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Starting a User Community
We have a big focus to start building a user community for users of our products & services. Our future aim is to be in a position within 12-18 months to hold a large international forum where many users can participate in-person, exchange ideas, and directly benefit from the event. However, we also realize that before such a large in-person forum, what we must tackle first is to begin building a cohesive and interested network of users. To be honest, we currently cannot claim to have any established (even small) network of users we engage with to have interesting or meaningful dialogue. Our interactions with users tend to be predominantly transactional only (i.e. users actually using the product) plus occasional direct-marketing (typically in an e-mail blast fashion). What are some best-practice techniques to start building communities of users with whom we can engage in a meaningful relationship that will benefit product development, market research and the company overall?
Starting a community is a great idea but not a trivial one. I suggest that you think of this as a marketing program and test the waters internally by talking about budget. Are you willing to spend $100,000 in salary for a manager/contributor and another $100,000 in infrastructure? If not, this effort will probably fail. It cannot be done 'on the cheap.'
You can establish a focal point for a community, create a set of base materials, and direct people there but in the end, the community creates itself. We at Pragmatic Marketing helped start regional product management associations all over the country. Only the ones in Boston, San Francisco, and Toronto. You can start the fire but you need volunteers to keep it alive.
Self-forming communities and forums result when passionate users want to share ideas with you and each other. Does this describe your users?
Some other ideas for engaging with your user community can be found in David Meerman Scott's book and seminar called The New Rules of Marketing.
Answered by Steve Johnson
