Communities Must Be Initially Fed
I sat in on a very interesting webinar not too long ago that focused on Web 2.0 applicability for channel marketing. I posed several questions to the speakers during the webinar all of which were answered except for one. The moderator indicated that this last question would be answered off line. At the end of the webinar, we were told that the sponsoring company would be setting up a community to further the discussion.
Following the webinar, I immediately followed up with my remaining question and a few others via email. A couple days later I received login information to the community mentioned above via a generic webinar attendee email. A couple days after that I still had not heard back from the company regarding my question despite the fact that I indicated these were urgent questions that I needed answered for a potential client i.e., I was a hot prospect.
Finally I called the company back and was told matter-of-factly by the President that all my questions had been answered in the community. He actually seemed surprised that I was calling.
Now theoretically, this is what social media is all about right? Using communities to build relationships, answer questions and drive engagement. The problem was that I was not a member of the community. Yes, I attended the webinar and yes I received the login information but I had not signed up and nothing in the email I received about joining the community indicated that my questions were answered therein. The company assumed I joined the community and therefore I must have had all my questions answered. Mistake and quite frankly, I was now an irritated prospect.
A commonly identified problem with communities is the “Field of Dreams” fallacy - build it and they will come. People may get there eventually but to assume that they are there and ignore other channels of communication is a problem. Social media is not a zero sum game. Other marketing channels must be used to fuel social media trial and adoption. It is when all of these channels are working together, with the customer at the center, that social media technologies like communities can be jump-started and have the greatest chance for success.
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