{"id":71578,"date":"2019-05-31T03:34:12","date_gmt":"2019-05-31T10:34:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/?p=71578"},"modified":"2019-05-31T03:34:12","modified_gmt":"2019-05-31T10:34:12","slug":"4-reasons-to-have-an-online-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/4-reasons-to-have-an-online-community\/","title":{"rendered":"Four reasons to have an online community"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"4<\/p>\n

Remember back in the good old days when the community was really a huge part of our lives? Back then, people coming together to celebrate life\u2019s wonderful little miracles was a different sort of experience. Communities are very much a part of who we are. Even these days, as we\u2019ve shifted into a world of online socializing and VR rollercoasters, it\u2019s hard not to turn our heads back and think about how great it feels to be part of a community. <\/span><\/p>\n

Yes, things do transform at lightning pace in the digital world, but a <\/span>community<\/span><\/a> at its essence will probably never change. As social experience observers, we know that a community is a group of people who share a common interest or characteristic, and have a common place or platform to discuss and share their opinions and stories. <\/span><\/p>\n

Read more: <\/span>10 steps to creating a thriving online community <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Brands and Communities<\/b><\/h2>\n

We know how much time companies take to create a wonderful product. As people who enable marketers, we\u2019re aware that there\u2019s no substitute for a great product \u2013 but it is just half the brand! A brand is more than just a product, it\u2019s an entire experience packaged in one \u2013 it\u2019s the way a product makes people feel, the kind of service your business provides, the values and dialogues that your brand wishes to start and spread.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you\u2019ve been in the business of making people happy through your business long enough, you\u2019ll know that a brand is like a community \u2013 it\u2019s an intangible feeling that people want to be part of \u2013 they want to contribute \u2013 and in doing so they\u2019ll be loyal and frequent customers who want to see you succeed just as much as you want to see them appreciating a truly quality product or service.<\/span><\/p>\n

Learn more: <\/span>What is a brand research community?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Whatever happened to focus groups?<\/b><\/h3>\n

Focus groups<\/span><\/a> have been around for at least the last 80 years, and in that time probably have been the most influential tool for marketers to study their <\/span>audience<\/span><\/a>. It\u2019s interesting to note that focus groups were a creation of Ernest Dichter, a student of Sigmund Freud, probably one of the most well-known psychologist and psycho-analyst of all time. So what were the psychoanalysts getting at by dabbling in marketing? Simply put, they had discovered that consumer culture and buyer habits were very much influenced by the way people felt about themselves. <\/span><\/p>\n

Focus groups are just as much around now as they were then. Only now focus groups and branded communities can be found in apps on your phone. <\/span><\/p>\n

4 Reasons to have an Online Community<\/b><\/h2>\n

Online communities or insight communities help a brand derive <\/span>customer insights<\/span><\/a>. It has now become the preferred method of conducting <\/span>market research<\/span><\/a>. How important you ask? 74% of organizations have said that they use a community management platform to create and manage a <\/span>panel<\/span><\/a> of community members. <\/span><\/p>\n

Four of the major reasons to create and manage an online community are:<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Panel management:<\/b> The primary reason that a <\/span>community web portal<\/span><\/a> is used for is for managing panel members. A community helps to effectively manage <\/span>demographic segmentation<\/span><\/a> within panel members with the help of <\/span>surveys<\/span><\/a>, <\/span>questionnaires<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>polls<\/span><\/a>. Panels are an efficient method of conducting marketing research but using the right panelists in a market research study is of utmost importance. The tool helps to pick the most effective audience for the research. <\/span><\/li>\n
  2. Customer advisory board:<\/b> The online community software helps to identify your Tier 1 customers that are strong advocates for the brand. This will help you identify with your best promoters and turn them into influencers for your brand. The online community offers multiple avenue\u2019s to derive insights from the best customers. <\/span><\/li>\n
  3. Agile research:<\/b> A survey can be conducted once but a community collects insights on an on-going basis. Hence, organizations use an online community to derive insights from a pool of people in an agile manner and for real-time research. The community also helps with <\/span>qualitative data collection<\/span><\/a> as well as <\/span>quantitative data collection<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/li>\n
  4. Crowdsourced ideas:<\/b> You can use the online community platform to get collect insights and ideas from customers. This helps you get inside the mind of the customer base and understand what\u2019s really required.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Remember back in the good old days when the community was really a huge part of our lives? Back then, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":71580,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[207,260],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nFour reasons to have an online community | QuestionPro<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"An online community is an important and a widely used method of conducting market research. There are multiple reasons to have an online community but this article talks about the 4 major reasons to have an online community.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/4-reasons-to-have-an-online-community\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Four reasons to have an online community | QuestionPro\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"An online community is an important and a widely used method of conducting market research. There are multiple reasons to have an online community but this article talks about the 4 major reasons to have an online community.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/4-reasons-to-have-an-online-community\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"QuestionPro\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/questionpro\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-05-31T10:34:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/4-reasons-to-have-an-online-community.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"992\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"594\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dan Fleetwood\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@questionpro\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@questionpro\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dan Fleetwood\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/4-reasons-to-have-an-online-community\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/4-reasons-to-have-an-online-community\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Dan Fleetwood\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/7499f480697eead5b63ef9be6311175a\"},\"headline\":\"Four reasons to have an online community\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-05-31T10:34:12+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-05-31T10:34:12+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/4-reasons-to-have-an-online-community\/\"},\"wordCount\":722,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Communities\",\"Online Communities\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/4-reasons-to-have-an-online-community\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/4-reasons-to-have-an-online-community\/\",\"name\":\"Four reasons to have an online community | QuestionPro\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2019-05-31T10:34:12+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-05-31T10:34:12+00:00\",\"description\":\"An online community is an important and a widely used method of conducting market research. There are multiple reasons to have an online community but this article talks about the 4 major reasons to have an online community.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/4-reasons-to-have-an-online-community\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/4-reasons-to-have-an-online-community\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/4-reasons-to-have-an-online-community\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Communities\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/category\/communities\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Online Communities\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/category\/communities\/online-communities\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":4,\"name\":\"Four reasons to have an online community\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"QuestionPro\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"QuestionPro\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/questionpro-logo.svg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/questionpro-logo.svg\",\"caption\":\"QuestionPro\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/questionpro\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/questionpro\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/questionpro\/\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/7499f480697eead5b63ef9be6311175a\",\"name\":\"Dan Fleetwood\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7c0b7597fe59354eb716a30cbf2099d3?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7c0b7597fe59354eb716a30cbf2099d3?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Dan Fleetwood\"},\"description\":\"President of Research and Insights at QuestionPro, a leader in web-based research technologies, with over 15 years of market research experience.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/author\/dan\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Four reasons to have an online community | QuestionPro","description":"An online community is an important and a widely used method of conducting market research. There are multiple reasons to have an online community but this article talks about the 4 major reasons to have an online community.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/4-reasons-to-have-an-online-community\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Four reasons to have an online community | QuestionPro","og_description":"An online community is an important and a widely used method of conducting market research. There are multiple reasons to have an online community but this article talks about the 4 major reasons to have an online community.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/4-reasons-to-have-an-online-community\/","og_site_name":"QuestionPro","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/questionpro","article_published_time":"2019-05-31T10:34:12+00:00","og_image":[{"width":992,"height":594,"url":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/4-reasons-to-have-an-online-community.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Dan Fleetwood","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@questionpro","twitter_site":"@questionpro","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Dan Fleetwood","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/4-reasons-to-have-an-online-community\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/4-reasons-to-have-an-online-community\/"},"author":{"name":"Dan Fleetwood","@id":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/7499f480697eead5b63ef9be6311175a"},"headline":"Four reasons to have an online community","datePublished":"2019-05-31T10:34:12+00:00","dateModified":"2019-05-31T10:34:12+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/4-reasons-to-have-an-online-community\/"},"wordCount":722,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/#organization"},"articleSection":["Communities","Online Communities"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/4-reasons-to-have-an-online-community\/","url":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/4-reasons-to-have-an-online-community\/","name":"Four reasons to have an online community | QuestionPro","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2019-05-31T10:34:12+00:00","dateModified":"2019-05-31T10:34:12+00:00","description":"An online community is an important and a widely used method of conducting market research. There are multiple reasons to have an online community but this article talks about the 4 major reasons to have an online community.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/4-reasons-to-have-an-online-community\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/4-reasons-to-have-an-online-community\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/4-reasons-to-have-an-online-community\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Communities","item":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/category\/communities\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Online Communities","item":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/category\/communities\/online-communities\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"name":"Four reasons to have an online community"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/","name":"QuestionPro","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"QuestionPro","url":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/questionpro-logo.svg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/questionpro-logo.svg","caption":"QuestionPro"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/questionpro","https:\/\/twitter.com\/questionpro","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/questionpro\/"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/7499f480697eead5b63ef9be6311175a","name":"Dan Fleetwood","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7c0b7597fe59354eb716a30cbf2099d3?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7c0b7597fe59354eb716a30cbf2099d3?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Dan Fleetwood"},"description":"President of Research and Insights at QuestionPro, a leader in web-based research technologies, with over 15 years of market research experience.","url":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/author\/dan\/"}]}},"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/4-reasons-to-have-an-online-community.jpg","featured_image_src_square":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/4-reasons-to-have-an-online-community.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"Dan Fleetwood","author_link":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/author\/dan\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71578"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/65"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71578"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71578\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.questionpro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}