A recent survey of 3,000 global IT decision-makers by Toolbox.com and PJA Advertising and Marketing, highlighted by PJA’s Mike O’Toole on MarketingProfs, offered some insights into what communities expect from vendors looking to participate.
As we often say, engaging with the talkers in your industry is one of the essentials of building relationships that lead to sustainable, long-lasting word of mouth. This study of IT professionals provides some fundamental findings that can be extrapolated to any industry, most notably of which is that vendors are more than welcome — with 76% of respondents saying it’s important that vendors participate in online communities (which echoes a 2008 cone study that showed 93% of social media users believe brands should be involved in social media).
Here’s Mike on what survey respondents expect from vendors looking to participate:
Respondents value transparency, responsiveness, (improve products based on feedback), and relevant content. Interestingly, they don’t care that much about give-aways or members-only benefits. Participate on the same terms as everyone else, and enrich the community as a whole rather than a chosen few. Egalitarianism, not exclusivity, is the dominant ethic in communities.
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