INFLUENCE

CommunityRelations2.0

byGeraldC.Kane,Robert G.Fichman,JohnGallaugher,andJohnGlaser

I

n2003,BostonUniversityMedicalCampus(BUMC)announcedplans to buildan advanced high-securitylaboratoryto studyvirulentbiologicalagents.Stakeholdersexpectedthelab to conductgroundbreakingresearchleadingtopublichealthandcounterterrorismadvancesthat

wouldcombatweaponi.zed versionsofEbola,tularemia,anthrax,andotherlethaldiseases.Atfirst, the project waswidely hailed asaboon tonational security, tothe region'sstanding asabiotech leader, and to Boston's economy.

And thensuddenly the tideturned.Known officiallyasthe National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories,thefacilitywassitednearBUMCatthejunctionofBoston'sresidentialSouthEndand Roxbury neighborhoods.The more residents heard about the kinds of substances their new neighbor would handle, the lesseager they were tohave the buildingin their midst. Howsecure would itbe?Whatifsomethinggotout?Wouldn't the labbeahigh-profile targetforterrorists?Ifit wasassafeas proponents claimed, whycouldn't it bebuilt inanaffluent suburb like Brookline, Newton, or Wellesley?

In nosmall part,online activism drove powerful community opposition. Asingle-issue website, stopthebiolab.org,quickly galvanized acommunity ofstaunch resistance. Established organizations devotedtotheenvironment, publichealth,andsocial justice (theConservation LawFoundation, the Massachusetts NursesAssociation, and Boston Mobilization, amongothers)used theirwebsites to amplify themessage. Lawsuitswerefiled, and in notime the labwent fromslam dunk toslog.The facility's opening hasbeen delayed byafederal court order forfurther environmental safetystudies. Research may never be permitted onthe most dangerous substances the labwasbuilt tostudy.

Businesses and other institutions have long practiced "community outreach" to nurture positive, cooperative relationshipsbetween themselves and the public. Before theinternet, firms had far moretimetomethodicallymonitor and respond tocommunity activity. Withtheriseofsocial media, that luxury has vanished, leaving a community-management vacuum in dire need of fresh skills, adaptive tactics, and acoherent strategy. In fact, in today's hyperconnected world, a company's community hasfew geographical barriers; it comprises all customers and interested parties, not justlocal neighbors. Thisarticle,based onour research examining social media engagement atmorethantwodozenfirms,describesthe changeswrought bysocialmediaplatforms and shows how your company can make the most ofthisbrave new world.

What'sDifferentAboutNewCommunities?

IT-enabled collaborative toolssuchassocial networks, wikis,andblogsgreatlyincrease a community's speed of formation and magnify itsimpact and reach. New communities come together and disperse quicklyandareoftenledbydifferent peopleatdifferent moments. And mobileinterfaceskeepgroupsonthealert,ready todrumupinformationorbreakintoaction.

Communitiesvary widely in their purpose and membership-andin their tone, which can range fromfriendly and collaborative toardently hostile.Theimportance ofsortingout which iswhich and then deciding whether and how toengage-makes the discipline of managing them a delicate and highly strategic internal capability.

Manyofthesocialmediacommunitieswecitecomefromthehealthcareindustry,where participationisrobustandinfluential.AreportfromManhattanResearchsuggeststhatmorethan60 millionAmericansare consumersof"health2.0"resources.Theyreadorcontributeto blogs,wikis, socialnetworks,andotherpeer-producedefforts,usingGoogleasthede facto startingpoint. The lessonsweextracthereapplytoonlinecommunitiesinotherknowledge-driven fields,suchas law( Divorce360),finance(Wikinvest,Marketocracy),publishing(Wikipedia,theHuffingtonPost),and R&D ( InnoCentive, IdeaStorm ).

Withsocial media, we've moved beyond the eraofstand-alone, staticwebpages. Today's communities actively post and vet information. Users increasingly treat these venues astheirfirststopingathering data and forming an opinion. A recent Pewstudy found that nearly 40%of Americanssaytheyhavedoubted amedical professional'sopinionordiagnosisbecauseitconflicted

withinformationthey'd foundonline.Ifusers put that much faith in what they learn on the internet, whatwilltheybewillingtobelieveifmembersofasocialmediaforumstarttrashingyour organization? And are you prepared to handle it when it happens?

Social MediaCapabilities

Socialmedia platformsenhancethe power ofonlinecommunitiesinfourways:Theypromotedeep relationships,allowfastorganization, improve the creation andsynthesisofknowledge,and permit better filtering of information.

Deep relationships.

Community members usingsocial mediatoolsand featuresestablish multifacetedrelationships that arefar richer than those in earlier-generationonline communities, such asdiscussion boards and LISTSERVs. Theseconnections engenderdeeptrust,asshownbythekindofinformation sharing thatoccursamong theALS(amyotrophic lateralsclerosis), Parkinson's, andothermember communities on PatientsLikeMe, anadvanced online social network for patients with particular chronic diseases. Patients volunteerdetails about their diseases and the treatments they've pursued

-including those not prescribed by their doctors. Charts and progress curves on the website help peopletovisualize theirowncomplex treatment histories, allowcomparisons amongpeergroups, and prompt members to provide feedback and advice on oneanother's progress.

Theimplications for health care are profound. Indeed, online communities arechanging the way doctors providecare.Vvhen onemember of themultiplesclerosiscommunity onPatientsLikeMe studied achart comparing hisown treatment regimen with thoseofother MSpatients, heconcluded that his doctor was undermedicatinghim. As recounted in aNewYork TimesMagazinearticle in March2008,thepatient, armed with printouts showing that higher doses were now mainstreampractice, persuaded hisdoctor toincrease the prescribed dosage. Doing soimproved the patient's mobility in ways he had not experienced in14years.

Rapidorganization.

Social media toolsenable callstoaction around common interests or upcoming eventsand promote the easyformation ofelectroniccommunities. Hundredsofthousandsof people canbemobilized in just a few hours.

Forexample,the lungcancergrouponInspire(awebsiteforcommunitiesofpatients,families,and advocacygroupsdealingwithvariousdiseases)quicklyturnedGolfDigest's"WhatWouldYou Shoot?" contest intoa promotional tool.Thegroup rallied thousands of online voters tosupport cancer survivor John Atkinson, givinghimachancetoplay with threecelebrities atTorrey Pines Souththe weekbeforelast year'sU.S.Open.Thefoursome includedTodaycoanchor MattLauer, whosubsequently featured Atkinson on hisTVshow.Thecommunity's quick action allowed itto use Atkinson's compelling story to promote awareness and early screening.

Onlinecommunities arealsoleveraged inquick-strike lobbyingefforts.Sermo(asocial network exclusively fordoctors)hasenabled physicians torapidly mobilize onabroadsetofissues.For instance, they used it tocallattention toinsurers' proposed reimbursementcutsand successfully organize resistance tothem.Recently, members wereabletogalvanize doctorsagainst proposed health carereform,even when the American MedicalAssociation formally supported it.

Knowledgecreationandsynthesis.

Modern online communities can aggregate the knowledge generated by members into persistent documents and other artifacts that are much more useful than the disjointed discussion threads and bulletin boards of yore.

Wikipedia, a highly social environment governed bystrong rulesand norms, produces remarkably reliable information, despite itsreputation for uneven quality. Arecent study that Lara Devgan and colleaguesfromJohnsHopkinspresentedattheAmerican CollegeofSurgeonsshowedthatasample ofWikipedia medical articles did not contain asingleegregious factual error.Infact, the vast majority were considered by theresearchers to beappropriate references for patients.

PatientsLikeMehastakeninformationsynthesistoanewlevel.ForitsgrowingALSpopulation (some10%ofnewlydiagnosedALSpatients aremembers),thesitehas aggregatedpatient-reported dataheretoforeinaccessibletothegeneralpublic.Communitymembersevenbandtogetherfor sophisticatedresearchefforts.InspiredbyareportsuggestingthatlithiummaybenefitALS sufferers,membersrecentlylaunchedwhatPatientsLikeMe cofounderJamieHeywooddescribedas "thefirstreal-time,real-worldopenandnon-blinded,patient-driventrial."Withinmonths-rather thantheyearsthatformalstudiescantake-membershadcollectedandshareddatasubmittedby

hundredsoflithium-taking ALSpatients.Thecommunity'sfindingshavethusfarnotsubstantiated theearlierstudy,perhapssavingothersufferersfrompinningfalsehopesona singlereportwhose results havenot been replicated.

Informationfiltering.

Harnessingthe knowledgeofaworldwidecommunity of(mostly)amateurswouldbeworthlittleif there were nowayfor people toseparate wheat from chaff. Fortunately, ever-improving categorization,search, and filtering tools make it possible toidentify the most popular or helpful contributions.Thinkof theaggregate physicianratings bypatients onsitessuchasYelpand by nurses on CareSeek .

Sermo hasoneof themost robust filteringmechanisms we'veever seen.Doctors whowriteanew post onSermo, often about a puzzling case,can append a poll question seeking input from other doctors. Members can filter contributions by time,author name, quality rating, specialty, or keywords relating toconditions, symptoms, treatments, and soforth. Thus doctors prospecting for interesting cases can readily find ones that match their expertise, and those seeking advice can quicklyattractthemost relevantcontributors. Physicians haveevenusedSermointhe ERtogather input from a quorumof experts to decide on the spot how totreat acute cases.

Information filtering also helps alleviate problems of misuse in communities, such as misrepresentationand fraud, debilitating infighting and other hostilities, and abandonment of their original purpose. Although entirelyeliminating suchissues may beimpossible, Sermo minimizes them byallowing members toassign reputation ratings toother users. It alsocarefully vetsthe medical credentials of its members.

TheCommunityOpportunity

To many businesses, online communities look like antagonists, not would-be partners with intersecting interests. It's true that they're often formed, in part, as reactions against mainstream practices, values, and philosophies-but don't let a community's pedigree cloud your thinking about opportunities tocreatevalue.Inthehealth carefield,communities likeSermo, PatientsLikeMe,and Inspire may bethe seedsof afutureinwhich it'scommon practice for diverse constituents toattack shared problems together.

Don'tletanonlinecommunity'spedigreecloudyour thinking about opportunities for

engagen-1ent.

Consider the challengesofspeed andscale.Medical knowledge tendstoprogress slowly through studies of clinical outcomes and other forms of research. As communities-alone or in networks assemble large populations of patients, they can compile data showing the effects on patients not only of various medical treatments but also of age,genetics, nutrition, mental outlook, socioeconomic status, physical fitness, and the presence of other medical conditions. The ultimate opportunity isto customize treatment protocols tomatch ever more granular setsof patient and disease characteristics(see"Realizing the PromiseofPersonalized Medicine;' HBR October2007).Thusa physicianwould beableto assess treatmentoptions for an individualpatient against abody ofexperiential evidence drawn from tensof thousands of detailed cases of a particular disease-such asdiabetes,HIV/AIDS, orrheumatoid arthritis.

In health care, collaborationwithin communities ismotivated byashared passion tospread knowledge. Patients, their physicians, and their families and friends want better treatments for whatever the disease maybe.BenandJamieHeywood, whosebrotherStephen sufferedfromALS, created PatientsLikeMetohelp patients sharetheir experiences, toempower them,and tostimulate thinking that could lead to a cure.

Patient communities, unlikehealthcareproviders, canoperateoutsidethestricturesofHIPAA(the Health Insurance Portability and AccountabilityAct).Patients canfreelyshareinformation about their conditions and treatments that a hospital or adoctor's office must keep confidential. These communities allow fee-paying partners-pharmaceutical firms, device makers, research organizations, and nonprofits-to access aggregated, anonymous member data. Partners may also recruit members as medical-trial subjects aslongasindividuals havegiven permission tobe contacted.

Such novel cooperative alliances in health careshould inspire similar experimentationin other industries. Likemanymanagers, youmaybedealingwithoutsidecommunities mainlybytryingto minimize their negative potential, but there aresure to be communities whose goals complement your own. For that reason, asyou modernize your company's approach tocommunity relations,

you'llneedtorecognizethekeydistinctionbetweentwofundamentalactivities:preventingdamage to your reputation and brand, and identifying new opportunities. The former calls for marketing and publicrelationsskills,whereasthelattercallsforbusiness-development skills.Youshouldassemble asocialmediateamwithstrengthsinbothareas.

Moreover, youprobablyalreadyhavemembersofthesecommunities withinyourcompany'swalls. AtBoston-basedPartnersHealthCare, doctorsareactiveonSermo,manypatientsbelongtogroups within PatientsLikeMeand Inspire, and more than 3,500 employees have joined aninformal and unofficial Partnerscommunity on Facebook. These existing relationships create natural pointsof intersectionbetweenPartners' interests and those of relevant online communities.

EngagingtheNextGenerationofOnline Communities

Acompany's social media team must develop policiesand strategies for managing online communities, both to mitigate negative consequences and tofoster positive engagement. Its responsibilities should include monitoring online communities that exist outside and inside the company, engagingthosecommunities when necessary, andservingasfirst responders inthe event ofasocialmediacrisis. (Formoredetails,seethesidebar"TheMandateforthe SocialMediaTeam

TheMandate fortheSocial Media Team

1:DevelopaFormalSocial Media Policy

Appropriate standards andguidelines for on-the-job use of social media by employees willmake the firm'sexpectations clear and helpgovern usage. Agood policy isexpl.icit about how employees should interact in communities, giving positive examples and highlighting the possible consequences ofdamagingconduct. A survey of companies with formal social media policies reveals the following core guidelines:

Those concerned about spending in an era of resource constraints should note that companies asdiverse as Kaiser Permanente, Comcast, Domino's, and Amazon have learned that not havingsuch ateamcan costfar morethanhaving one.TheDomino's employees whotorpedoed the firm's image with agrotesque YouTube montage ofintentional health codeviolations claimed they simply hadn't thought about the consequences of their actions.

In themost successful firms we've studied, community management was a dedicated functioncombiningskillsfrommarketing,public

Accountability.Employeesshouldtake responsibility for their postings, clearly indicating when opinions are their own and not the firm's.

Accuracy and transparency.Posts must be factual, with the poster's identity disclosed.

Lawfulness.Employeesmustbeawareof and respect the legal and professional framework that governs firm behavior.

2: Monitor External and Internal Online Communities

Because communities come and go quickly,theteamshouldcontinually survey the online landscape to identify potential threats and allies. Here are a few tips:

Leverage tools.Google alerts, blog trackers, Twitter keyword monitors, Facebook's Lexicon, and other simple tools can help make this dauntingtask more manageable.

Mobilize internaldeputies. Asmall core team simply can't find every social media activity relevant to your company's interests. Deputized employees can augment the team's efforts, even by revealing conversations that take place in the so-called dark web (on sites, such as Facebook, where only "friends" have access).

3:EngageOnline Communities

Your teamshoulddevelopyour firm'ssocial media presence so that people cantalktoyou,not justabout you.For example:

relations, and information technology. But there is no one-size-fits-allformula. A leading health care company has asingle social media team reporting jointly tothe VPof public relations and totheCIO. Bycontrast, in thevideo game industry (where online communities represent an especiallyinfluentialcustomervoice),oneleading companyassignsafull-time community liaison to each major product offering. Liaisons serveon product-groupteams andreportboth to the senior community manager and to a senior marketer. In all cases, direct communication between community managers and senior executives is vital. Otherwise, intermediaryagents could distort critical messages-forinstance, by minimizing criticism of efforts they had a hand in creating.

Thesocial media team does not need to retainsole responsibilityfor engaging the social media space,however.Virtuallyeveryorganizationhasa cadre of employees who are already active in online communities. These workers constitute a richpoolofexperience, expertise,andenergythat the social media team can draw from. They should bedeputized toassist with the team's core m1ss10n.

Identifying these rank-and-file social media experts gives you access to key insights and, potentially,smartstrategies.WhenErnst&Young hired an agency to craft its college-recruiting presence on Facebook, the results were

compelling social media voice.Facebook fanpagesandcorporate blogs are engaging. Online innovation forums, like Dell's ldeaStorm and Starbucks' My Starbucks Idea, also draw in the public. And whenJ&Jsubsidiary LifeScan announced a prototype iPhone app for diabetics to monitor glucose levels, it used social media to answer questions that a simple press release could not anticipate.

Reach out to community leaders.Prominent bloggers and well-connected social-network participants can bepowerful allies. You aren't trying to recruit mouthpieces; you want to gauge reaction and make sure your message is understood. The key toproductive relationships with community leaders like these is to find genuine common ground. Bloggers are also often experts on the social media landscape in general. When Kaiser Permanente asked well-known health care bloggers how to begin engaging online communities, it received valuable input on crafting its social media strategy.

Bealiaisontointernalcommunities.The social media team should be a clearinghouse for information on emerging internal communities, from a company softball leaguetoa work-relatedwiki. Ifthe team knows about these initiatives, it can steer them in productive directions, unify platforms and tools, and reward exemplary efforts.

4:ActasFirstResponders

Someissuesrequireimmediateaction butarapidyetill-conceivedreactioncanmakematters worse.Therefore team members,likereal-worldfirstresponders, shouldbetrainedtotriagesituations.

unremarkable. Onlywhenthecompanyenlisted a group of interns who were active Facebookers to contribute did therecruitmentdrive become more "authentic" and draw more traffic.

BusinessWeektechnologycolumnistSarahLacy saysE&Y's Facebook presencecontributed tothe company's rapid rise among the magazine's rankings oftopfirmsthatcollegestudentswant to work for.

It's time totake social media seriously. Comcast didn't expect that one of its snoozing technicians would become a viral video sensation and the source of widespread negative publicity. And Kaiser Permanente had noideathatablograntby alow-levelemployeecoulddisruptamultibillion dollar IT rollout and end upon the front pages oftheLosAngelesTimesandtheWallStreetJournal.Bothorganizationshavesinceemerged asleaders inengagingonlinecommunities, buteachlearned itslesson the hard way.Luckily, you can take stepsnow not only to avoid costly errors but also to harness the power of online communities.

A version of this article appeared in the November2009 issue of HarvardBusinessReview.

Acknowledge mistakes.Thisisakeyfirst step in regaining consumer trust.

Customerscanbeforgivingifthey

perceive honesty in the message. When Facebook incited outrage in social media forums for its 2009 revision of its terms of service, founder Mark Zuckerberg blogged an apology: "We simply did a bad job with this release, and I apologize for it." Of course, the community will expect agood faith effort to address the underlying problem. After apologizing, Facebook revised its terms again and asked its community to vote on them.

Ward off crises.You can't afford to let unfounded rumors spiral out of control. Earlier this year, when stories surfacedthat Starbucks was protesting the Iraq war by refusing to send coffee to troops, the coffee giant fired back with "not true" tweets with links to details on its good works.

Engage selectively.An active response is not always advisable. Some online communities empower dysfunctional behavior you don't want associated with your company. For example, some communities of eating-disorder sufferers encourage destructive behavior by posting purging techniques and photos of skeletal sufferers tooffer "thinspiration." Even ifyoudon't engage, you need to beaware of such communities.

Explain this case study with Situation, Causes, Alternatives, Recommendations and Implementations and control ? With 5 reference and in text citations