The Business Value of Community

Your online community delivers an immense amount of value for those that it serves. It connects members to the people and resources they need to get their questions answered, and faster. It enables the development of leadership skills in its members. It allows for knowledge sharing and the ability for new ideas to flourish. And even though your community is for your members, there is also value to the association.According to The Community Roundtable’s State of Community Management 2019 report, communities impact complex organizational objectives as well as complex member objectives, creating a shared value where the organization and member objectives overlap. Let’s take a look at some ways that your community might surface that value within your association.Follow the leadsOnline communities attract people seeking knowledge. They may or may not already be a member of your association, but they recognize you as a source for answers to their questions. Because of this, online communities can play a major role in bringing in new customers/members by exposing them to information they may not have known they could access previously.It seems like a no brainer, but some care has to be taken here when allowing the online community to be used as a channel in this regard. What you don’t want to happen is for your community to be seen as a direct marketing vehicle. Remember, the purpose of your community is to bring people together using digital means to connect them, not to sell to them. However, if you help uncover information and resources that your organization offers, it organically creates value to members and to the organization by providing them what they need and giving your association exposure to an audience that it may not have otherwise found.Listen up for member retentionWe’ve talked a bit about this before, but online community continues to be a great way to extend the value of membership for your members. It’s also a great way to understand what it is they need and what they don’t need.Online communities allow conversations to take place that surface member pain points. And keep in mind, the majority of members who air their grievances are doing so because they care. Something is broken (or going really, REALLY well) and because they see the value in their membership, they seek an avenue to make their opinions known outside of the yearly member satisfaction survey. Pay attention to what people are saying – even those who aren’t members with your association. There’s a wealth of information being provided that you might be missing out on because it doesn’t surface in a survey.Learn what’s trendingMarket research is extremely important in any organization. It helps you understand what is affecting your members different parts of the world so that you can provide information and solutions. But, as you know, things change quickly. By the time the research has come back and been compiled, things may have changed. I’m not saying not to do the research. Please, DO THE RESEARCH! Just know that while that’s happening, your customers are talking in the online community space. They’re providing information about what’s happening in their region, their industry, their organizations. They’re talking about how they’re overcoming challenges with changing technologies or government regulations. These are insights that may or may not be uncovered through traditional methods of research because things are changing at such a rapid pace. And while you may not be able to act on what you see immediately, you can chase the trends and place yourself in a position to be on the edge of information that could be groundbreaking.Speed (and quality) of responsePeople come to online communities/forums to get fast answers to questions. Sure, they could just Google it, but if they have a specific challenge that needs to be addressed with a specific solution an online community is going to give them the most robust answer from people with diverse backgrounds in the fastest amount of time.It’s not just about fast answers, though. 76% of external online communities can be attributed to helping members generate new ideas*. This makes them valuable partners in their own organizations, helping to move them forward with creative and innovative solutions. All because they participated in your online community. Their success is then attributed to being involved in the association which, you guessed it, retains members.While you’re thinking about how to serve your members through online community, remember that there’s also business value in an online community. You can surface that value by building out robust strategies that show the balanced connection between the needs of your members and the needs of your association and then partnering with other business units to drive that strategy forward. Trying to build community and engagement alone is counterintuitive, I would think. By engaging the rest of your association, you’ll be surprised at how deeply community intertwines to create lasting value across the board.*The Community Roundtable, The State of Community Management 2019, p.23How does your online community drive business value within your organization? Tell us in the comments below!