No, they’re not as glitzy as their B2C cousins, and certainly nowhere near as big. But B2B online communities have an important difference: they get real work done for the vendor that hosts them.
That’s because they’re built on a model of professional collaboration, whereas B2C communities tend to be about information dissemination and “shop talk.” A B2B community exists to solve the business and professional needs of its members, yielding mutual benefits: between the company and the members, and between the members themselves. So says Vanessa DiMauro, in a recent post on Social Media Today.
In fact, B2B communities can seem a bit like gated communities, with a fairly restrictive registration/membership process; but that works to keep a sharp focus on member needs. As one result, “the B2B community can often have a more powerful impact on the (vendor) organization, thanks to the direct input from key outside stakeholders on core operations such as customer service, marketing, product development, product groups and sales.”
Vanessa notes several reasons why more and more companies are building such online communities, including…
- to help customers get more value from the firm’s products and services
- to improve the company’s process for enhancing products and services, and to develop better new products and services
- to reduce the cost of post-sale service
- to market and sell more effectively
Companies such as Cisco, Taleo, SAP, Palladium Group, LexisNexis, EMC, Mathworks and Cognizant have all made major commitments to enhancing stakeholder relationships via online communities. Maybe it’s time for your B2B to join them?
