Who's Out There?
Understanding your online community
Who visits your site and why do they matter?
As your community grows that question becomes more important – and it's not just a matter of casual interest. By understanding your members and how they interact you can start to measure your Return On Investment (ROI), develop effective content strategies and plan for future product releases.
Telligent's powerful social analytics software – Harvest – helps you to understand and track your users with sophisticated, customizable reporting tools.
Of course, it's up to you how you categorise your members. But there are a few key traits and personalities to look out for:
Evangelists
These passionate, social customers care about your brand and your products and want to share their opinions with others. Give these people as many ways as possible to express their enthusiasm and ideas – from blogs and user profiles to reviews and Q&A sections.
After all, evangelists can be your most powerful marketing team.
Influentials
As in any social situation, some voices carry more weight than others. It's not necessarily the people that talk the most or the loudest. It's the people who have the ability to encourage others to try, buy and understand.
When influential people offer feedback on your product, others will listen. And as shown by the power of customer reviews, this can have a huge positive effect on your sales.
Observers
Observers may read and watch your content, but will rarely get involved. Though it appears that these types are hard to reach, in fact they're a crucial section of your customer base. They may be influenced by reviews and recommendations as much as anyone else. You need to create the environments for regular, compelling content to be generated - so that your observers keep returning.
Askers
In a forum or Q&A environment, you need people to ask questions. Every time a question is asked and responded to you're providing unbiased information for other customers to read and absorb.
The amount you save on customer support costs and reduced product returns can be staggering.
Answerers
Every question needs an answer – and every asker needs an answerer. These are the people that will respond to questions posed. The social currency earned by answering is enough to encourage large numbers of people to contribute.
Every time someone answers a question (via your forums, blogs, or dedicated Q&A sections) they're helping others make informed decisions. This in turn helps you reduce customer service costs. And, because buyers are more aware of a product's qualities from the outset, you can realize serious savings on reduced product returns.
Socializers
Socializers are people who spend lots of time on social networks and blogs, making connections, listing their preferences, making use of all the features. They may cross over with any of the above categories (except observers).
They're important because they can drive the core of your online community. They help facilitate exciting, open, compelling interactions – and often create the best user-generated content.
It helps to give these users the space and opportunity to express themselves as much as possible.
If you're ready to take advantage of advanced social analytics, customized functionality and totally integrated community design, get in touch with 4 Roads today.