But things are different now. One could say that we have reached the tipping point where companies must incorporate communities into their marketing communications and public relations strategies.

And that is why I say: Hold the bus!

We should rephrase the above by replacing the word “incorporate” with “consider.” We absolutely must consider communities in our marketing communications strategies, but we should analyze this carefully.

Analysis Point 1: How much capacity does my company have to listen and then respond to our customers? How many people, processes, and technologies (i.e. your capacity) are you willing to put in place to listen to your customers, both by soliciting their feedback as well as letting them come to you unsolicited with their thoughts and concerns? Has this capacity (i.e. the amount of people, process, and technology) risen proportionally with the size and complexity of your company? Perhaps more importantly, has your capacity to respond been increased proportionally with your capacity to listen? When “considering” communities, are you willing to add capacity to your communications machine to adequately support adding a community emphasis to your marketing communications strategy? If you cannot add resources, but are determined to add community to your communications mix, you better prepare to either diminish the capacity of other efforts, or fail.

Analysis Point 2: Is your listening and response capacity proportional with effectiveness? For example, one of my wife’s and my favorite movies is the “Hunt for Red October” starring Sean Connery. One of the great analogies in that movie is “They are pinging away at their sonar but at almost 30 knots they could run over my daughter’s stereo and not hear it.” Are you listening to so many customers on so many transactions that you cannot understand not just what your customers are saying, but what they really feel? We must analyze the role of all communication tools in the above context. Would adding community resources to your communication efforts increase you ability to understand your customers’ and employees’ problems more effectively?

Keep an eye out for my next blog in this series, in which I’ll go over existing communities and willingness.

John Epeneter, VP of Product Management, Allegiance