A topic of discussion at last month’s Community 2.0 Conference in Las Vegas was whether all companies really need to invest now in their own customer communities, or whether they can leverage communities that are already out there. For sure, customer communities provide a variety of benefits, one of which is the insight provided by customers into your company, products, and services. And, in many cases, existing external communities—-communities that you don’t own and have no real control over--can offer this customer perspective.
We call this observation and learning of external communities “Community Surfing”. It’s not a substitute for managing your own community, but it can be effective as a complementary activity. Two caveats when surfing communities: 1) be prepared for especially candid comments (perhaps overly and inappropriately so), and 2) don’t surf when deadlines are looming, as such exploration and information gathering takes an unpredictable amount of time (this is the voice of experience).
- Contributed by Matthew D. Lees, Vice President and Consultant, Patricia Seybold Group
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