Communities as the future of the internet

Ever since I set up my first attempt at an online community in 2001, I’ve seen online communities - focussed on forums - as a key to internet development.

I’ve repeatedly recommend that clients set up forums - either just for support, or else as a marketing tool in itself.

Why?

Firstly, it helps increase visibility.

If you have only 20 pages on your website promoting your services, but then add a community, you have potentially limitless growth in the the number of new pages that will be added to your site - and can help capture new clients who stumble onto your site by using search engines to find key information.

Best of all, the community will generate that content for you, so long as you provide the right conditions for them to want to take part.

And then there’s the issue of Communication and Accessibility - forums provide a direct way to interact with a company - and provide a direct way for a company to interact with customers.

Theoretically, doing so can not only develop customer loyalty, but can also serve as a viral marketing center.

I’ve noticed that the biological programming that sees humans want to attach themselves within social groups is as strong on the internet as in real life.

Once emotionally tied to a place, online communities become virtual and literal homes for the users. The more attached they are, the more likely they will stay at your forum and not visit similar ones.

This then brings about one of the key potential benefits of forums, and reason why I recommend them - the online community as a marketing tool.

At the moment there’s a lot of buzz with marketers wanting to tap into viral marketing programs, by entering into other communities, to entice them to buy third-party products and services.

But stop there - why simply go to communities, when you can build them yourself?

And if you can build successful online communities, there are some other significant marketing potentials you can tap into:

1. Direct Sales

You can recommend your own products and services to members, and offer discounts and incentives where required

2. Brand Loyalty

The community is good - the company looks after it’s own. Brand marketing through brand loyalty.

3. Advertising

You can expose your advertising message not simply to the regular members of a community - but also to the larger numbers of visitors who visit the community.

Even if your website is not directly selling products and services, you can still tap into these marketing features, via affiliate marketing and generating advertising revenues.

Online advertising is going to be a huge future cashflow - the bigger the community, the more likely advertisers will seek a direct advertising relationship with its members.

To myself, the potential of forums for the future is huge - but the effort to build large and successful online communities is equally large. Simply put, building an online community requires a huge investment of time and/or money.

However, I very much believe that those who dare to take on the challenge, and are prepared to invest for years to come, will eventually reap the benefits, no matter how indeterminate at present.

It’s precisely for that reason that when I suddenly realised that no one was listening to my community evangelising - I decided to do it myself.

I’m now developing 15 new forums, and although I know I’ve taken on a huge commitment, I know that so long as I remain disciplined and focused, then it’s up to me to realise the potential for the future.

New Marketing is all about the internet being a community. In which case, isn’t it better to have some degree of direct control and influence of these communities?