So, as I mentioned in a previous post, I’ve been interested in, working on, and researching how a company’s social tools (blogs, wikis, forums, polls, profiles, reviews, etc.) and community spaces do and should integrate with each other and with the rest of a corporation’s site. To get an idea of what different companies are currently doing I did a semi-quick walk-through of six hi-tech sites. (Cisco, Dell, HP, IBM, Intel, and SAP.) Note: I’m focused on the corporate web sites of companies that are not themselves social media companies.
I thought I’d share some of my observations and thoughts in hopes that someone else might find it helpful and maybe initiate some conversation. Disclaimer: Based on my experience with Sun’s site it’s possible I missed some community spaces and tools on some of these sites. If you know of any, please mention.
Findings and Observations
- There is no consistent model for communities on corporate sites. Every company I looked at was different.
- Most community implementations seem to have grown organically over time and from different departments resulting in multiple disconnected (functionality, navigation, look-n-feel) community spaces and social tools. (Starting to see some more integrated out-of-the-box community platforms (often on Jive) showing up.)
- Most sites display a “Communities” or “Community” link in the top global nav and/or global footer.
- Some sort of “Share” button or link(s) is consistently displayed across most pages on many sites.
- The most common social tools seem to be forums, blogs, wikis, profiles, and “share”. Other tools seen less consistently include product ratings and reviews, groups, podcasts, videos.
Social Integration Models
Being a visual thinker I had to try to describe the different models with some sort of diagram. My initial intent was to distill the integration models of the corporate sites I reviewed into a couple of themes but there were so many variations I think it’s worthwhile to show them all. Below are illustrations of the social integration models for each of the companies I reviewed.
Clearly, at least among the sites I looked at, no standard or pattern has emerged. And really, I’m not sure there should or will be. Is there a perfect pattern for community integration? Some thoughts and questions below.
Ideal State Thoughts and Questions
Just as there is no recipe for the ideal web site, I don’t think there is or will be one ideal model for integrating community spaces and social tools and content into a corporate web site. As with so many things, “it depends”.
Defining how community spaces and social tools/content integrate into a corporate site should start with defining objectives and strategies. To the extent that objectives and strategies differ, I think social integration models will differ. However, I do think there are some principles that will apply in most cases. Here’s a first stab at some of those principles.
Principles:
- Consistency
Connect community spaces and social tools with the main site and each other through common navigation and look-n-feel. Throwing the user off onto a community island can be confusing and frustrating. - Single Login
Make sure users can access all areas of your site including community spaces and social tools using a single login. Also, if I’m logged in in one area I shouldn’t have to log in again to access a different area. - One User Profile
Related to #2, provide a single user profile and one location users can go to manage it. - Centralize and Distribute
Have a master source but distribute social content where appropriate. Ex. all interaction within forums should take place in a centralized forum environment but forum content can/should be inserted into appropriate locations throughout the corporate site. - Multiple Entry Points
Enable users to access social content from multiple starting points. A user should be able to go to Forums > Developers > IDEs or Developers > Forums > IDEs or IDEs > Forums > Developers. - Connect with External Community Sites
Link out to and pull content in from external community spaces such as Twitter, Facebook, Slashdot, YouTube, Flickr, etc.
So what would the diagram look like for something like this? Here’s a shot at it:
I know I repeat “where beneficial” a lot in the description above but I think it’s important to emphasize it. If adding content or a tool to a page delivers no benefit to you or the user, don’t put it there.
So again, this is just an effort to start thinking through this topic and hopefully generate some discussion. My site review focused on a handful of large tech companies. What do you see going on in other industries?
What principles have I missed or need to be changed?
Where do you think the integration of community spaces and social tools into corporate sites is headed?
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Thanks for the comments and additional points. I agree with the principles you suggest. Definitely important ingredients for strong integration and consistency. Regarding #2, I’d add that the overall site search engine should include community content with the ability for the user to filter it out or to filter out everything but the community content.
The globalization question is a good one. One of Sun’s community sites aimed at students is internationalized and gives users the option to communicate in different languages as well as the ability to specify their preferred language for the UI. I think it can get pretty complex but it’s something that needs to be addressed (as you said).
Our model at VMware Communities is pretty much aligned with your model. The devil’s always in the details, and a lot of those details may be constrained by your IT operational capability, because you are usually grafting multiple software platforms together. Especially watch #4 (Entry points) since communities tend to be hierarchies, and it’s easy to get lost.
Thanks for the pointer and comments. Completely agree that the devil’s in the details and the multiple/legacy platforms. They can be a significant challenge. I’ll take a look at VMware Communities.
Interesting way of illustrating these differences. I do, however, believe this is oversimplifying the concept too much. When you refer to main site, is that only the homepage? Most user traffic does not go to community sites via the homepage. You have left off the major considerations such as search and third party social media networks. Anyhow, good stuff. Thanks.
Thanks for the comments. Good points. I consider “main site” to be the entire traditional corporate site including home page, product pages, services pages, “about” pages, etc. I tried to represent third party social media networks with the grey “external community site” bubble. Definitely lots of glossed-over details there though.
Matt,
Great post. Thanks for sharing. I like the principles that you’ve included, particularly the first one.
Leslie
Some great points, especially around the consistency.
I think many communities evolve, as you say, from individuals or ‘maverick’ departments where the consistency between the main and community sites is neglected.
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