Collaborative Communities at Next09

Our team attended the Next09 conference in Hamburg this week and rated this event as amongst the best in Europe. With over 1,300 participants, 100+ speakers and moderators and a host of innovative sponsors and partners, the event exceeded our expectations.

We were invited to present to a group of more than 200 people on the topic of 'Collaborative Communities' focusing on the role of an online community within the sales process/ cycle of a company. One of our key missions is to increase the % of vibrant, active and engaging online communities drawing on the wealth of knowledge and experience our team has accumulated over many years.

Whilst the majority of online communities and groups have been created by individual users on Facebook, Ning, MySpace, XING, LinkedIN and Bebo, companies and brands are also playing and positioning themselves in this powerful social media channel. P & G have built more than 2.000 communities (e.g. Being Girl ) over the past 7 years whilst Nestle has only a handful. Also companies have realised that they cannot afford to turn a blind eye to the power of online communities and groups. The fact is, there are 80 million communities and groups online. Most of them existing within 2,000+ Social Networks. 250 million people are registered and active in at least one online community or group.

During the presentation Maria shared the 6 essential ingredients for launching and maintaining a vibrant, active and profitable online community. Her specialty and focus is on monetization and identifying value drivers to ensure the end users experience is a positive one.

Following the presentation, feedback and comments again proved that companies are still in the early days of exploring the possibility of integrating social media and online communities. There's uncertainty around where to start, what type of resources are needed internally and externally, the cost to setup and manage, which technologies to use and how to deal with the level of transparency the web has lead people to expect.

Step by step and with your help we are trying to find more an more answers to these questions!