Written by: Larry Goodfellow
Not all projects are the same, and likewise, the service agreements offered by Insightrix Communities vary as well.
One must ask herself or himself which makes more sense; a long-term community, or a short-term community? This all depends on the scope of the project and the goals for engagement.
Short-term communities are good for quick, one-off projects, or projects that only require a small amount of engagement.
For instance, your company might have a mailing list and wishes to run a preliminary survey that gauges opinions about your newest marketing campaign. You may also incorporate some open-end questions to provide further insight, but it is high level, with fast turnaround and low cost. Based on these results, you may then want to follow up and engage the participants who did not think highly of your campaign in an online bulletin board (an online group discussion with two way communication). Here, you can gather their thoughts and opinions, as well as learn about what they wish your company would do differently.
In this scenario, a short-term community is suited since there will be a streamlined recruitment process and the project could be completed in just a couple of days. This could keep costs low and effectively gather results and exportable data in a short period of time. However, due to the limited duration, there would be minimal time to build rapport, the timeline of the project would have to align with the availability of your participants, and there would be minimal (if any) time for error.
For comparison, let’s now presume that you want a more long term focus (longitudinal study) using a mailing list of potential participants whom you would like to engage over time, get feedback on products or campaigns, and have ongoing conversations about their experience with your brand (i.e. a long-term member relationship).
Long-term communities have the benefit of establishing and maintaining a relationship with your members. Users can run promotions to encourage participation over time. Incentives can be rewarded for referrals, and communications and research activities can be tailored for the demographics and opinions represented in your group.
By facilitating a long-term community, you will get the most out of the insights you gain, measure differences over time, and have the two-way channel for communication that customers ever-increasingly want.
Still unsure if you need a short-term or long-term community? No problem, we are more than happy to walk you though your options and are always here to help.
Contact us for more information.