There are so many ways organizations can benefit by tapping into these communities; and likewise, more than one means to actually do the tapping…

This week we ran across a presentation recently given by Forrester analyst Natalie Petouhoff titled “The ROI of Social Media: Customer Service Communities.” (Highly recommended!) The presentation lists a number of benefits to organizations that create their own communities where their customers can gather to ask questions, share expertise and concerns relating to the organization’s products or services. While greater customer satisfaction, cost savings, and increased customer lifetime value were among the benefits listed – also among the list was “increased product ideation.”

Tapping into what your core consumers are saying online to help guide product/service development is a topic we’ve been blogging and talking about heavily. While the Forrester presentation looks at organizations doing this by hosting their own communities, this is an initiative that for a number of reasons isn’t suited to everyone. (Though it is obviously ideally suited to others.)

The point we would like to make though is that many of the same benefits that can be realized through hosting a community are also available by finding where your customers/would be customers are already congregating and sharing online – and listening to what they are saying there, in their own setting. When it’s not appropriate or even possible to draw them to you – go to them.

And if you need some help, find a guide.
We know a good one…

In an article that ran in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal, Koehn urges businesses to act and think as entrepreneurs “doggedly pursing opportunity.”

Reading the article, I couldn’t help but think of how social media has provided such a rich avenue of opportunity for companies to not only discover opportunity, but to glean the kind of consumer feedback that allows organizations to tweak and improve upon existing products and services. And for the brave, to launch new ones.

What do I mean? We see it time and again in the work we do for clients. Your consumers are talking about what they like, and more importantly in this reference, don’t like about your product or service. They are talking about features they wish existed, and how they use the product/service – possibly in ways you aren’t even aware, providing the chance for you to make tweaks so that it will better suit evolving needs or the needs of new audiences. Audiences you didn’t know exist.

Learning how to tap into these insights can not only save companies from “shooting in the dark”; it can provide small and medium-sized organizations the kind of intelligence that has previously been the privilege of much larger companies which much more substantial research and development budgets.

If your searching for ways to not only survive, but thrive in this economy, take Ms. Koehn’s words to heart. Doggedly pursue opportunity. I’ll just add: The right opportunity.

- Angela