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sharing, shared ratings, and collaboration around hardware solutions. The community
is now a core component of Element 14’s B2B go-to-market strategy: The engineer’s
community drives new applications, more timely information shared between engi-
neers, and a stronger connection between Element 14 and its business customers.
Build Around Customer Participation
Regardless of who the community is intended to serve, strong communities are best
built around the things that matter deeply to the members of the community: passions,
lifestyles, causes, and similar fundamentally aligned needs. This applies whether the
audience is primarily business—B2B communities like Element 14’s engineering com-
munity or Dell’s “Take Your Path” small business owners community form around
very specific shared needs common to small business owners—or a personal-interest
B2C or nonprofit or cause related community.
The core elements powering a social business in any case need to be something
to which the community members (customers or potential customers, for example) will
spontaneously bond, and that as a result will encourage them to invite others to join.
In the case of Dell’s “Take Your Own Path,” the common element is the unique set of
challenges faced by small businesses. If you’ve ever met a small business owner, you
know how passionate they are about what they do. Dell has found a very effective way
through the practices of social business to tap this by identifying and serving the needs
of the small business owner—for example, by encouraging discussion about finance
and investments in business hardware.
Similarly, smaller communities—think here about the need to reach highly
defined groups of customers, where personal interests drive strong relationships—are
prime opportunities for social business initiatives: Again, take for example Dell and
their “Digital Nomads” program, aimed at a specific segment of Dell’s customer base
that literally thrives on the availability of an online connection. Digital nomads are
productive in the office or outside of it, staying in touch with friends and updating col-
leagues on work in progress through social applications as close as the nearest WiFi
enabled coffee shop or hotel. One of the common factors identifying “Digital Nomads”
is the combination of lifestyle and digital tools, along with the wherewithal to get con-
nected in just about any situation. Dell hardware powers this and thereby taps into the
nomadic lifestyle of these on-the-go professionals. It’s important here to recognize that
communities like “Digital Nomads” and “Take Your Own Path” are not defined by a
business or consumer or nonprofit motive—call this your point of view or need—but
rather by the needs and desires of the participants within these communities.
Participation Is Driven by Passion
Getting the activity focused on something larger than your brand, product, or service
is critical to the successful development of social behavior within the customer or