Online Communities and the B2B Marketplace

Web 2.0 concepts and technologies, such as user generated content, wikis, blogs, and continuous feedback, are dramatically transforming the way consumer businesses interact with their customers.  In fact, the very relationship between these businesses and their customers is changing, as customers evolve from passive recipients of products and services to a more active role as stakeholders and influencers.  Consumer businesses are grappling with how to increase their involvement with customers and then how to leverage that involvement.

But what about B2B companies?  What does Web 2.0 mean for them?

Like consumer businesses, it’s all about collaboration and community.  But many business executives in B2B companies are skeptical, because it’s harder to see how Web 2.0 technologies apply to them.  And yet, online communities are already changing the way businesses do marketing, sales, product innovation, and customer service.  The opportunity to cultivate vibrant customer ecosystems represents a largely untapped frontier for farsighted businesses to exploit.

I think the most important thing for businesses to understand is that Web 2.0 is changing what it means to be “customer-centric.”  Instead of striving to provide a world -class customer service you have to provide a world-class customer experience.  By collaborating with your customers or clients, you have the opportunity to create an environment that encourages customer interaction and feedback (think product innovation!), leverages customer knowledge (think of the potential for customers to act as  “trouble shooters!”), and demonstrates responsiveness to customer needs. 

That’s right, you do have to respond.  The worst thing you can do is to offer customers the opportunity to have a dialogue with you and then not respond to their input.  That doesn’t mean, of course, that every customer idea is a good one or that you could possibly leverage all of the good ones.  But customers have to see that you are listening.

Imagine, though, what can happen once you have built this collaborative relationship.  Your customers could very well become a key marketing “arm” for your company – a viral marketing capability – via referrals, experience sharing, or product and service endorsement.  This may sound like the holy grail….but it’s a strategic imperative.  I think in two years the businesses that haven’t figured out how to operate in a Web 2.0 world will find it difficult to stay competitive.

But wait, there’s more.  A Web 2.0 strategy is about more than a dialogue with your customers or clients.  It’s also about creating the environment in which your customers interact with each other.  Why would you want to do this and how would you do it?  Well, that’s the subject of my next blog, which I’ll publish in the next week or ten days.  I hope you will come back to tmng.com to read it or you can have it delivered to your virtual doorstep by registering and signing up for our newsletter, which you can tailor to your business interests.

In the meantime, I’d like to hear from you.  We at TMNG Global have started down the path of transforming how we do business by integrating a Web 2.0 strategy into our overall business strategy.  We think we are at the forefront of thought leadership in this area, but we’d like to make it interactive – i.e. we'd like your contributions.  What is your company thinking about or doing in the Web 2.0 arena?  Do you have any experiences you can share, negative or positive?  Let’s start the conversation.

See you soon.