Should every organization have online communities in their marketing mix? If so, what kind? The answer:  it depends, says research just out from Communispace.

“We have found that smaller, branded, intimate communities create a culture of trust, candor, connection, and respect, which enables relationships between brands and customers that ultimately drive business growth and innovation for companies,” report the researchers in Size Matters: When Insight Is the Goal, Small Communities Deliver.



Highlights from the report about the value of private online communities, which typically have 300–400 invited customers: 

• Customer-company relationships are strengthened. After being a member of a small community people report feeling more positive about the company sponsoring the community (e.g., greater trust and respect for company, more likely to recommend company’s products). They also report that feeling heard by a company was positively and significantly related to purchase intent as well as how likely they were to recommend a company’s products or brand.
• Participation is more vibrant and robust. Participation rates outperform larger, panel-based or public communities in terms of average monthly participation, volume of posts and weekly lurker rates.
• People make higher quality contributions: In addition to a higher quantity of posts, people provide more targeted, actionable ideas and suggestions.
• The exclusive experience has huge appeal. Being part of an exclusive, “in group” with insider status is a key reason why people want to participate in smaller communities.
• People do more for the sponsoring company because their voices matter. When people know the company that’s sponsoring the community and believe that they can influence and have a relationship with the company, they do more. Branded communities deliver, on average, 5,000 more pieces of new content yearly than unbranded communities.

Beware “shared” communities, online research panels

The report also warns that tapping into “shared” communities or online research panels is unlikely to provide the value of branded communities where people and companies develop trusted relationships.

“Although it may be more cost-effective on the surface to pay for periodic access to ‘shared’ communities, or to simply tap into large communities of networked panel members, companies will not reap the benefits of meaningful and lasting customer relationships with these models,” say the paper’s authors. “Indeed, one of the risks with these approaches is that members of large networks form a relationship with the panel or community provider, and thus the vendor more than the sponsor company gains the benefits of increased customer advocacy, loyalty and enduring goodwill.”