Ongoing Costs of Online Communities
Posted by Jeffrey Henning on Sat, Aug 23, 2008
In a followup to our recent webcast, Query MR asks, "What are the ongoing costs associated with the different versions of online communities?"
According to Inside Research, the average outsourced community panel cost $159,000 in 2007. You can "insource" the community for far less, by subscribing to a managed software provider such as a Vovici and by dedicating a part-time or full-time staff member to moderating the community, writing initial articles and participating in discussion threads.
It's also best to budget for marketing the community to your customers and prospects, though - done properly - this cost can be restricted to producing the creative, with the actual advertising costs being minimal, by piggybacking on other marketing outreach programs.
When looking to budget these costs, we've seen clients use focus-group line items and general marketing budgets. When justifying the costs, our clients have pointed to the amount of surveys and polls they field, which far exceeds the quantity of information they could have gathered using traditional methods.