sensibledevelopment

We have been involved in online communities since 1990. There is a lot to be learned from building communities how they can strengthen your brand or product.

So why do users find a well formed community site addictive?

• Uses value their place in online communities as much as they do in ‘real life’
• Value added content
• Users want to help out others
• Users want to be seen as ‘fountain of knowledge’
  
• It is a form of entertainment
  
• Interaction
  
• Customisation and sense of ownership
• Buddy lists

And from the brand owner's perspective what are the benefits?

• Brand Association
• Expand your reach by capturing users that you might not have previously advertised to -
  
• Addictiveness, additected users will keep coming back to you site, thus enhancing the chance of making a sale
  
• Brand loyalty through positive association
  
• Word of mouth marketing
  
• Marginal revenue through advertising revenue and subscriptions
  
• Branded interaction with users via email and RSS. This can faciliate in the raising in awareness of your products
  
• Extension of marketing space to develop brand loyalty and exposure to products
  

• Provides a daily reason for users to return to the host site
  
• Provides data capture of user’s contact details and other important marketing information
  
• A regular reason for a brand to stay in the forefront of consumer’s minds
  
• When augmented with a game or 'challenge' it can provide intelligent in depth game play provides credible, premium content for the host site
  
• Can be rebranded to match the look and feel of the host website
  
• Search engine tags can be manipulated to match the host’s own products and services