Communities are formed when two individuals interact over a common interest. There is the global community, and there are societal communities, cultural communities, and as many other types of community as there are brands. Every brand is a community that can be cultivated, fascinated, and illuminated through Community Experience Development™(CeD). A brand community can even be a centuries-old neighborhood that is being brought back to life through the infusion of today's technology.

In February of the year 2000, I decided that there was a need in Cincinnati, Ohio's historic Over-the-Rhine community for a clearinghouse of information. The strategy centered on a Web site where all interested parties could share information at will, and the entire Greater Cincinnati area could listen in at the click of a button.

The result was iRhine, a non-profit organization with the mission to develop a central community focus of communication for multiple agendas and information, serving as a conduit and catalyst for the many diversified offerings in the historic Cincinnati neighborhood of Over-the-Rhine.

iRhine supports and encourages social and economic development for the Greater Cincinnati Region. iRhine's information, programs, and services increased the community's capacity to:

1. Accelerate economic development through educating the public about the history, local industry, and culture within Over-the-Rhine.
2. Operate proactively by providing the necessary communication resources.
3. Promote initiatives aimed to reduce crime, litter, and unemployment in Over-the-Rhine.

In the world of business, communities are built around industries, companies, divisions, departments, committees, and teams. These communities are not always made up strictly of like minds and kindred spirits; in fact, healthy competition between community members is often supported and encouraged as a means to increased productivity.

The common thread running through the creation of all these communities is an act of leadership. Whether it is the belief that established the community, or the group that continues the mission of the community, the guiding principles are pronounced and certain to change the world. The leaders of these communities are the individuals we must empower in order to create and manage an expert knowledge base, but too few of these members express their integrity of thought in a way that defines them as leaders.

An expert knowledge base provides the key ingredient for cultivating an audience. Companies have invested their dollars in developing intellectual properties, and this proprietary knowledge will finally pay off through more avenues than the education of additional human resources. The Web communities that are now developing around the sharing of such fascinating content are consistently contributing to the knowledge base that defines the company. These community members aren't even on the payroll!

Since the need for Community Experience Development™ is increasing, the demand for tools, training, and education is also growing. Whether implementing licensed software or a custom method of providing these tools, people managing communities are realizing that defining the need is not enough. There exists a necessity for a long-term strategy that is focused on concrete goals and objectives. The ongoing cultivation and engagement of an audience provides the human interaction necessary for a community to thrive.

Primary objectives of this strategy are focused upon building awareness of existing communities through the general public and professional business networks. These online community-building tools persuade the audiences to utilize products and services, encourage them to visit the central Web site often, and convince them that this is the authoritative source for a particular topic on the Web. These methods achieve maximum results for those companies seeking increased community involvement.

Companies that listen, learn, create, and communicate effectively will make efforts to reward their audiences with a sense of consistency in the non-linear experience of the online environment. Empowering each individual with an experience of sharing, participation, and fellowship is the sign of a truly successful community.

Allowing the community members to make their own choices and to have a voice in the common purpose of the community will increase the community's knowledge base and create a positive brand experience. Clear and consistent communication will lead to education and the opportunity for meaningful community involvement.

It is time to move beyond the typical marketing-speak and reach the point of action. I'm the first to admit that these concepts have been talked about before, but we are all regularly subjected to the failure of small to mid-sized organizations to effectively implement them. We experienced the demise of a number of large communities like Garden.com, eToys.com and Pets.com, in spite of their efforts to create reliable brand communities. They built wonderful sites, but there were simply not enough visitors to pay the bills and the investors. Community growth can be planned, but the accelerated strategy does not always take into account the personal characteristics of the members.

For years the word community has been used online to define the threaded discussion group or message board. Forums actually allow Web site visitors and intranet users the ability to post messages and to receive feedback. These applications typically limit the opportunity for a complete community experience, but when used in conjunction with additional applications supporting involvement, they have proven quite effective in building an audience surrounding a given topic.

The chat mechanism and instant messaging functionalities are finally evolving into real-time conferencing that provides written documentation of quick and efficient conversations online. Advanced prototypes for high bandwidth users are beginning to provide audio and video for a completely interactive meeting experience.

In the case of the online journal or workbook, predetermined criteria are presented in a question-and-answer format. Hundreds of exercises with related follow-up questions present automated answers that alter the user's path through the information. Instructional design and eLearning companies have provided incredible leaps in education utilizing this technology. Of course, there is also the daily "blogging" that is an online journal and personal message board fusion providing individual users the ability to build communities around their written personalities.

Varying accessibility and role definition are key components to providing a customized membership experience. Knowledge of the demographics and specific requirements of the community member prior to delivering content provides endless opportunities for unique delivery of specialized content.

Necessary provisions for an easy and intuitive process that community ambassadors can use to post related materials and resources are key to keeping the group up-to-date on images, files, PDFs, and new content uploads. This also provides increased accountability and management automation for organizations with limited human resources.

Making participatory opportunities available for members to interact with experts and thought leaders will inevitably guide the way to increased interactivity and involvement. Online communities such as iVillage™ assign a multitude of experts to a variety of topics to keep their visitors informed and entertained. The vital aspect of this component is of course the likelihood for inclusive behavior and the opportunity for mentoring. A key value point is the building of relationships through intelligent dialogue.

At the core of the community is the tracking of members and their profiles in relationship to the whole community. Multiple opportunities to query the profile database in increasingly meaningful and revealing ways provide the necessary information for disseminating relevant content to the appropriate members. The brand strategy is now properly integrated due to an understanding of client satisfaction.

Active community members often require the capability to input information and provide the content that keeps the community up-to-date. This is an extremely important aspect of any healthy community. Often this is the only way to keep the content timely and relevant, and to instill in the members a sense of ownership. Napster™ is an extreme example of community members providing valuable content (as sad as its fate may be).

From subscriptions to newsletters and regular mailings, to feedback and content purchasing, the many database input fields provide entry points for the core information necessary to build an intelligent visitor profile.

Consumers weigh buying decisions based on the emotive impulse that makes photography, visual representation, intuitive ease-of-use, and trust of primary importance. These methods yield the highest value and require the largest investment due to the importance of eCommerce. Business purchases are based on facts, but fear of a bad decision plays into emotion, and certain brands symbolize quality to community members. As Boyd Clarke and Ron Crossland write in their book The Leader's Voice™, "Business leaders who often speak on just the factual channel and then don't understand why their messages didn't resonate must understand that constituents will always put the message through their own emotional and symbolic filters."

Databases are becoming increasingly complex and require many advanced search features that allow members to pinpoint and share information effortlessly regardless of the complexity of their queries. The philosophy behind this investment rests in the fact that the sooner the members find the information they are searching for, the happier and more satisfied they are when they tell someone else where they found it.

Seminars, workshops, and coaching for online learning require advanced application features. Attentive administration is required to manage the community. Organization, specification, and the experience of all participants are critical when establishing a destination for administering and retrieving knowledge.

Let the user choose! The sense of community is strengthened when members are provided the capability to select subject matter from personalized content areas along with a simple and easy way to store and retrieve the information they have chosen. This allows the Web site's organization to deliver content consistent with the members' wants and needs. Educational efforts are most effective when the member is actively engaged with the information on a regular basis.

The customer's wants and needs were in the front of Michael Dell's mind when he founded Dell computer. "What makes Dell Computer unique is not what it sells, but rather how it sells it. Dell was first in the PC industry to pioneer the direct-selling model. By cutting out the intermediary and creating a direct link between manufacturer and customer, Dell was able to provide customers with computers that cost less and that were more apt to meet customer needs."¹

Community Experience Development™ is not limited to the professional business market, but also focuses on non-profit organizations that are seeking new members and seeking to retain current memberships. For groups to truly benefit from CeD, they must invest in their audience's sense of belonging. In addition to radio and television publicity and advertising, a focus of considerable efforts on providing written content to various print media sources (e.g., white papers, articles, commentary, local stories, etc.) is still important to the success of any branding effort.

Steve Case attempted to create America On Line (AOL) as the absolute community destination for years. AOL's mistake is thinking they can define the community and force users to subscribe to their "push" technology. While AOL is spending more and more money toward this model, their prospective members are off creating the village they wanted all along. These non-AOL users are finally revolutionizing the Internet community for themselves.²

[-CeD-]

1. Michael Dell, Catherine Fredman (Contributor); Direct from Dell; HarperCollins; March 1999

2. "The Online/Offline Dichotomy: Debunking Some Myths about AOL Users and the Effects of Their Being Online Upon Offline Friendships and Offline Community" by Robin Hamman, http://www.cybersoc.com

BusinessWeek featured a story on Metaphor Studio in 2003 entitled Giving New Meaning to "Branding." In the article Smart Marketing columnist Karen E. Klein and Chicago marketing executive Meg Goodman interview Metaphor Studio CEO Ran Mullins, and describe how he responded to bigger rivals by going back to basics and giving clients the how, when, and why of what CeD can do for them. Much of the content of the article refers to the Community Experience Development™ (CeD) executive white paper. Read More>>>

CeD, December 2003, Volume 1, Issue 4

Past Issues:

2004
Q1 2004 - CHANGE!
Q2 2004 - Branding Personality

2003
Q1 2003 - Cultivate
Q2 2003 - Fascinate
Q3 2003 - Illuminate
Q4 2003 - Celebrate

CeD is a quarterly publication designed to provide insights into Metaphor Studio's
Community Experience Development™ process of consulting. Metaphor Studio is an advertising and technology agency in Cincinnati's historic Over-the-Rhine providing branding, interactive, and advertising strategy.

About CeD:
Community Experience Development™ (CeD) is a business philosophy that focuses on the proprietary consulting strategy of Metaphor Studio, LLC, utilizing Internet methods for revolutionizing brand communities. CeD includes cultivating, fascinating, and illuminating the target audience through personalized and non-personalized membership communities. The core CeD principles involve leveraging intellectual properties to position each community creator as the leader and expert in their given community. Achievement of CeD objectives results in the evolution of the brand community as the destination point for the given topic both online and offline. Download the complete executive whitepaper.