Seminars publications market research and customer care centers are some of the most
important tools in every business-to-business firm's toolbox for understanding attracting and
serving customers while keeping them loyal. But in a world of fierce global price competition
increasing transparency of business practices and ever-rising complexity these customer
interaction channels are no longer good enough for most B2B companies. That's why smart
organizations-both large and small-are tapping into online communities to gain a huge
competitive advantage: the ability to get much closer to customers and become more valuable to
them. Among other things online communities provide customer access to inside information on
new and forthcoming products provide places customers can share information and air gripes
allow companies to deliver custom technical help inexpensively and show customers how to get
the most from their products. As Developing B2B Social Communities: Keys to Growth Innovation
and Customer Loyalty shows online communities reinvigorate a company by helping it harness the
knowledge of the crowd. Communities help you create strategic direction develop new products
and services identify trends sell more serve customers efficiently and provide better
product support. This book details the transformational opportunities-and pitfalls-for creating
online communities. Among other things you will learn: - Why B2B companies of all sizes now
need to make online communities an integral part of their operations to maintain or expand
market share. - How to create launch and manage customer communities. - How to define and
measure what you gain from hosting online communities. The text takes a methodology-based
approach for developing an online community showing how to move from strategy to
implementation in a structured way to achieve key business goals. Each chapter interweaves case
studies taken from real-world examples-including companies like CA Technologies Palladium SAP
Taleo and LexisNexis as well as smaller organizations-and includes worksheets metrics and
templates to enable readers to develop online communities. Best Developing B2B Social
Communities shows how an online strategy can work for enterprises of any size because it is a
supremely cost-effective way to gain knowledge improve support and market products.
