the state of online communities -

8/8/2019 The State of Online Communities - www.socialmedismodus

1/52

Studying community performance, member

engagement and social media integration of

Americas top brands

November 2010

The State of Online

Branded Communities


2/52ComBlu The State of Online Branded Commu niti es 2

Copyright 2010-2012. All Rights Reserved. Communications Blueprints, L.L.C. All copyrighted and trade-marked material presented herein is the sole property of Communications Blueprints, L.L.C. (d/b/a ComBlu)

Table of Contents

Introduction...3Community with Purpose... 3

Key Insights....4

Strategic Conclusions...5Good News.... 5

Key Findings...6Social Experimentation Most Prevalent 6

Evolving Ideas About Community.. 7

The High Performers...8

The Contenders..9

The Low Performers.... 9

Missed Opportunities...10Advocates Still Ignored.......10

Additional Missed Opportunities11

Selected Findings..12Best Practice Use.13

Best Practices by Industry.14

Activity Level and Social Media Integration..15

Industry Scores....17

Industry Detail18Automobile....18

Travel and Hospitality..20

Entertainment...22Gaming......24

Banking and Financial Services..26

Insurance..28

Healthcare and Pharmaceutical...30

Retail.32

Consumer ProductsPackaged Goods...34

Consumer ProductsBeverage....36

Technology and Consumer Electronics..38

Telecommunications..40

Appendix42

Methodology ...42Brand Score Methodology...44

List of Best Practices.45

Company Scores..46

Community Sites Reviewed.48

Glossary.50

Contact Info....52
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Online branded communities have three primary purposes:

Feedback, Advocacy and Support.

Each of these community pillars requires different ways of

engaging and activating stakeholders. Engagement tactics,

rewards and recognition approaches, community design and

voice and member experience will vary from pillar to pillar.

ComBlus second annual State

of Online Branded Communi-

ties study closely examines

the community and social mar-

keting programs of 78 compa-

niesall of which are major

brandsacross 12 industries.

We joined and evaluated 241

communities, comprising a mix

of feedback, advocacy and

support communities. One of

our major goals was to gain

firsthand experience with how

these communities engage and

interact with their members.

Specifically, our research assesses the brands effective-

ness in:

Providing a meaningful experience for members. Integrating their brand strategies across multiple com-

munities and social media.

Applying best practices to strengthen customer en-gagement.

As companies move from an experimentation phase to amore cohesive, disciplined approach to social marketing,

their performance in these three areas becomes even

more critical to their success. The new normal for mar-

keters is to prove the business value of every program and

maximize the return of every dollar spent. The design of

community marketing programs must deliberately follow a

best practices road map and generate business intelli-

gence that provides a diagnostic for maximizing impact

and return on investment (ROI).

According to Francois Gossieaux, partner of Human 1.0

and author ofThe Hyper-Social Organization,

Companies realize that to successfully engage with em-

ployees, customers, prospects and detractors, you need

to go where they congregate and embrace a federated

approach to community. Yet many companies are still

barely out of the pilot stage when it comes to overall

social engagement programs. According to the 2010

Tribalization of Business Study, which surveyed 300

companies, 54% of their online communities were less

than a year old, and only 13% were older than three

years. A whopping 96% planned to equal or increase

2010 budget levels for social marketing initiatives.

Matching social engagement strategy to business objec-

tives and optimizing return on social marketing invest-

ments is more crucial than ever.

Introduction

To succeed, brands must understand how to apply best

practices appropriate to each pillar. This will generate

deeper, more sustained member engagement and enable

brands to accomplish their specific community goals.

As companies become more experienced with social engagement, their approachesand processes evolve beyond the confines of a single online-sponsored community and

extend broadly across the cloud.

Community With Purpose




While this years study uncovers significant positive mo-

mentum in the adoption of best practices, no brand

scored in the highest quartile (50 or more points).We were surprised that fewer than 40%

of the communities we joined have any

kind of rewards or recognition program.

Microfamedefined as a members

status within the communityis one of

the key drivers for sustaining participa-

tion. In addition, a best-in-class reputa-

tion management tool will allow the community man-

ager to mine member actions for deep strategic insights.

For example, they could identify the most influential orhighest contributing members and understand how they

engage compared to members in other segments. A

reputation management system also provides guidance

on how to move members from one activity or contribu-

tion level to the next and can enhance a companys

member recruitment and engagement activities.

Nearly half of the communities we studied

still have no active community manager

visible as the face of the brand. Thismisses a huge opportunity to personalize

the brand and create a human connection.

One of the reasons people join branded

communities is to feel part of the team.

The community manager serves as a

"coach, providing a go-to touchpoint for people who

have questions and ideas or want deeper insights into

the brands mission or game plan.

A few of the brands in our study are creating communi-ties across all three pillarsFeedback, Advocacy and

Supportbut a vast majority focus on Advocacy. The

brands that focus on support tend to be among the high-

est scoring communities; these communities are the

most mature and have evolved consistently over time.

The lowest scoring communities provide no real path

to engagement. They tend to have a Social Web model

that allows some interaction with content, but pro-

vides few ways to connect with peers, build on the

thoughts or ideas of others or provide any

feedback.

In contrast, the High Performers (brands

scoring 35 or more points), provide highly

customized, meaningful experiences to

members. They push content aligned with

both the information provided by members during the

profiling process and their actions in the community,

thus making their experiences better over time. These

High Performers allow members to bookmark content,

challenges, activities and aggregated content from

other sites. Some provide a traveling navigation bar

that lets the experience follow them. Sears is one

example of this.

As the social ecosystem expands and more people use

engagement as a normal part of their lives, brands

need to excel at adjusting in real time. They need proc-

esses for knowing and understanding not just how the

brand is being talked about, but how and when to re-

spond. If activated properly, community members

become the face and voice of the customerand ulti-

mately of the brandacross the social cloud. Brands

that figure this out and apply discipline to this process

will be rewarded with higher loyalty, deeper customer

affinity and increased lifetime value.

Introduction

Engagementis a process that builds upon theactions, feedback and interests of community mem-

bers. It is dynamic and organic and requires more

than the creative execution of viral campaigns.

Key Insights




Social marketing is growing up. Last year, fewbrands in our study exhibited any evidence ofan integrated approach to social engagement. Many

communities were built around multiplebut unre-

latedviral or online campaigns. They seemed less

about long-term customer engagement and more about

trying the latest social tools or applications.

This year, the number of brands with a cohesive ap-

proach to social engagement increased significantly.

Many brands seem to be adopting a Center of Excellence

(COE) orientation with a consistent use of best practices

across all of their social assets.

In addition, many companies are standardizing to a sin-

gle community platform to facilitate tighter integration

between properties. This also allows for a single login

and the ability to reward points wherever the member is

engaging, and prevents gateway confusion.

Brands are doing a much better job delivering di-verse engagement experiences by providing mem-

bers with multiple ways to participate. The use of

strategically aligned engagement tools nearly tri-

pled, growing from 28% to 76%.

Communities with the highest activity levels tendto focus on a specific need or interest. Those with

creative engagement tools, but no clear mission,

have less activity.

Gaming and Entertainment industries have themost active communities, followed by Insurance,

Technology and Telecommunications. With the

exception of Insurance, these are also the highest

scoring industries overall.

Our research also found much greater integration be-

tween a brands sponsored community site and its

other social assets such as Facebook, Twitter and You-

Tube. However, only 61% of brands offer sharing func-

tionality, which limits members abilities to be catalysts

for community growth and content syndication.

Strategic Conclusions

We found plenty of other encouraging news in this

years study.

The percentage of brands exhibiting a Cohesive Strat-

egy increased from 20% to 33%. The number of com-

panies that are High Performers (scoring 35 or more

points) jumped from 11% to 33%. This is a strong indi-

cator that brands are learning and applying a more

focused and disciplined approach to their social assets.

Activity levels in online communities are also signifi-

cantly higher. This is the expected outcome when com-

munities give members more ways to contribute and

connect with each other; reward their actions; show-

case accomplishments of high performing members;

and provide topical information on whats new and

exciting. Each of these best practices has higher adop-

tion rates in this years study, with some brands show-

ing a three to four times increase over last year.

Good News




Social Experimentation remains the most common type of

community marketing category, with the percentage re-

maining virtually the same as last year. Thirty-five of the

78 brands we reviewed lack a long-term engagement ap-

proach and instead use a series of one-off social cam-

paigns. These brands have little integration across their

social assets and appear to have social ADD.

Evidence of a Cohesive Strategythe second most preva-

lent categoryjumped to 33% this year from 20% last

year, which means that 25 brands are taking a more disci-

plined approach to deploying and managing their spon-

sored online communities. A key indicator of this shift is

the higher percentage of brands with tight integration be-

tween all of their social assets.

The Community Overload category decreased from 9% to

5%, and the Community Ghost Town category dipped from

24% to 15%, which is another positive sign. Clearly, the

brands still in the Community Ghost Town category need

to move beyond a build it and they will come mentality.

These brands use the fewest best practices and exclude

many that would encourage return visits and long-term

engagement.

Key Findings

Overall Classification 2009 vs. 2010

Social Experimentation Most Prevalent




The Opportunistic Community

This is an example of a more narrow

view of community and social engage-

ment. We see a growing use of interac-

tive campaigns that embed community

elements. By design, these have a

short shelf life, since they are part of a

larger marketing campaign or issue

management initiative.

Many brands do not sunset obsolete or short-termcommunities and do not migrate members to

more current platforms or programs. These aban-

doned communities appear to be ghost towns,

even if they were once robust social assets.

A more effective strategy is to host these cam-paigns within a long-term engagement commu-

nity. This allows for fresh content and recruitment

for the community, eliminates the need to sunset

a short-lived campaign and provides a way to

maintain engagement once the campaign ends.

The Facebook Community

Many brands are using Facebook

exclusively as their community

site, but few are doing so strategi-

cally. Many use the out-of-the-

box Facebook functionality and

simply push content and contests

to their walls and hope lots of fans like them. To be

effective, brands need to add true community func-

tionality and provide deeper engagement for Facebook

to be considered a real community site.

One example of a brand getting community righton Facebook is JPMorgan Chase. Its Chase Com-

munity Giving program has a reputation manage-

ment system that awards points and badges for

participation.

Key Findings

Our research shows that brands have varying con-

ceptssome expansive, some narrowabout what

community means.

The Community Without Walls

This type of community reflects a more global strategy

for social engagement. Brands that

adopt this approach engage stake-

holders through conversations, com-

munities, apps, tools and relevant con-

tent across the social ecosystem, in

addition to offering a community ex-

perience on a branded or sponsored site. Typically, the

sponsored community site serves as a conversation hub

for social engagement. The impetus for such a concept

is the recognition that stakeholders want to engage

where it is easy and convenient for themnot the

brand. They want the experience to come to them and

not be tied to one platform or device to participate.

Most brands still are only rewarding actions withinits online community instead of across the ecosys-

tem. While integration with social media is higher

this year, members reputations and badges do not

follow them from property to property.

Lack of universal logins and integrated reputationmanagement systems make it difficult to aggregate

overall contribution and actions.

Even worse, many brands with multiple communi-ties require registration at each site and do not rec-

ognize logins across their own communities.

Evolving Ideas About Community




Key Findings

Only 11% of the brands we reviewed last year scored

the 35 or more points needed to qualify as a High Per-

former. This year, 33% of brands are High Performers

a significant jump. Although no brand has yet to break

the 50-point barrier needed to become Stellar Perform-

ers, American Express (48 points) and EA (47 points)

came close.

All Top 10 performing brands are in the Cohesive Strat-

egy category and have the highest percentage of best

practice adoption. Two of last years top performers

make this years listSears and AT&Twhile two oth-

ers in last years Top 5Sony and Best Buydid not

make this years Top 10.

A few High Performers are also on the most improved

list, including Verizon (11 in 2009 to 44 in 2010), Ameri-

can Express (20 to 48) and Hewlett-Packard (16 to 45).

It is interesting that last year both Hewlett-Packard and

Verizon were two of the lowest scoring brands.

Verizon totally revamped its support forums as arobust community and vastly improved the com-

munity experience.

When we scored last years study, Hewlett-Packardhad yet to launch its integrated community strat-

egy in North America.

The High Performers




Key Findings

An additional 16 brands not in our Top 10 list still

scored 35 or more points. Of the 16 Contenders, 11place in the Cohesive Strategy category. Only NBC and

Kraft are in Social Experimentation, and Microsoft

again shows signs of Community Overload.

Six brands just miss the High Performer category: Ap-

ple (34), Pepsi (33), JPMorgan Chase (33), Best Buy

(32), Ubisoft (32) and Food Network (32).

The high number of High Performers indicates amove toward a more disciplined approach to so-

cial engagement.

Most of these brands adopt the best practices thatlead to deeper and more sustained engagement.

70% of the ten lowest scoring brands are Ghost Towns.

The Retail industry has the highest percentage (44%)

of brands among the ten lowest scorers, but also has

one brandSearsin the Top 10.

As would be expected, the lowest scoring brands em-

ploy few high impact best practices and exhibit little

commitment to actually engaging with registered

members.

The Contenders

The Low Performers




Missed Opportunities

This positive momentum notwithstanding, brands are still

missing opportunities to engage with and learn from

their stakeholders.

As we found last year, brands still do not typicallyacknowledge the feedback they receive. Sometimes

a brand representative participates in forum discus-

sions, but comments, insights and feedback of the

community are rarely aggregated and discussed.Obviously, the Feedback communities do this best,

but even their members often have no way of know-

ing whether their ideas were ever considered or if

their contributions were relevant.

Most brands are still not customizing the engage-ment experience, despite the increasing use of profil-

ing tools. No quid pro quo exists for members who

want relevant content and engagement in return for

providing extensive information about themselves,their interests and their preferences.

Only 20% of the scored communities have a visible advo-

cate or expert groupa huge missed opportunity for

their brands. Advocates rep-resent the voice of the cus-

tomer, possess deep affinity

for the brand, will actively

recruit others and are prolific

contributors.

Gaming, Technology andTelecommunications industries have the highest

percentage of communities with visible advocates.

These industries have a sophisticated supportcommunity model that relies on customer ex-

perts to answer questions and provide content.

It is important to note thatsome brands engage their

advocates in private commu-

nities that are not always

visible to the average or new

community member. Even

when this is the case, the

content and output of the

advocates should be aggre-

gated throughout a brands

social assets. A good model of

this is Microsofts private advocate community, The

Clubhouse, where advocates create user-generated

content (UGC) and rate the contributions of other

advocates. The highest rated content is broadly syn-

dicated to marketing and product websites, mass

social media such as Facebook and MySpace and

partner sites. (Full disclosure: The Clubhouse is a

ComBlu client.)

Advocatesare the 6% to 8% of a brands stakeholders whoare most passionate about its product, service or mission.

They serve as a catalyst for community building by socializing

content, ideas, apps and other engagement tools throughout

their personal networks.

Advocates Still Ignored





Like other entertainment brands, NBC lets

its show-based communities go fallow dur-

ing the off-season. For example, The Big-

gest Loser League is robust and active dur-

ing the season, but the community manager does not

refresh content, tools or activities in the off-season.

ABC, by contrast, maintains active engagement for its

show, Modern Family, throughout the year, primarily

through an active Facebook page. (Note: ABC was not

part of our study sample.)

Many brands in the consumer product

space have not yet adopted a Center of

Excellence approach across their multiple social as-

sets. Although General Mills communities generally

have high activity levels, many lack significant return

motivators and practices that can generate deep en-

gagement. In addition, the brand misses the opportu-

nity to provide access across properties with a single

login. By contrast, Kellogg makes it easy to participate

across its brands with a central profile and login called

its All Access K Pass.

Overall, Travel and Hospitality is a low

scoring industry. While Marriott has

the highest industry score, it is still five points shy of

being in the High Performer category. Integrating

more tightly with social media and providing more

ways for members to interact will lead to better com-

munity experiences. In addition, Marriott maintains

no visible presence in its Ask/Answer section, leaving

this task entirely to the community. People join

branded communities because they want interaction

with the brand as well as other members.

Even high scoring brands have

room for improvement. Humana

has some great communities, but would benefit if

they shared more cohesive, integrated rewards and

recognition programs. In addition, the brand could

explore integration with offline events for even

greater impact.


Some brands can improve their performance with

some strategy refinements.

Additional Missed Opportunities




Selected Findings

This year, we added ten best practices to our scorecard. These

are indicators of more disciplined approaches to social engage-

ment and enable brands to develop more meaningful relation-

ships with their customers. Some highlights include:

Welcome message makes new members feel appreci-

ated, wanted and oriented within the community. It helps en-

sure a return visit, and ultimately, higher engagement. This

was present in almost 50% of communities.

Connection to offline engagement helps extend

the brand experience both online and offline. The community

experience can make offline activities more successful. Follow-

ing offline events, the community can gather feedback, share

the event experience in a variety of ways and entice others to

participate next time. Only about 20% of brands do this, pro-viding an opportunity for further exploration.

Advocate programs can serve as accelerants for en-

gagement and member growth. Only 20% of communities

have this type of member categoryanother huge missed

opportunity.

Percentage of New 2010 Best Practices

Overall Adoption

Best Practice Use




Selected Findings

In addition, we did a side-by-side comparison of the change in

adoption rates for the best practices included in the 2009 study.

Overall, we were heartened to find big jumps in the usage of

many of the best practices with high impact potential. A few ex-

amples include:

Community manager increased from 32% last year to

51% in this year. This may be one of the reasons that activity

levels are so much higher this year. The community manager is

the face of the community and provides coordination between

the community sponsor and its members. The community man-

ager is like the host of the party and is an essential part of

community success.

Social networking leaped from 30% to 48%. This allows

real connection between community members. Since many join

communities to find experts or people with similar needs, inter-

ests or challenges, the ability to find others is an important social

tool.

Some interesting trends include:

There is a big bump in communities using both user profilesand faceted search. When executed properly, these best

practices can lead to a highly customized, meaningful mem-

ber experience.

Just more than 60% of communities integrate share fea-tures, which leads to the spread of word-of-mouth and

drives site traffic.

While rewards and recognition programs grew slightly, only39% of communities have a reputation management system.

Some reputation management best practices are being

adopted, including the use of leaderboards or member spot-

lights (44%), a personal dashboard (38%) and content cus-

tomization (22%).

Percentage of Community Best Practices Use Overa2009 vs. 2010

Best Practice Use




Community Best Practice Adoption Rate

by Industry 2009 vs. 2010

Selected Findings

The adoption of best practices took a quantum leap since last

years study. Every industry that we reviewed last year (except

Retail, which was one point lower) increased its score.

86% of brands use more than ten best practices comparedto only 36% last year, which is reflected in the number of

communities with higher activity levels and fewer Com-

munity Ghost Towns. Companies seem to be learning

more about how online communities function and how to

optimize performance.

The Top 5 Performers have higher adoption rates in 19 ofthe 22 best practices compared to last year. Seven of the

best practices that generate interaction, feedback and

peer group formation have adoption rates between 73%

and 77%. This provides a diagnostic for those brands that

want to break the 50-point barrier.

The top five best practices adopted by companies with aCohesive Strategy help community members locate thehighest quality content and find content by the most ex-

pert contributors and facilitate a customized experience.

The five most improved brandsVerizon, Hewlett-Packard, JPMorgan Chase, American Express and Micro-

softall have high adoption rates of those practices that

allow for a customized experience, facilitate interaction

with both the brand and community peers, and provide

recognition for contributions and efforts.

Best Practice Adoption by Top Scorers:

AmEx, EA, Discovery, HP and Sears

Best Practices by Most Improved Brands:

Verizon, HP, JPMorgan Chase, AmEx and Microsof

Best Practices by Industry




Selected Findings

The percentage of communities showing high activity levels increased

significantly this year. This could be attributed to:

Greater integration across social platforms (32% in 2009 com-pared to 76% in 2010). This drives traffic across social assets (i.e.,

online community and Facebook) and allows for engagement in

the preferred venue of the member.

Much higher adoption rates of multiple best practices, includingspecific best practices that generate activity or engagement.

Increase in user profiles (49% vs. 85%), diverse engagementtools (28% vs. 76%) and faceted search (36% vs. 86%), all of

which can yield a more customized experience.

Enhanced ability to connect with other members within thecommunity (30% vs. 48%).

Many brands are doing a good job of integrating across their social

ecosystems, particularly their online community and Facebook and

Twitter. While more brands are offering access to rich media through

their branded online community, few are integrated with YouTube and

other video sharing sites. In addition, most communities do not allow

for members to submit videos or rank them. This is a missed opportu-

nity for those who want to share insights or stories via this highly en-

gaging medium.

Overall Activity Levels 2009 vs. 2010

Overall Social Media Integration 2009 vs. 201

Activity Level and Social Media Integration




Active Communities by Industry 2009 vs. 2010

Social Media Integration by Industry 2009 vs. 20

With the exception of Retail and Auto, all industries show big in-

creases in level of activity in their communities. Retail is the only

industry to actually lose ground, with a whopping drop in commu-

nities rated active53% in 2009 to 22% in 2010. Retail has three

companies among the lowest performing brands and the highest

percentage of Ghost Towns.

Entertainment shows the most improvement in activity level,increasing from 40% to 89%.

The Technology and Gaming industries are early adopters ofonline communities.

Technology continues to show more focus and disciplineas reflected in their activity increase. This industry is doing

a good job of tapping its customer advocates to be active

community members and have mature rewards and rec-

ognition programs that incent further engagement.

Gaming is an activity superstar. All of the communitiesscored in this industry showed high activity levels. They

deserve a special badge!

Ten of the 12 industries show a healthy integration between their

online communities and other social assets. We define social me-

dia integration as those brands that present a consistent graphic

format and experience on both their community and social media

sites. They also have easy linkage between these social assets.

This integration is achieved through content syndication andaggregation, links and marketing themes.

Selected Findings

Activity Level and Social Media Integration




Scores by Industry

As with last years study, the industries with the high-

est adoption of best practices also have the highest

average industry scores.

The most improved industries are Entertainment, Tele-

communications, Financial Services and Technology.

Scoring Key:

Scores between 0 and 34 are considered lowperformers and are in the red zone.

Scores between 35 and 49 are high perform-ers and place in the green zone.

Scores of 50 or above are considered bestpractice leaders.

Selected Findings

Industry ScoresAverage




Although this sector shows some positive movement, the Auto indus-

try as a whole is still low scoring. Even the highest scoring brands have

yet to adopt a significant number of best practices. About half

seemed to adopt a push mentality rather than one of true engage-

ment. When this happens, members will abandon the sponsored

community and create a user-generated one.

The auto industry drastically decreased the percentage of its commu-

nities that are Ghost Towns and also increased the prevalence of So-

cial Experimentation. The number of communities with high activity

levels nearly doubled.

The reasons for this increase in activity include:

Leverage of the natural passion and loyalty that consumers asso-ciate with car brands.

Use of some best practices that generate high levels of engage-ment.

10 of the 16 communities we scored integrate online com-munities, social media and offline events.

The two motorcycle brands are particularly good at providingtools for planning meet-ups and rides with other community

members.

Numerous opportunities for storytelling and interaction be-tween members.

GM provided a highly customized experience by using anoverlay of profile information, car model and interests to

push appropriate content and engagement activities.

Use of return motivators such as traffic alerts and best gasprices in local area.

This industry lost ground in a few interesting ways:

The presence of a community manager dropped from 31% to13%.

Both the use of forums and the ability to comment on blogs de-creased. This removes the opportunity for interaction with peers

and the brands subject matter experts. This reinforces the

push model adopted in this industry.

Top Scorers: BMW Motorcycle and Toyota

Most Improved: Honda

Industry Detail

Total Brand Score

Percentage of Community Best Practice Use

Auto




Industry Detail

Industry by Classification Community Activity Levels

Social Media IntegrationPercentage of New Community Best Practice Use

Other Auto Data Points




This sector is new this year. As a whole the industry is highly

experimental, with no evidence of any cohesive strategy across

brands. One third of its communities are Ghost Towns, and this

sector has the lowest activity levels of all the industries.

Engagement tends to focus on feedback about hotel properties

or sharing travel experiences.

Almost all of these communities focus on pushing market-ing content rather than facilitating engagement with fellow

travelers or the brand itself.

Little use of social networking functionality discouragesreturn visits.

While many of the communities have forums, the lowactivity levels demonstrate that members arent bond-

ing with the brand or connecting with each other.

Big missed opportunity: While there is some basic ratingand ranking of properties or destinations, few allow visitors

to rate each others contributions or use a reputation man-

agement system. These factors mean members cant

search for reviews by people that the community thinks

provide useful information and cant connect with individu-

als who may share their travel interests and preferences.

The industry has let third party sites own this role and

therefore has lost some highly potent return motivators.

Top Scorer: Marriott

Industry Detail

Total Brand Score


Travel and Hospitality




Industry Detail



Other Travel and Hospitality Data Points




Five brands were added to this sector this year. Overall, this industry

took a big leap in adopting more Cohesive Strategies in their social

engagement programs, although 50% are still highly experimental.

Last year, nearly 40% of the communities were Ghost Towns; this

year not one is in this category.

Some key trends and insights:

Just like the Auto industry, this sector can leverage the strongaffinity consumers have for entertainment properties and stars.

Most brands take advantage of this by showcasing them in their

communities to promote new seasons, drive engagement

around current programming and build an audience for an up-

coming event or show.

This industry is working hard to personalize member experience. Big increase in use of faceted search, content aggregation

and social bookmarking. Nearly 30% of its communities

customize content based on profile information.

This industry offers its visitors and members very creative waysto play and engage.

Food Network facilitates interaction between viewersduring episodes ofThe Next Food Network Star. Viewers

can chat with one of the networks celebrities during the

show, which generates lots of participation and com-

ments.

NBCs The Office community has a highly engaging virtualoffice world where members can earn Schrute bucks. It

has lots of interaction and return motivators, as well as a

great reputation management system tied to specific en-

gagement tasks.

DreamWorks Animation has several fun interactive gamesthat allow visitors to engage with key characters (from

Shrek, Madagascar, etc.) When one of these characters

has a new movie in circulation, the company creates a full

-fledged microcommunity to build word-of-mouth about

the movie.

Evidence of a Center of Excellence approach with lots of thesame best practices used across multiple communities of a

brand (NBC and Bravo).

Missed opportunity: Many network show communities godark during the off-season.

Superstar: Discovery

Most Improved: Comcast

Industry Detail

Total Brand Score


Entertainment




Industry Detail



Other Entertainment Data Points




This is another new sector in this years study. Gaming

equals the Telecommunications industry in having the high-

est percentages of communities exhibiting a Cohesive Strat-

egy (67%). It also has the highest activity levels among all

industry sectors, with 100% of its communities showing high

levels of engagement. This industry is also the leader in inte-

grating advocate programs.

The high engagement levels are supported by several fac-

tors:

Competition is the driving force behind most engage-ment in gaming communities.

Not surprisingly, all communities are high scorers in theuse of best practices. All have rich media, faceted search

and lots of fun engagement tools. Almost all have repu-

tation management, social networking, integration with

social media and a community manager.

An interesting exception is the SEGA Buddy community,which expands its mission beyond gaming to include

other lifestyles. Gaming communities seem to do better

when they focus on facilitating conversations around

the games themselves.

Superstar: EA

Industry Detail

Total Brand Score


Gaming




Industry Detail



Other Gaming Data Points




The percentage of communities in each performance category

remained unchanged for this industry. In addition, activity levels

remained constant year over year. Yet the use of many best prac-tices spiked in this sector.

The biggest increase in adoption rates are for the best prac-tices that have the highest potential for generating return

visits and ongoing engagement.

The communities that do well tend to focus on a very specificsegment, such as small businesses or support CSR initiatives.

Both American Express and JPMorgan Chase show significant im-

provement.

JPMorgan Chase went from a Ghost Town to very active(more than 2 million fans).

Tight focus on using community to determine where toinvest its charitable donations.

American Express has been using community longer than oth-ers and seems to be growing its approach with a significant

increase in the number of sponsored communities over last

year.

Each community focuses on a specific, yet separatesegment.

Social networking serves as the basis for site growth,content and continuance.

All communities provide tools for significant interac-tion with both the brand and other community mem-

bers.

Lots of good engagement tools appropriate to commu-nity mission or segment.

Each community is designed to spread insight, obser-vations and tips from one member to another.

Rewards and recognition is important, as this is the means for sort-

ing relevant contributions from non-credible information.

Top Scorer: American Express

Industry Detail

Total Brand Score


Banking and Financial Services




Industry Detail



Other Banking and Financial Services Data Points




This sector is another new addition to the study and includes both

health and property and causality carriers. While there is a high per-

centage of best practice adoption across communities, overall this is

a low scoring industry. The companies are evenly split between Co-

hesive Strategy, Social Experimentation and Community Ghost

Towns. The Community Ghost Towns are all health carriers.

Health insurers are strictly regulated and offer few opportunities for

direct interaction with the brand. These carriers use third-party con-tent providers rather than directly managing their branded commu-

nities.

Both WellPoint and Anthem BlueCross BlueShield (BCBS) use aservice called Healthy Chat with their communitiesbranded

WellPoint Healthy Chat and BCBS Healthy Chat.

BCBS provide the opportunity to give feedback and integratethis community with their Facebook page.

Communities tend to be educational in tone or deal with life-style issues rather than pushing products. Were starting to see

a trend in this sector of linking community to CSR campaigns.

Missed Opportunity: Few have yet to figure out how to engage com-

munity members without violating their privacy or compliance rules.

Superstar: Humana

Manages distinct communities for specific audience segments. Common set of best practices across all communities, indicating

a Center of Excellence approach.

Industry Detail

Total Brand Score


Insurance




Industry Detail



Other Insurance Data Points




This industry still has no evidence of any cohesive social engage-

ment strategy. While the number of Ghost Towns decreased by

35%, overall the number of communities with high activity levels

plummeted, dropping from 90% to 20%. Four out of five brands

have no integration with social media. Overall, adoption rates for

best practices are very low.

Since the FDA strictly regulates marketing and has not yet issued

guidance for use of social media, these findings are not surprising.

Pharmaceutical companies are hesitant to ask for feedback, allow

commenting or facilitate user-generated content. Many healthcare

companies partner with third parties or support the efforts of dis-

ease support groups rather than become too directly involved insocial engagement with patients. The overall trend in healthcare

communities is to sponsor lightly branded sites that focus on

disease support. Many reach out to caregivers as opposed to the

patient population itself.

Those healthcare brands that do engage patients and caregivers

tend to do so in private communities that are not widely or publicly

marketed.

Missed Opportunities:

Lack of links from communities to websites containing fairbalance content, which has been vetted for compliance.

Interesting Brand: Novartis

Uses a common engagement approach across two separatecommunities for products within the same franchise.

Has a surprisingly high level of interactivity for a healthcarecommunity.

Connects members with other patients based upon extensiveprofile information.

One of its communities also connects members to the home-page of local healthcare professionalsa great idea to engage

with patients and show value to physicians who prescribe

medications.

Industry Detail

Total Brand Score


Healthcare and Pharmaceutical




Industry Detail



Other Healthcare and Pharmaceutical Data Points




Overall, the Retail industry is a subpar performer in 2010. Itsnumber of Community Ghost Towns doubled, while the number

of brands with a Cohesive Strategy only slightly increased. Note-

worthy brands are Whole Foods and Sears, both of which offer

an engagement experience that is closely tied to its consumers

expectations.

Whole Foods provides a great place to explore organicfoods, learn about special diets and interact with others

with similar interests and views.

Sears does a great job of aggregating content and driving ahighly customized social shopping experience.

Reviews from across the Web are aggregated at theonline point of sale for the specific item being re-

searched.

Traveling navigation bar allows consumers to book-mark potential purchases, aggregate content and sub-

mit a review.

Activity levels dropped across the sector, with 78% of the com-

munities exhibiting low engagement levels.

The decrease in both content aggregation and content tag-ging, along with low level of social bookmarking functional-

ity, can potentially impede a seamless social shopping ex-

perience. One of the emerging best practices for this indus-

try is to aggregate product reviews, research info and peer-

to-peer conversations at the point of sale to help custom-

ers make purchase decisions. This experience should be

extended across the social and mobile ecosystem.

Two big brandsWalmart and Best Buylost ground

since last years survey.

Industry Detail

Total Brand Score


Retail




Industry Detail



Other Retail Data Points




Industry Detail

Total Brand Score


These industries have relatively high activity levels, but activity

is more transactional than indicative of true engagement.

Their communities tend to use a lot of one-off" campaigns

that have some community functionality embedded in them.

Though this approach serves a purpose, the opportunity for

deeper engagement is missing across the board.

This industry can employ more feedback functionality toimprove engagement.

The widespread use of CSR as an engagement strategymay speak to the difficulty in engaging deeply around

many consumer products, which are almost commodities.

(How passionate can you be about cereal or cheese?)

Big jump in the use of member profiles, social bookmark-ing and faceted search capabilities could point to the

emergence of a custom content model, which makes

sense in these highly push communities.

Only 60% of communities highlight sharing functionality,which is a big miss in this highly campaign-driven sector.


Inconsistent use of best practices across communities. Kellogg has a dieting site without a reputation manage-

ment system. If any category needs rewards, its dieting!

Lack of a Center of Excellence approach in a sector that istypically house of brands vs. a branded house.

Packaged Goods




Industry Detail



Other Packaged Goods Data Points




We looked at Beverage companies as a separate segment be-

cause they share many traits and community approaches. Over-

all, these sites tend to be loyalty programs disguised as product

communities. This results in high activity, but as with consumer

packaged goods, activity was transactional in nature.

Primarily short-lived campaigns, not communities designedfor long-term engagement.

Top scoring communities integrate with CSR instead of hav-ing a product or lifestyle orientation.


Lack of consistent use of best practices across the industry. No way to connect with others. Lack of reputation management across most communities in

this industry.

Most best practices resulting in deep engagement are miss-ing, which underscores the loyalty orientation of many of

these communities. However, deeper engagement will help

move customers along the loyalty continuum.

Superstar: Starbucks

Only focus is on product feedback and innovation. Good useof community to improve customer experience and match

new products to customer needs/wants. Note: Since the

study, Starbucks has begun recruiting community members

to join a MyStarbucks rewards program.

Industry Detail

Total Brand Score


Beverage




Industry Detail



Other Beverage Data Points




More than 50% of the communities in this industry have Cohesive

Strategies, and not one is a Community Ghost Town. The evidence of

Community Overload sharply decreased, indicating that as brands gain

experience in social engagement they tend to become more focused.

This industry does a good job of sunsetting obsolete communities,

which leads to less overload and diminishes confusion.

Technology companies tend to have all three types of communities:

Feedback, Advocacy and Support.

This sector has relatively high adoption of most best practices, which is

understandable given the early adopter distinction of this industry.

The growth of new/featured content, content tagging and contentrating and ranking points to an industry trend of spreading the

community experience beyond the four walls of the sponsored

community site. Many of the technology brands are aggressively

syndicating their content to partners and other social media sites.

Many communities are focused on product support, which under-scores the need for a community manager, content aggregation,

faceted search and the ability to rate and rank community-

generated content.

Some notable engagement trends included:

Good integration between Apple community and the creation ofuser groups. Apple provides all the support and tools for those

starting and running user groups and effectively integrates online

and offline activities.

IBM provides different customer segments with tools to formwork groups and collaborate on projects. This allows for social

networking within a company to facilitate finding experts and oth-

ers who can help.

Missed Opportunity: Lack of reputation management across com-munities.

Superstar: Hewlett-Packard

Hewlett-Packard consistently uses best practices across communi-ties, following a Center of Excellence model. It has a well-defined,

distinct approach for each segment with little overlap, which

eliminates multiple gateways and doesnt confuse members.

Industry Detail

Total Brand Score


Technology and Consumer Electronics




Industry Detail



Other Technology Data Points




This sector is tied with Gaming for the highest percentage

of brands with a Cohesive Strategy (67%). It also has the

biggest drop in Community Ghost Towns, and more than a

50% decrease in Social Experimentation. This industry fo-

cuses its social engagement almost entirely on support

communities, which accounts for the high percentage of

cohesiveness in its approach.

This sector also has some of the biggest increases inbest practice adoption. Last year, this was almost a

laggard industry with lots of missed opportunities.

The best practices with some of the highest adoptionrates are essential for the success of support commu-

nities: faceted search, social bookmarking, polling/

feedback, community manager, social networking,

content tagging, content rating and ranking, etc.

This sector has the second highest prevalence of cus-tomer advocates, who are also crucial for support

community optimization.

Superstar: Verizon

Relaunched their forums as a more robust communitythat integrates many more best practices.

Industry Detail

Total Brand Score


Telecommunications




Industry Detail



Other Telecommunications Data Points




For the 2010 study, ComBlu analyzed the communityand social engagement programs of 78 companiesduring the summer of 2010. Selection criteria re-

mained:

Large enterprise Industry leader Diversity in its marketing approachWe increased the number of industries reviewed from 9 to 12.

These include: Auto, Entertainment, Banking and Financial

Services, Insurance, Healthcare and Pharmaceutical, Technol-

ogy and Consumer Electronics, Telecommunications, Con-

sumer Products Packaged Goods, Consumer Products

Beverage, Retail, Gaming and Travel and Hospitality. With one

exception, all sectors include at least four companies. None of

the companies were aware that we were analyzing their com-

munity sites and social media initiatives. Further, ComBlu did

not contact these companies prior to the collection or analysis

of the data.

Each company was analyzed using a comprehensive auditing

tool that was designed to draw quantitative rating and rank-

ing data as well as qualitative reactions to community experi-ence. Once all scorecards were complete, they were tabulated

to determine an aggregate score.

Capture data about overall community health and wellnewhen available, including community size, activity levels,

frequency of engagement by community members and le

els of recent activity

Evaluate social media integration with community sites.Specifically, this evaluation examined the brands presen

on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr and

LinkedIn. Other social media presence was also noted. W

the primary focus was community/social media integratio

detailed observations about branded social networking s

that were being used in lieu of a traditional branded onlin

community were recorded.

To determine social media presence and integration withthe communities, researchers specifically sought evidenc

of an official brand presence in popular social media sites

available for public access. However, to be deemed inte-

grated with social media, a brand must:

Drive traffic between social media properties andonline community.

Indicate a shared vision and purpose through commgraphics, verbiage, community managers or theme.

Share UGC between properties while using thestrength of each property for a defined purpose to

demonstrate the highest level of integration.

Appendix: Methodology

The auditing tool was used to:

Identify and capture attributes of multiple company orbrand sponsored community sites. In instances where

one company had dozens of community sites, a repre-

sentative sample was selected for scoring. Each site was

analyzed using a scorecard that indicated which of 22

community best practices were present. In addition, a

separate scorecard was used for the 2010 study to track

adoption of an additional ten best practices. Observa-

tions about overall experience in interacting in each

community were also recorded.

The Approach




Assign each companys community marketing effortsa primary and, where pertinent, secondary classifica-

tion. These included:

Cohesive Strategy: A brand has a solid commu-nity foundation with multiple activities rolling

into a single online experience, or building with

a solid foundation.

Social Experimentation: A brand is experiment-ing with one or more communities as well as

social media, but lacks evidence of a cohesive

strategy to tie it all together, or lots of bricks, no

buildings.

Community Overload: A brand has multiplecommunities fighting for attention from the

same audience, or too many buildings.

Community Ghost Town: A brand has unpopu-lated communities with little to no member ac-

tivity, or no bricks, no buildings, no people.

A literature search provided additional insights aboutthe overarching strategy of a companys social mar-

keting efforts.

Once all data was captured, analysts applied an algorithm

that yielded a Brand Score.

The community scoring algorithm overlays multipledata points to yield a score for brand community

performance. A detailed description of the filtering

process follows.

Resulting scores could range from 0 to 60. Scores between 0 and 34 are considered low

performers and are in the red zone.

Scores between 35 and 49 are high perform-ers and place in the green zone.

Scores of 50 or above are considered bestpractice leaders.

Appendix: Methodology

The Approach (continued)

Calculating Brand Score




The community research algorithm is a performance filter

built in two parts intended to assign a score for brand com-

munity performance. This score is set against a color coded

graduated performance ranking scale (red, green and

black), with red being for low performers, green being for

high performance and black being for best-practice leaders.

The filter calculates overall brand performance takinginto account aggregated community activity and pro-

vides an overall average of that brands community

effectiveness.

Assigns a value to only those brands which exhibit anidentifiable community strategy.

Assigns a sliding scale value to the different type orclassifications of a brands communities

(Experimentation, Community Overload, Ghost Town

and Cohesive Strategy).

Part one of the filter contains a single multiplier whichis applied if the brand exhibits a Cohesive Strategy.

Next a performance score is calculated for brand activ-ity associated with community.

This score is then integrated into Part Two, where it isincorporated with the sub scores associated with the

various individual communities the brand has in play.

This filter addresses individual community performanceagainst a set of best practices and performance thresh-

olds. Scoring of the second part of the filter is broken

into Tool Use, Community Activity and Social Media

Integration.

Tool Use: Thresholds which measure the percentageof tools are applied to a branded community.

Community Activity: A value is then assigned tocommunities which show consistently high levels of

activity. This metric does not take into account

membership count, only activity (so that a small but

vibrant community is not penalized).

Social Media Integration: A value is provided tocommunities that exhibit social media tools and

activity integration within their community. Com-

munities that lack this integration and activity do

not receive a value.

In this filter there are two potential multipliers avail-able to high performers.

The first multiplier is applied to the tools section ofthe filter. Communities using 70% of the tools (i.e.,

Forums, Wikis, Content Tagging, Community Man-

agement, etc.) or more receive this first multiplier.

The second multiplier rewards communities thatintegrate their community and social media strate-

gies.

Each of the three multipliers in Part One and Part Two of

the filter carry an equal weight. Brands and their respec-

tive communities that integrate best practices and show-

case strong results will reap the benefit of all three multi-

pliers and will move them closer to the top performance

category of black. Brands and communities achieving one

or two of the multipliers, as well as showcasing strong gen-

eral and individual community results will fall closer to or

within the green category. Those brands with sporadic or

poor performance are assigned to the red category, indi-

cating ineffective community use.

Appendix:

Brand Score Methodology

Algorithm Structure and Rationale

Part One

Part Two




Appendix: List of Best Pract

Collaboration Forums

Comments

User-Generated Content Rich media

Blogs

Wikis

Social Networking Polling/Feedback Mechanism Community Manager Content Tagging Content Aggregation (RSS) Quality Content Rating and Ranking Faceted Search User Reviews Social Bookmarking Rich Media Fun Engagement Tools

Avatars User Profiles Emoticons

Rewards/Recognition Available Site Statistics New and Featured Content

Easy Navigation Share Features Welcome/Getting Started Leaderboard, Member Spotlight Personal Dashboard Campaigns/Contests Offline Engagement Content Customization Advocate or Expert Program Toolbars or Custom Widgets

User Participation Personal Identity/Profiles

Return Motivators

New 2010 Best Practices




Appendix: Company Score

*2010E Enhanced score using ten new best practices

Company Scores

Auto

Brand 2009 2010 2010E*

BMW Mini Cooper 13 22 25

BMW Motorcycles N/A 28 33

Ford 17 23 26

General Motors N/A 22 25

Harley-Davidson N/A 20 24

Honda 3 11 14

Hyundai 11 11 14

Toyota 20 26 33


Brand 2009 2010 2010E*

American Express 20 48 55

Bank of America 30 36 42

Citigroup N/A 17 20

JPMorgan Chase 4 33 36

Wells Fargo 22 26 30

Beverages

Brand 2009 2010 2010E*

Bacardi N/A 19 22

Coca-Cola N/A 21 25

Pepsi N/A 33 38

Starbucks N/A 36 41

Entertainment

Brand 2009 2010 2010E*

Bravo 25 42 50

Comcast 23 41 46

Discovery N/A 45 50

Disney N/A 36 42

DreamWorks 11 14 17

ESPN N/A 40 48

Food Network 20 32 36

NBC N/A 35 40

Sony Entertainment 16 28 32

Warner Brothers 22 24 27

Gaming

Brand 2009 2010 2010E*

Activision N/A 44 48

EA N/A 47 53

Sega N/A 29 33

Sony Online

Entertainment

N/A 41 46

Ubisoft N/A 32 36

Xbox N/A 42 50

Healthcare and Pharmaceutical

Brand 2009 2010 2010E*

Bayer N/A 20 22

Johnson & Johnson 4 21 23

Merck 4 5 6

Novartis 10 16 21

Pfizer 3 7 8

Insurance

Brand 2009 2010 2010E*

Allstate N/A 25 29

BlueCross and

BlueShield

N/A 24 27

Geico N/A 38 42

Humana N/A 39 43

State Farm N/A 28 33

WellPoint N/A 18 21

Packaged Goods

Brand 2009 2010 2010E*

General Mills 27 22 25

Kellogg N/A 26 29Kimberly-Clark 20 44 48

Kraft 12 35 40

Procter & Gamble 31 35 38

SC Johnson 16 9 12

Unilever 19 20 22




Appendix: Company Score

Company Scores (continued)

*2010E Enhanced score using ten new best practices

Retail

Brand 2009 2010 2010E*

Best Buy 40 32 36Home Depot 11 13 18

Lowes 15 22 25

Nordstrom 14 14 17

Sears 37 44 51

Target 11 15 17

Walgreens N/A 17 20

Walmart 21 15 16

Whole Foods N/A 41 46


Brand 2009 2010 2010E*

Apple 21 34 38

Dell 28 42 46

Hewlett-Packard 16 45 50

IBM N/A 26 38

Kodak N/A 29 34

Lenovo N/A 26 29

Microsoft 13 40 44

Quicken N/A 29 31

Sony 43 43 48

Telecommunications

Brand 2009 2010 2010E*

AT&T 43 44 49

Sprint 23 28 31

Verizon 11 44 50


Brand 2009 2010 2010E*

Fairmont N/A 26 30

JetBlue N/A 23 27

Marriott N/A 30 34

Southwest N/A 26 31

Starwood N/A 26 30

Virgin America N/A 14 17




Appendix: Community Site

Reviewed

COMPANY COMMUNITY

Auto

BMW - Mini Cooper Mini Owners' Lounge

BMW - Motorcycles BMW Motorcycle Ow ners of America

BMW Xplor

Ford Ford Fiesta Movement

Ford Mustang

SyncGeneral Motors Owner Center

Harley-Davidson Harlistas

H.O.G.

Women Riders

Honda Owner Link

Rider's Club of America

Hyundai MyHyundai

Toyota Lexus Drivers

Toyota USA Facebook page

COMPANY COMMUNITY

Beverages

Bacardi Bacardi

Coca-Cola The Coca-Cola Company

Expedition 206

Full Throttle

MyCoke

MyCoke Rewards

Pepsi Amp Energy

Dewmocracy

Mountain Dew

Ocean Spray

Pepsi Refresh Project

Starbucks MyStarbucks

Bacardi Bacardi

COMPANY COMMUNITY


American Express Business Travel ConneXion

Executive Travel magazine

Food & Wine magazine

Members Project

OPEN Forum

Travel + Leisure magazine

Bank of America Small B usiness Online Community

Citigroup Women & Co.

JPMorgan Chase Chase

Chase Community Giving Facebook page

Wells Fargo Stagecoach Island

COMPANY COMMUNITY

Entertainment

Bravo Bravo TV

Comcast Comcast

Comcast Network

Fancast

Fandango

Tunerfish

Discovery Discovery Channel

Discovery HealthDiscovery Influencers

Planet Green

TLC

Disney Disney Channel

Disney Family

DreamWorks DreamWorks Animation

Madagascar

Ogre Resistance

ESPN ESPN

Food Network Food.com

Food2.com

Food Network

NBC Dunder Miffl in

MyNBC

The Biggest Loser League

Your Garage

Sony Entertainment Crackle

Sony MyPlay

Sony Pictures Movies

Sony Pictures Television

Warner Brothers DC Comic

Kids WB

TCM

The WB

Warner Brothers

Zuda

COMPANY COMMUNITY

Gaming

Activision Call of Duty

Guitar Hero

Hero HQ

EA Army of Two

EA

EA Sports

Skate

The Sims 3

Sega Phantasy Star Universe

Sega

SEGA B uddy

Sony Online Entertainment Free Realms

Sony Station

Ubisoft Avatar: The Game

Prince of Persia

R.U.S.E.

Your Shape: Fitness Evolved

Xbox Xbox COMPANY COMMUNITY


Fairmont Everyone's an Original

JetBlue JetBlue Airways Facebook page

Marriott Marriott Rewards Insiders

Southwest Nuts About Southwest

Travel Guide Community

Starwood Sheraton

Starwood Preferred Guest Facebook page

The Lobby

Westin Hotels & Resorts Facebook page

Virgin America Virgin America

COMPANY COMMUNITY

Healthcare and P harmaceutical

Bayer MS-Gateway

Johnson & Johnson Acuvue

Johnson & Johnson

Johnson's Baby

Splenda

Merck Isentress

Januvia

Zetia

Novartis CF Voice

CML Earth

Gist Earth

PatientsLikeMe

Pfizer Pfizer

COMPANY COMMUNITY

Retail

Best Buy Best Buy @15

Best Buy Forums

Best Buy Remix

Geek Squad

Idea X

Reward Zone

Home Depot Garden Club

Home Improver Club

Lowe's Creative Ideas

LowesforPros

Team Lowe's Racing

Nordstrom BP Fashi on Board

Sears MySears Community

Target Target

Walgreens Walgreens

Walmart Baby Buzz Blog

Connect and Share

Customer Rating and Reviews

Eleven Moms

Healthy Living

Walmart

Your Stories

Whole Foods Whole Foods

COMPANY COMMUNITY

Telecommunications

AT&T AT&T Developer Community

AT&T Wireless Community

smallbusinessInSite

Sprint Inside Sprint Now

Now Network

Sprint

SprintUsers

Verizon Small Business Center

Thinkfinity

Verizon Developer CommunityVerizon Forums and Blogs




Appendix: Community Site

Reviewed

COMPANY COMMUNITY

Packaged Goods

General Mills Betty Crocker

Eat Better America

Hamburger Help Most Popular Driver

Join My Village

Millsberry

Pillsbury

Pssst

Kellogg Morningstar Farms

Pop-Tarts Kids

Pop-Tarts LOL

Pop-Tarts Sprinklings

Rice Krispies

Special K

Kimberly-Clark Depend

GoodNites

Huggies

Kleenex

Kotex Girls Space

Kotex Ladies Room

Poise

Pull-Ups

Scott

Kraft Crystal Light

Kraft

Planters

Real Women of Philadelphia

Tassimo

Procter & Gamble Asacol

BeingGirl

Bounce

Denture Living

Eukanuba

Everyday Solutions

Luvs

Man of the House

Pampers Village

SC Johnson Right at Home

Unilever Axe

Bertolli

Dove

Lipton Tea

SlimFast

Vaseline

Wishbone

COMPANY COMMUNITY

Insurance

Allstate Good Hands

Keep the Drive

Teen Driver

BlueCross and BlueShield Healthy Chat

Geico Geico Facebook page

My Great Rides

Humana Caregivers Corner

REAL

Twit2Fit

State Farm The 50 Million Pound Challenge

WellPoint Healthy Chat

COMPANY COMMUNITY


Apple Apple Discussions

Apple User G roups

Dell

the state of online communities -

Documents