoing Management
Develop a ROI and total cost model
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17. Building an Online Community
Build Internal Teams First
Part educator, part evangelist, and all customer advocate
Focus on tangible benefits to company
Create internal training sessions, call in experts
Start by connecting with important decision markers one at a
time
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18. Building an Online Community
Establish Clear Line of Responsibility and Ongoing Process
Nearly every department is impacted
 Marketing
 Product teams
 Account teams
 Support
 Client Teams
Setup mock simulations using internal versions of the tools
Develop internal guidelines
Create a rapid response team
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19. Building an Online Community
Staff You Will Need
Social Media Strategist
 Manages the business program
 Develops the objectives and obtains resources
Community Manager
 The community manager or moderator who interacts with members
 Primary role is to
 Balance the needs of the community with corporate objectives
 Is a customer advocate
 Is a brand evangelist
 May create editorial content
 Harvests customer needs for market intelligence
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20. Building an Online Community
Growing and Maintaining the Community
Microsoft rewarded
members with public
recognition
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21. Building an Online Community
Growing and Maintaining the Community
Stay engaged with your community by monitoring and quickly
responding
Integrate your community with real-world events
Extend the reach of your community by cross-pollinating on
existing social networks
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22. Examples of Brand Communities
•Create communities to participate
with your target group
•Discuss new product launches, offer
and other key communications
•Get customer feedback
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23. Examples of Brand Communities
•Leverage online communities to also
act to provide customer support
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24. Examples of Brand Communities
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25. Community Best Practice
Best Worst
Clear goal + Purpose Start with Technology
Right talent Marketing “Campaigns”
Commitment + Time Mixing business/ consumer
Topic engenders passion motives
Social + Communal No facilitation
Metrics Vs. business
measures
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26. The Biggest Obstacle in making Communities work
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27. Blog Communities
Personal voice
 Refreshing, unfiltered, authentic voice
Low barrier to publishing
True, One-to-One Communication
 Blogger-to-commenter or blogger-to-blogger
Dynamic branding
 Currency, relevancy, ongoing and engaging
Improve findability online
“The power of the weblog is that it’s
a personal voice getting out there.”
– Michael Gartenberg - Jupiter Research
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28. Establish your metrics
Measuring Progress and Success- Web Analytics
Success Factor For Community Sites
•Speed of Adoption
•Number of Active user
•Number of posts
•Number of comments
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29. Establish your Metrics
Micro Metrics
Qualitative Metrics
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30. Recommendations
Act more like a host at a party , rather than a cop
The power is in the hands of the community
Traditional marketing tactics do not apply
Develop a clear methodology
 People, Objectives, Strategy, Tools
Understand Objectives
 Listening
 Talking
 Energizing
 Supporting
 Embracing
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31. About Regalix
 Forefront of Online Marketing, Research and Web 2.0 portals
 Multi-disciplinary Leadership Team
 Fortune 500 and Venture-Backed Customers (B2B and B2C)
 Global Operations: HQ in Silicon Valley, 4 Offices
 150+ Team, Built on 8+ years of research
 Recognition
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32. Learn more about Regalix at:
www.regalix.com
Contact:
Ritu Josan
Director - Marketing
Email: rjosan@regalix-inc.com
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