Closed Communities for B2B Research
Posted by Jeffrey Henning on Tue, Apr 14, 2009
Open online communities are accessible to anyone. Often the content can be reviewed without creating a user account, though typically an account is required for commenting and starting new discussion threads. Closed online communities, in contrast, are by invitation only. Both types of communities have their place. While many B2C communities are open and public, many B2B communities are closed and private.
These private B2B communities often take the form of product advisory councils or key-account advisory boards. The content produced by such communities is sensitive and competitive, often involving feedback that will be used to shape future products, services and promotions. Accordingly, organizations do not want their competitors to be able to access and review this information, and a closed community is the preferable approach.
Once you decide a community will be closed, however, you dramatically increase the workload of the community manager: he or she needs to promote the community to potential recruits, they need to get new members engaged in the community, they need to encourage members to return to the community frequently, and so on. Further, because private communities are typically smaller than public communities, sponsoring organizations need to generate more content themselves at the beginning, and it is harder to get the community to the point where it is thriving and self-sustaining. That said, the results are often rich and instructive, and therefore worthy of the extra labor involved.
For a full contrast between the two types of communities, check out this Public vs. Private Community matrix.