Presented at the 2009 Society for New Communications Research (SNCR) Forum. This presentation showcases best practices and lessons learned about building online community for enterprise. Process, business goals and metrics for brand communities to thrive.

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Enterprise Communities: Best
Practices and Lessons Learned
Vanessa DiMauro
CEO, Leader Networks & SNCR Fellow
@vdimauro
NewComm Forum
April, 2009
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Enterprise Communities are Good Business
• Break down geographical barriers globally
• Connect people in different ways through online interaction
• Allow for more detailed and sustained conversations
• Deepen customer relationships
• Offer interactive access
• To people, relevant content and tools professionals need to succeed
• Build trusted relationships
• Providing better communication channels with staffs, clients, prospects
and partners
• Generate revenue or business returns
• While ultimately serving member needs
Copyright © 2009 Leader Networks 2

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Online
community
UGC/
Content
Collaboration
Media
Online Communities
The Centerfold of Social Media
3Copyright © 2009 Leader Networks

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Guiding Factors for Enterprise Communities
• Integrating interactivity into the enterprise business model
– Companies need to think more about ways to bring online participation into
their business models in ways that serve the business and the customer goals
alike.
– People’s expectations are changing.. They no longer want to be passive
recipients of information and experiences.
• The human process & trust factor
– what works in the face world will work in an online environment – but broken
process in real life can’t be fixed by putting a tool atop.
– Need clear definition about what are the behaviors the business wants to
support before launching a tool to support it.
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Enterprise Communities Require A Business Process Redesign
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Strapping new tools onto an old process won’t yield the desired results
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Enterprise Community Strategic Planning
Begin with the end in mind
Find the overlap & build for relevance to both audiences
What does the
business need for
the community to
be successful?
What do community
members need
from the community
to get value?
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Three Types of Enterprise Online Communities
1. Information Dissemination
The organizing body defines content, message and outcome. Highly
controlled, paternalistic environment
2. Shop-Talk
Discussion groups that focus on accomplishing a task, exchange of
transactional information or getting help. “How can I?” “Where do I?”
3. Professional Collaboration / Learning Communities
A safe, private online space purposefully designed to foster conversation.
Tends to be membership-driven or subscription-based.
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Enterprise Communities Differ
From Consumer Communities
Consumer Communities (B2C)
 Large numbers – types and audiences
 Users share an experience
 Focus on low-touch services
 Forums, ratings and self-serve
offering
 Typically quick to scale but users have
weak ties
 Interpretive mission
 Business model: Scale = financial
success
Enterprise Communities (B2B)
 Number can vary
 Members share a purpose
 Focus on higher-touch services
 Programmatic membership offering
(custom content, events ...)
 Typically slow to scale but members
have stronger/more persistent ties
 Mission that is visibly embraced
 Business model: Hybrid. Relevance
and target audience drive partner
and member revenue
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Enterprise Community Audience
Consumer Communities
– Target general public – many and more
– SEO, advertising and blogger outreach drives traffic
– “accept” (celebrate!) all who join
Enterprise Communities
• Target highly defined memberships by business process or solution focus
– Invitations and WOM drives traffic
• Google tracking and SEO often ineffective for private (gated) communities
– Develop clear membership guidelines and adhere to them strictly to yield
credibility
– Membership acceptance criteria often a gating factor (role, title, buying
relationship)
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Enterprise Community Design
Enterprise communities must be more intuitive and simplified
than consumer communities
• Consumers are more agile users than business users
• B2B users are more focused on solving problems ...
• ... and are less tolerant than consumers
• Make no assumptions about Web 2.0 usage
– “basic” Web 2.0 tools may not be well understood
10Copyright © 2009 Leader Networks

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Enterprise Community Content
Enterprise community content must support a business process
• Enterprise communities connect information with a purpose
• Solve a business problem or support a business process
• Each content piece must be useful, usable and engaging
– Concierge approach to interactions and information for the members
– “The Neiman Marcus Model”
• Must offer information that cannot be obtained elsewhere
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Member-Generated Content
• Profiles / home pages
• Product ratings
• Product reviews
• Interviews and high-value content
creation
Member-To-Member Interaction
• Discussion Forums
• Blogs, Wikis and social media entries
• Member created podcasts
• Phone calls
Events
• Guest events
• Expert Seminars
• Virtual meetings / Trade Shows
Outreach
• Newsletters
• Volunteer / Leader programs
• Polls / surveys
• Driving Participation: Interaction management and facilitation.
( Driving Conversion: All other site interaction. IE: polls / surveys, answering specific
questions, rating content, participating in events…etc
Typical Enterprise Community Programs
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What Can you Expect From Your Members?
Visitor Novice Regular Leader
Visitors: People without a persistent identity in the community.
Novices: New members who need to learn the ropes and be introduced into community
life.
Regulars: Established members that are comfortably participating in community life.
Leaders: The most active “regular members” who volunteer to facilitate and
monitor discussions, get involved in the operational decisions and product definitions
for the community, and helps the community evolve and run smoothly.
Copyright © 2009 Leader Networks 13

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EXAMPLES OF SUCCESSFUL
ENTERPRISE COMMUNITIES
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Enterprise Community Categories
• Enterprise Buyer /Audience Communities
– The Palladium Group XPC
– Cognizantii - community for Cognizant’s clients
– EMC community
– CIO Magazine’s CIO Counsel
– IntegrativePractitioner.com
• Professional Market Makers
– Martindale-Hubbell Connected
– Sermo.com
– Inmobile.org
– TheFunded.com
– WegoHealth.com
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INmobile.org
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Welcome to the XPC
Conference attendees continue the
discussion and networking on XPC.
[read more]
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Takehiko
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Senior Vice
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Patricia Bush
Welcome to the XPC
Mohammed Al
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Etihad Airways
MaryCarrera
State Street Bank
Jim Rodgers
Boeing
Ralph Simon
Vivendi
Before taking this position, he was
VP of Corporate Planning Division
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Mitsubishi UFJ. Takehiko has
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Lucia Fortini
Frank Del Rio
Lessons in how to manage through today’s
downturn from companies that made it through the
last one.
[read more]
The Palladium Group Execution Premium Community
In Association With:

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ENTERPRISE COMMUNITY
BEST PRACTICES
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Constituency Identification Is Key
Understanding who you serve and in
what ways provides the driving
business rationale for an enterprise
community program.
This leads to members who engage
with each other and the enterprise
and sustains their interest.
The who dictates the where,
when, why and how.
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The Most Important Thing To Get Right
• Pick the right interactive model to support the community
• Profile your constituency
• The “who” dictates the how and the why
Offer a value proposition that is so compelling (from the user’s POV)
that they must engage to survive professionally
Only then, can you create
• High level feature maps to figure out the right tools
• Wrestle with a content plan that meets their needs
• Design engagement activities which support member
and enterprise goals and values
Log on
Upload
profile
Out reach to
a key leader
Read the X
doc
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Online Community Success Equation
(R1) The right approach
to leverage a key business opportunity
+
(R2) The right people – both
constituents and staff
+
(T) Tools well-matched to serve the interactive goals
=
(S) Successful execution
R1 + R2 + T = S
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Misstep: Business Goals Don’t Match Community Features
Intention and outcome need to be aligned
The WHO should dictate the HOW and the WHY
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Misstep: “Tool Talk” Before Business Strategy
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Misstep: Building Mausoleums instead of Sherpa Tents
Evolutionary sprints are key
Build, learn, evolve, build, learn, evolve, build ...
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Misstep: Excessive Exuberance
Monitor and Measure
to Know and Grow
The Right Metrics Matter!
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Misstep: Lack of Business Integration
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• Leverage what you learn internally
• Mine the raw data for trend analysis
• Report findings and outcomes to
sales/marketing/product development
• Link to CRM systems

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Metrics in Context for Enterprise Community
1 to 9 to 90: Leaders to activists to members
Interactivity Ratio: 25%
One-quarter of community members participate in a given time period
Log on
Upload profile
Out reach to a
key leader
Read the X doc
Best Practice: Determining Value to X
a) Identify the business value drivers for the community
b) Research normative returns for community, industry and
company
c) Develop KPIs and KRI to measure activity
d) Establish data tracking and reporting system
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Sample Metrics for a Enterprise Community
Financial Metrics: revenue generated (direct and indirect i.e. client retention or pass
through revenue gained through bundled services) – Minus operational costs
Operational Metrics: Fully burdened costs of community operations including
technology, development, content acquisition, staffing
Business Metrics: Click-throughs/logins, industries serviced, # of members who are
clients, title portfolio of membership
Marketing Metrics: New member acquisition costs, Cost per Member (CPM) against
Revenue per Member (RPM), Event or campaign outcomes
Editorial Metrics: Cost of content creation, % of UGC, content ratings/rank
Member Metrics: # of members login/time, % of profiles complete, return rate,
premium conversion rate, revenue generated per member, number of posts per
member, average page views per member or group, engagement metrics
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Enterprise Community is NOT Marketing
• Community members provide valuable information, content & feedback to
marketing/membership.
• Marketing/membership provides value added services and products to members
in exchange for interaction.
• Identifies and sells the
community to prospects
• Hands the new members
over to the Community team
HandOver
• Manage the member lifecycle
• Create value for members
• Establish trust
• Create Leaders and “Most Valued
Members”
• Create opportunities for Marketing
to interact with the membership
Community Team
Marketing &
Membership

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Initial Challenges
• Governance
– Strategy
– Staffing
• Brand Execution
– Promotion
• Technology
– Selection, Implementation
• Evolution
– Member Acquisition
– Member Engagement model
– Operations
• Continuous Improvement
– Leading Metrics
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An Enterprise Community Project Plan
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Tools &
Techniques
System DesignPlan Goals and
Key Objectives
Metrics and
Milestone
Innovation Design Development Assessment
Align with
Marketing
Prototype tools
Identify key goals:
i.e. reputation
management,
peer group
collaboration,
thought leadership,
evangelization
Design document:
Who – do you want to attract
or connect with
What – is your point of view:
expert, learner, specialty, tone
When – timeframe for mini-
milestones that support goals
Where – digital channels
Why – measurement goals.
Features &
Business
Requirements
drive tool choices
Defining success,
measure and review
Copyright © 2009 Leader Networks
Revisit goals
& continue

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Strategic Success Factors for Enterprise Communities
• Solve a business issue or enable a business process
improvement – faster or better than in person
• Be easy and intuitive
• Involve users in co-creation
• Have a strong executive sponsor who is willing to lead
by example
• Generate clear revenue or returns
• Outcomes of use must be linked to key internal
functions like marketing, sales, product development
• Have a well crafted user engagement plan (beyond
the 100 days plan)
Copyright © 2009 Leader Networks
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Thank you
Vanessa DiMauro, Leader Networks
Contact:
http://www.leadernetworks.com
vdimauro@leadernetworks.com
@vdimauro
617-484-0778
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