In these weeks after the September 11^th tragedy, and as my colleague, Lisa, and I put the final touches on the book we are writing on marketing to online women, the topic of community has been swirling through my mind. 

The usually far-flung, somewhat unconnected-feeling citizenry of the United States of America have truly begun to unite.  The horror and heroism that we have recently observed through television news or personally experienced has forged a connection between us all.  As the peace and memorial services continue throughout the country, we are all further rallying around this emotional cause and maintaining our newfound bond. 

During a recent interview with Macdara MacColl, a consultant who served as managing director for iVillage’s flagship community, Parent Soup, she defined community as “any time a broad audience is in conversation.”  Doesn’t it seem like a lot more of the U.S. and global populace are experiencing community like that in this sad aftermath and time of war?

Emotional connection is always something that will get women going in conversation, and in this issue of Reaching Women Online, I’m going to share some tools that could be referred to as community programming, when done right.

What True Community Is Not

Chats and message boards may be the first tools you think of when online community is mentioned.  Depending on the topic, it can be extremely difficult to keep lively and thriving interactions going on in such formats.  I, myself, know of very few women who have the time or patience to gather information or make connections that way.  Keeping an active conversation flowing at an offline gathering, where tone and facial expression can be observed, is difficult enough for hosts.  Translate that to an online group of people, and – yikes

The alternative: We have all long-since formed our own small email groups around various topics and simply poll one another informally if we have direct questions.  And, on a slightly grander scale, there are women-focused online businesses with powerful email networks that have developed almost organically, such as Journeywoman.com’s hermail.net (which I mentioned in Issue IV ).

Community through Feedback-ability

How then can a brand tap into women's existing interests and informal networks?  Well, ever-so successful consumer packaged goods company Procter & Gamble, for one, includes some good community builders on their site.  Taglined “Your One Stop Connection to P&G and Our Brands,” the site has a “Help Us Create” section that seeks suggestions directly from consumers for improving their brands and creating new ones.  The question that was listed the first minute I checked it was “Tell us what you think about Folgers,” and then two minutes later the question listed was regarding Pringles potato chips.  (Refreshing the site so frequently gives P&G a chance to get feedback on the gazillion brands under their umbrella.  More importantly, it appears like the company cares if you are bored and it also seems like they realize that not everyone is a consumer of Folgers.)

The “community” in this concept is that it seems like the people at P&G care what you think, right off the bat.  Furthermore, when you click on the “tell us what you think” link on the site, you are directed to a page where you have two, count ‘em, choices for participating:  You can either join a feedback session (and they warn you how long it will take) or you can just submit a quick thought.  I’d say (and I suspect I’d be joined by many women), “Thank you for being aware of my time, especially since I’m being so nice to give you feedback.”

Make Your Audience the Marketers

Another example of subtle but effective community programming is the “customers who bought this book also bought” tool on Amazon.com, which gives you the feeling you are connected to others and “makes your audience the marketers,” as Macdara noted.  In addition to Amazon's usual recommendations based on your previous buying history, they have recently added a “why” link that explains their system’s logic for recommending the books it does.  I see this as another little way to make you feel listened to, even if you know it’s all based on their database’s mathematical calculations.  (Or, it could just make you paranoid and be another invasion of privacy – you tell me.)

Of What Use, Community

I recently talked with Amy Jo Kim, author of the very informative guide, Community Building On The Web (Peachpit Press), and asked her about the whole e-commerce and community question.  Can the community tool really work together with product sales?

As is so frequently the case in marketing, the devil is in the details.  Amy shared her thoughts, “There is no simple recipe.  The best use of community as combined with e-commerce might be mainly for market research purposes.”  Amy went on to point out that no matter how much a woman uses your community areas, if your prices, selection and value don’t measure up, another e-store is just one click away.  You've been warned: Loyalty to community doesn’t mean automatic loyalty to e-commerce.

There is no question that women draw strength and validation from community, however.  The strong circle of connection continues because women give help and information to where they found it when they were once in need. 

My advice: Get genuinely interested in what your audience thinks, and show it.  Don’t just throw the chat and message board solution at the problem in order to tap into women’s existing online networks.  Be creative and grass-rootsy.  Develop quick and interactive feedback or a community-bonding tool for your target audience that feeds into their regular on and offline conversation loops. 

Online community can be your new best friend, if relationship building with women is part of your marketing strategy (and, I know it is…)

Links:

http://www.maccoll.com
http://www.naima.com/community/  (The site for Amy Jo Kim's book) http://www.pg.com
http://www.amazon.com

Look for the second issue of our alternating e-newsletter, RWO Talk, in two weeks.  This issue will be "INTLTalk," and will cover Japanese women consumers in online community (this means more than chats and message boards, as you now know).

Have a calm and relaxing, but still fun, Halloween!

Take care until next time,

Andrea


P.S. Feel free to write me with your ideas, comments, or questions at: andrea@reachwomen.com