Private communities – focus groups on steroids
First in a series of guest posts on Social Media from our friends and partners, we warmly welcome Diana Hesse from Communispace Corporation to our blog…
I am so thrilled to be posting for Social Media Blog in Poland. Just today, there is a wonderful article in the New York Times Travel section about the beauty of Warsaw and I feel inspired to visit the Saxon Gardens and other sites.
In the U.S., and especially in marketing circles, social media is the subject of countless articles, books, and Twitter posts. However, the idea of “social networking” itself is not new. For instance, in 1949, Pillsbury created the idea of a Bakeoff, in which women (it was all women at the time) would compete nationally for who could create the best recipes, using Pillsbury products. The finalists would have an opportunity to travel to the finals, to win prizes and to become famous. Although the chance to become a winner was enticing, most women competed for the opportunity to travel to a hotel and meet other women who loved to cook: to share recipes, to talk about their experience with the bakeoff, and even to discuss topics other than cooking! It was a wonderful social network, independent of the technology.
The difference in 2009 is that the range of available tools is overwhelming, and we are able to “travel” to meet others in the warmth of our own homes and offices.
Although there are many possible objectives that social media can help accomplish, we founded Communispace specifically to help companies with one important goal: to improve the way that they LISTEN to their customers. Sometimes I call Communispace a “focus group on steroids”: if a focus group is 10 people sitting in a room for one hour, then we are 400 people in a room “all the time”. By using social media tools and processes, we essentially give our corporate clients real-time access to their own customers whenever they need advice, feedback and insight. Each of our clients has their own dedicated consumers communities, and our communities are private and proprietary to each company. Privacy gives our clients control over what types of consumers can give them advice and it makes those consumers feel special; it also allows our clients to do projects of a more confidential nature. It is a great use of the internet, and especially important in these difficult economic times. It is a terrible time to lose touch with customers, and in 2009, we have helped over 100 corporations get game-changing insights from their customers. Many of our communities are global, with community members from over 78 countries.
Some case examples of how we work (click the links) include Schwab, Godiva, Mattel, and Kraft - and our clients will be presenting case studies at Adtech in London in September and at GBG in Amsterdam in October. If you read this blog and attend our session, please find me and say hello!
About Diane Hessen
A pioneer in creating online communities and an expert in social media, Diane Hessan helped found Communispace in 1999, and transformed Communispace from a small startup to a profitable 227-employee company that builds and facilitates more than 300 private online customer communities for a marquee list of Fortune 500 companies. Diane has spent her 30-year career helping companies become customer-focused-both as a business executive, and as co-author of the best selling book: Customer-Centered Growth: Five Strategies for Building Competitive Advantage. She has received numerous awards for her leadership and innovative ingenuity, including Ernst & Young’s Regional Entrepreneur of the Year and “Best Boss” from Winning Workplaces/Fortune Small Business. Diane is an active board member for several business and charitable organizations in Boston, including The Business Innovation Factory, the Progressive Business Leaders Network, the Mass Technology Leadership Council Board of Trustees, Horizons for Homeless Children, The Boston Philharmonic and the Tufts Alumni Council. Diane has an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and graduated summa cum laude from Tufts University.
Loading ...