Welcome to the Listening Post!

Agony Uncle Answers Your Community Questions

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I'm just back from England, where I read about some actress becoming an "Agony Aunt", offering advice to the lovelorn. For the next few days, I'll be an agony uncle, answering questions posed by attendees to my recent webcast.

Lindsey asks two good questions. The first: "Are there any demographic segments of the population (like the elderly) that are less likely to participate in online communities than others?" 

The participation rate for online communities increases from age 13 to age 20, then the rate decreases as age increases. Right now, 20somethings have the highest participation rate of any demographic.

Participation also increases as income increases, until a sudden drop at high incomes ($100K+ household income). So the poor are less likely to participate. 

In terms of cultural differences (differences correlating to race rather than income), Hispanic women are underrepresented in online communities.

Lindsey also asks, "Can you provide examples of successful techniques online communities have used to keep customers coming back and interested?" 

Yogi Berra said, "Nobody goes there no more, it's too crowded!" Conversely, the more crowded an online community (e.g., the more participation), the more likely visitors are to stay and participate. So getting the community to critical mass, where enough people are contributing on their own is key.

In the early days, it's important to get first-timers to visit the community. The community should be promoted in general marketing materials (e.g., the company newsletter). Employees should link to the community from emails to customers. The community should have its own monthly newsletter summarizing what's happening and driving traffic to the community site. The thank-you pages of community surveys should lead to the community message boards. And so on. 

Tomorrow, Getting Personal in Peoria asks about face-to-face meetings to supplement communities and whether online communities are too impersonal.