External, Hybrid, and Internal Communities: Why You Should Care
Exploring three social communities and some typical business problems that effective engagement can solve.
Exploring three social communities and some typical business problems that effective engagement can solve.
Organizations have the above three communities. They have always had these communities.
Whether communication was done via focus groups, feedback forms, 800 numbers, internal meetings, or phone calls, these communities have always existed and have been engaged in some form.
Now we’re seeing new emerging collaborative tools that allow organizations to engage with these communities in a more efficient and mutually beneficial way.
But, who cares about these communities? What business problems can these communities help organizations solve? Glad you asked!
Let’s take a look at what these communities are followed by some of the typical business problems that effective community engagement can solve.
External Communities
This is the “typical” community that is comprised of customers or prospects of a brand or product. These types of communities have little insight into how the organization actually functions and instead relies solely on the information the organization provides. Twitter, Facebook fan pages, message boards, customer community deployments and the like are all usually external communities.
The business problems solved:
Hybrid Communities
These communities straddle the line between internal and external. They aren’t quite on the outside of the organization, nor do they have as much information about the company as employees.
Typical hybrid communities exist between partners, suppliers, and vendors. We typically don’t hear as much about these types of communities but they are nonetheless extremely valuable.
Typical business problems solved:
Internal Communities
These communities are comprised of employees within an organization. Employees are able to find information and subject matter experts as well as manage information and collaborate with each other to solve business problems. Change management and technology adoption is typically a challenge here.
Typical business problems solved:
Hopefully you find this overview helpful. It’s great for organizations to think about who makes up their communities and what business problems these communities help solve.
This isn’t about social media. It’s about solving problems.
I know I missed some “typical business problems solved,” so if you have any you would like to add, please do so in the comments, perhaps some that pertain specifically to your organization!
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