Ben Worthen at the WSJ blogs on a Deloitte study about how businesses overinvest in tech when building communities.
1. Going out with the claim that 60% of businesses invest over $1 million in online communities thanks to a Deloitte typo that should have stated 6% is not a great way to get off on the right credibility foot. Worthen does the correction, but …
2. The comments on the post are cluttered with community vendors, imagine that.
3. “Community” as a term, is tired and over-fraught with implications of good will, social good, and cooperation among customers and companies.
4. This is bad research on a tired topic.
“One of the hot investments for businesses these days is online communities that help customers feel connected to a brand. But most of these efforts produce fancy Web sites that few people ever visit. The problem: Businesses are focusing on the value an online community can provide to themselves, not the community.”
Business Technology : Why Most Online Communities Fail.
Not such a good investment when your community fails and gets feces all over a brand that otherwise was doing well on it’s own.
And yes, it really stinks when you rely on a source and they give you bad info.
“You screwed up, you trusted us…” Animal House
David:
I saw that one too – and the typo ruined it.
Regardless of the type – the community vendors were scrambling hard to pull the curtain back up.
My take on it here (social media madness – build it and they will come)
http://tinyurl.com/685e3x
TO’B