Balanced Scorecard Benchmarking Business Process Reengineering Collaborative Innovation Core Competencies Customer Relationship Management Customer Segmentation Decision Rights Tools Downsizing Growth Strategy Tools Knowledge Management Lean Six Sigma Loyalty Management Mergers and Acquisitions Mission and Vision Statements Online Communities Outsourcing Price Optimization Models Scenario and Contingency Planning Shared Service Centers Strategic Alliances Strategic Planning Supply Chain Management Total Quality Management Voice of the Customer Innovation Related topics Blogs e-communities Multimedia Chat Rooms Social Networking Virtual Worlds Wikis Description An online community, a form of Internet-based social networking, is a two-way communication tool that allows organizations to interact with their employees, customers, and partners through computer networks. It can replace face-to-face communications or serve as an additional way of reaching out to customers and other constituencies. Social-networking software allows online community participants to interact through a range of media, separately or in combination. They range from email and instant messaging to text-based chat rooms and forums with voice, video text and avatar capabilities. Organizations may utilize existing social-networking sites, such as Facebook or LinkedIn, or create their own communities. Customer communities are a way to quickly gather new ideas; improve communication, branding and marketing; and increase customer loyalty. Employee communities are used to collect input for innovation, provide regular updates, conduct discussion forums and develop "wikis." By tapping into the multimedia capabilities in social-networking software, companies also can display and sell products, solicit and respond to feedback, and rapidly correct misinformation. Methodology Building and maintaining a corporate online community involves the following steps: Assign an online community manager; Define the online community mission; Identify measures of success; Select the social-networking software best suited to business goals; Target and recruit members (this should be an ongoing process as there is an evolutionary cycle to member's level of involvement); Establish and maintain regular two-way communication with community members; Regularly evaluate whether the community is providing value to members. Common uses Companies are employing online communities to: Strengthen branding; Conduct market research; Increase customer and employee loyalty by quickly responding to feedback; Communicate with industry "influencers" to influence opinions and brand image; Improve product development by learning from customers and employees; Promote employee collaboration; Offer online employee recruiting; Broaden education programs; Test advertising effectiveness. Selected references Gillin, Paul. The New Influencers: A Marketer's Guide to the New Social Media. Quill Driver Books, 2007. Howe, Jeff. Crowdsourcing: Why the Power of the Crowd is Driving the Future of Business. Crown Business, 2008. Li, Charlene, and Josh Bernoff. Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies. Harvard Business School Press, 2008. Rutledge, Patrice-Anne. The Truth About Profiting from Social Networking. FT Press, 2008. Silver, David. Smart Start-Ups: How Entrepreneurs and Corporations Can Profit by Starting Online Communities. John Wiley & Sons, 2007. Weber, Larry. Marking to the Social Web: How Digital Customer Communities Build Your Business. John Wiley & Sons, 2007.