Forrester’s Groundswell blog (that supports a new book they are writing) talks about the objectives that businesses should consider before jumping into online communities with their customers.
1. LISTENING. Finding out what your customers are really saying
2. SPEAKING. Connecting with your customers in new ways
3. ENERGIZING. Getting your best customers to evangelize your products
4. SUPPORTING. Helping customers solve their own and each other’s problems
5. EMBRACING. Working with your customers to make products better
A consideration, that I support, raised in the comments is that ’speaking’ should be changed to ‘conversation’ as it works best if it is bidirectional.
The biggest thing for me here is ‘Supporting’. People will evangelise your products with more fervour if you make their lives easier or better in some way? Do you want to provide them with:
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New ways of connecting with other people with the same interests/background
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New perspectives on their particular personal or business context
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Digestible information that would not normally access
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Guidance in new ways of doing things (making money, saving money, having fun etc)
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Up to date information
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Free stuff ;)
How are you using social networks in your business and what are you achieving?