Cover Story: 50 Best Tips of 2009

28. Focus on customer-centric communities.
Acquire customers by using the viral power of social networking, focusing that power on targeted communities of people known to need a specific company’s products/services. This consists of a sponsored branded portal that acts as the homepage of the community and a tool suite that includes alerts, message boards, photo and file sharing, and other social network-type functionality. Let individual members create personal discussion groups consisting of friends, family and business associates. These groups by default create unlimited opportunities to acquire targeted new customers and prospects.
Neil Rosen, eWayDirect
“Do Customer-Centric Communities Answer the Scalability Question?” March 10, Catalog Success: Tactics & Tips