All companies would like to activate their customers to help sell more
goods
and services. Every political movement wants supporters to be
recruiters of more supporters. Every museum, school, non-profit and
place of worship wants their members to care more, talk more, recruit
more and donate more money.
The best reason to host a social network on your web site?
Because every market
space will have a MySpace.
Will you build the MySpace of your space?
If you don't build it,
who else in your space is most likely to? How does that feel?
Open Resource Group is building systems that host a community on your
site as vibrant and as engaged as MySpace, but focused on your goods
& services.
The result? The viral energy of MySpace or YouTube, but private-labeled
and without the noise. Your best customers, members and activists are
already enthusiastic and
knowledgeable, and the blogosphere has proven they're more than willing
to speak out. But the big win is opening a channel to your less
enthusiastic customers. Then you get what most organizations need:
- Praise,
Questions and Complaints, on your own site,
where all comments are in a database you can link to your customer or
member support system. Sure, it's public information, but it's
actionable data.
- Provide a
public forum for every customer, not aggregated in a
single place, like the comments posted at this Business Week article,
where Dell's customers' comments imply a Business Week blessing,
whether complaints are valid or not.
- Spontaneous
Interest Groups so customers can help each other with
problems you're now paying less-knowledgeable people to do less
competently. Here's a great
article and a depiction from ZDNet:
- Authentic
Engagement with
your customers. Sure, it starts out messy and uncontrollable as you
clear out the accumulated frustrations. But your site will quickly fill
up with real customers and heart-warming resolutions in real time.Your
people, connecting with your customers, as peers. Consider the
alternative. One expert put it all together:
On the web you don’t control your message,
but you’re welcome to participate in the
conversation you’ve started.
- Invitations
and Points that let you reward customers and members for
attracting their friends.
- Internal
Networking among
your own people, engaging each other by new paths and finding internal
allies and meeting your goals in ways you could never dream of.
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