buyers guide to online community platforms

A Buyer’s Guide to Online Community Platforms

1

Richard MillingtonManaging Director, FeverBee

Dennis ShiaoContent Marketing Director, DNN

FeverBee Community Consultancy @RichMillington 2FeverBee Community Consultancy @RichMillington

RICHARD MILLINGTON

FEVERBEE LIMITED

AUTHOR - “BUZZING COMMUNITIES”

@RichMillington

www.feverbee.com

course.feverbee.com

[email protected]

http://www.feverbee.com/

http://course.feverbee.com/

mailto:[email protected]


TODAY WE WILL COVER…

• Biggest mistakes organisations makes

• Deciding the platform category

• Narrowing platforms within that category

• Looking for successful examples (and failures)

• Checking feature set and design

• Negotiating and validating






• Making your selection


BIGGEST MISTAKES WHEN SELECTING A PLATFORM

• Developing your own bespoke/custom site

• Spending most of your budget on the website

• Putting form over function

• Selecting a platform without a long-term future

• Not finding successful examples

• Failing to check integration/feature set


Many organizations miss the purpose of the

community website


The purpose of the community platform is to

facilitate interactions


Platforms that facilitate interactions succeed


STEP 1: DECIDE PLATFORM CATEGORY



• Traditional

• Social Media

• White Label

• Open-Source

• Enterprise

• Bespoke



• Budget - What platform can you afford?

• Skills - Can you develop/design a platform?

• Resources - Can you maintain a platform?


• $0 to $1k (traditional / low-end white label)

• $1k to $10k (traditional, white label, very low-end enterprise)

• $10k to $50k (white label, open-source, and enterprise)

• $50k+ (enterprise / bespoke)

BUDGET


• None - White label, enterprise

• Basic - traditional, white label, enterprise

• Significant - Open-source, bespoke, traditional, white label

• Does your team have the time to do this?

DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT SKILLS



• Biggest mistakes organisations make





STEP 2: NARROWING OPTIONS WITHIN THE CATEGORY

• Which platforms have a bright future?

• Which have the specific features you need?

• Which have the misc needs you require? (integration/security?)

• Which match the audience needs and habits?


WHICH PLATFORMS HAVE A BRIGHT FUTURE?

• Google trends

• Funding

• Innovation

• General reviews


WHICH PLATFORMS HAVE SPECIFIC FEATURES?

• Essential features

• Useful elements

• Key processes

• Future promises?


Feature selection: The essentials

• Discussion area - place for members to interact

• Content/CMS - place for members to get new information (build habits!)

• Landing page - show members who/what is new/popular

• Contact page


• Access levels

• Show latest posts on landing page

• Exportable data

• Integration

• Show unanswered posts

• Processes (private messaging, notification, signatures, etc...

Discussion Area


• CMS - create/edit etc..

• Commenting

• Sharing

• Multi-author/user submissions

News Page


• Latest news

• Latest member contributions

• What’s new/popular?

• Who’s new/popular?

• What’s needed?

• Notification/replies

The Landing Page


• Community history

• Upcoming events

• FAQ

• Member profiles

• Groups

• Multimedia

• Blogs

• Pages for jobs, events, products & services

• Newcomer info pages

Useful Elements


• Integration

• Notification

• Analytics

• User levels

• E-mail

• Automation

Essential Processes


WHICH PLATFORMS MATCH YOUR UNIQUE NEEDS?

• Integration (salesforce etc…)

• Security

• Weird stuff…

• Be flexible


• Not as important as you might think

• Has this audience used a similar platform?

• Is it integrated with existing habits (e.g. e-mail, phone, facebook etc…)?

• Any unique expectations? (designers need more visual, for example)

• What platforms do they use? How old are they?

AUDIENCE HABITS



• Biggest mistakes organisations make





STEP 3: MAKING YOUR SELECTION

• References

• Customer service

• Negotiating

• Contract


• Referrals from unsolicited clients

• Examples of success (quantity)

• Search for happy/unhappy customers (and interview them)

• Which match the audience needs and habits?

• Ask in relevant forums (adminzone/e-mint/CommunityGeek)

SEEKING REFERENCES


• Speed of response

• Do they customise their efforts to you?

• Make very specific requests (map out in detail)

• Ask who will be the main contact (and google them)

CUSTOMER SERVICE


• Low marginal costs

• Ask is that the best you can do?

• Ask specifically to beat a competitor option

• Seek guarantees

• Market works in your favour

NEGOTIATING


• Check carefully

• Don’t do long-term commitments

• Seek minimum service guarantees

• Carefully read copyright (who owns the content?)

• Don’t be afraid to make changes and send it back

CONTRACT


GOOD LUCK!

www.feverbee.com

[email protected]

@RichMillington

For more information on DNN’s online community plat-form:Evoq Social Community Software

http://www.feverbee.com/

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.dnnsoftware.com/solutions/evoq-social-online-community-management?utm_source=dnn-slideshare-millington-webinar&utm_medium=text-link&utm_campaign=dnn-slideshare

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