Web Communities Oct 1998 Presentation to SVAMA

SVAMA 10/14/98 Copyright 1998 RealCommunities, Inc. 04/07/23 01:22 PM

Web Communitiesfor content, commerce, and customer

retention

Cynthia TypaldosFounder and CEO, RealCommunities, Inc

Silicon Valley Chapter of the American Marketing Association

October 14, 1998

This entire presentation is on the web at:http://www.realcommunities.com/svama/index.htm

SVAMA 1014/98 Copyright © 1998 RealCommunities, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Slide : 204/07/23 01:22 PM

About me GolfWeb The 12 Principles of Civilization Corporate Communities Q&A Appendix:

Further Reading & Learning More on Corporate Benefits from Web Communities Web Community Categorizations RealCommunities Contact Info

Presentation Outline


Founder & CEO, RealCommunities presentwww.realcommunities.com

Co-Founder & COO, GolfWeb 1995-1997www.golfweb.com

Software Business Consultant & Instructor, UC Berkeley Extension 1993-present

Director of SW Marketing, Director of Standards, Sun Microsystems

Marketing, SW Engineering: Data General, Bank of America

Education: UC Berkeley - BS, grad school Computer Science MIT - MBA

My Background

GolfWeb


My GolfWeb Experience

developed business model and operating plan

co-managed company

responsible for vision, definition, and implementation of GolfWeb’s community products

developed International operations

raised $10M in venture and corporate funding


60% market share (next golf site has 16%)

2-3M pageviews/day, several million readers/month

destination website (content, commerce, community)

Business Week award - one of 7 websites selected for “Best Products of 1996”

Acquired by CBS Sportsline in January 1998

GolfWeb Facts


Community Firsts on GolfWeb Guest Book (Jan ‘95)

User extensible database in the OnCourse golf course directory (Jan ‘95)

Member Profiles, Signature, Database, Application Integration in the Players Club (Aug ‘97)

Member Profile automatically updated by member activity (Aug ‘97)


GolfWeb Community Info Players Club - fully integrated membership product

community infrastructure: registration, member profiles, groups, invite a new member sign-up, member management tools, etc.

golfing community applications: leaderboard, scoring, handicapping, find a similar member, etc.

golf course database (23,000 courses) - user-updatable

communication tools: polls, quizzes, chat, discussion groups, games, guest books, newsletters, email, etc.

invested ~ $3M in community software definition and development


Existing Online Communities GolfWeb Players Club Yahoo! Clubs Netscape Netcenter Silicon Investor Motley Fool ClearStation Ebay Amazon.com BarnesandNoble Edmunds Automotive Autodesk Compaq Javasoft VerticalNet AsianAvenue iVillage NetNoir The RV Club www.edmunds.com

Utne Cafe Wall Street Journal Homestead GeoCities AOL WorldsAway* NetNoir Online Women.com Virtual Memorials ConvoNation: Virtual Hangout for Sick

and Disabled Kids -- www.maniax.com Moms Online: A Home for Moms in

Cyberspace -- www.momsonline.com Regarding Vietnam: Stories Since the War

-- /www.pbs.org/pov/stories SeniorNet: Bringing Wisdom to the

Information Age -- www.seniornet.org

The Body: An AIDS and HIV Information Resource -- www.thebody.com

The Family Village --www.familyvillage.wisc.edu/

ESPN Sportszone www.matchmaker.com


What do all human communities need to

thrive?


12 Principles of Civilization1. Communication 4. Environment 7. Trust 10. Expression

2. Identity 5. Boundaries 8.Governance 11. History

3. Purpose 6. Groups 9.Commerce 12. Evolution


Principle of Civilization #1 - Communication

off-web


Principle of Civilization #1 - Communication

web software implementations


Principles of Civilization #2 - Identityoff-web


Principles of Civilization #2 - Identityweb software implementations


Web Community Identity Examples

GolfWeb Players Club Member Profile

eBay Feedback for Registered User

Motley Fool Personal Profile

RealCommunities’ Member Profile

RealCommunities’ Member Profile


Corporate Web Communities


Corporate Web Sites

“The portals of tomorrow are the corporate Web sites that are being constructed today… I look forward to watching what happens to the traffic numbers…as corporate Web sites become prime destinations.” -- Portal mania, Danny Rimer, 4/15/98, c|net


Web Hubs “A hub is a central position from which everything

radiates. It's more like a railway station than an on-ramp. It's a subtle distinction, I know, but an important one, because a hub becomes the focus of your activities, not just a pass-through.”

-- Jesse Berst, 7/1/98, ZDNet AnchorDesk


Where does Community Software fit into a Destination/Hub Web Site?


Why Corporations are creating web communities...

They want to to enhance their relationships with their natural communities of: customers suppliers distributors partners 3rd party developers subcontractors investors employees etc.


Where does Community fit in a Corporate Web Site?

Customer Community SupplierCommunity

Partner Community

Ecommerce

EmployeeCommunity

InvestorCommunity


Stock Brokerage Example: Business-to-Consumer

Key Benefits groups and other features create customer

“stickiness” and loyalty ability to create community applications (e.g.

investment groups) for differentiation data mining production automation, news generation


Hi-Tech Example: Business-to-Business

Key Benefits market research (focus groups, surveys) data mining (for salespeople especially) ecommerce word-of-mouth capability customers helping customers


Corporate Communities Today


Q & A


Books: Hosting Web Communities: Building Relationships,

Increasing Customer Loyalty,and Maintaining a Competitive Edge

Author: Cliff Figallo

Net Gain: Expanding Markets Through Virtual Communities.

Authors: John Hagel, Arthur Armstrong

Further Reading & Learning

My UCB Extension course on Web Communities:www.typaldos.com/webmarketing/ucb/fall98.htmlnext class starts Feb 4th

Experience: Join some web communities!


Corporate Benefits from Web Communities

Make money

Save money

Retain customers


Benefit: Increased Revenue A well-structured and well-managed

community fosters the development of trust between members, and therefore word-of-mouth reference sales.


Benefit: Cost Savings Lower operational costs

member-created content

Better leverage of corporate resources such as engineers, customer service customers helping each other organizes support or development personnel in

one-to-many dialogue for better efficiency


Benefit: Customer Retention and Marketing

Members adding value and locking in Members have much information of value Increasing returns/network economics come into play Member “lock-in” or “stickiness” due to value added by being part of the

community, status achieved, connections made. Helps combat commodity pricing.

Market Research polls, surveys, quizzes, focus groups data mining of member community

Differentiation How the community site is structured and managed gives the corporation a

“personality” opportunity to provide unique community applications


Communities

Products & Components

Web Community Categories


Communities Personal Community Aggregations

me and my friends and family (group focus) - Portals

My-Home-page-on-the-web (personal focus) - Home Page Sites

Hub/Destination Communities Lifestyle, Interest websites

Corporate Communities business-to-consumer

business-to-business

Associations



Products & Components communication tools registration tools complete community solutions

3 different types of communities (see next slide)

community applications



Contact Info for RealCommunitiesCynthia Typaldos

CEO408 867-8875

[email protected]

RealCommunities, Inc.www.realcommunities.com

Web Communities Strategic Consulting14510 Big Basin Way, Suite 285

Saratoga, CA 95070

Web Communities Oct 1998 Presentation to SVAMA

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