The Online Community Platform & Services Satisfaction Survey was initiated in May of 2010. The intention of the study was to get a broad look at the emerging field of social media marketing, and specifically, to explore the variety of platforms that are being used within online communities and how effective they are and which features are most valued. Forum One released a report based on the study last week.

We received approximately 51 responses. Participants represent a healthy swath of the types of organizations participating in online community building activities, including: large software companies, large community destination sites, niche community sites, platform providers, interactive marketing firms and independent consultants.

Several key issues pertaining to online community platforms and services surfaced during this report, including:

• Nearly half of the respondents, 49% (17), indicated that their online community platform and services budget is less than $50,000.
• The three most commonly used primary platforms, apart from in-house custom made platforms, were:
  • Blogs / Forums
  • Lithium
  • Jive
• Over a quarter of the respondents, 27% (13), are actively looking for a new online community platform.
• A third of the respondents, 33% (17), indicated that they used Google Analytics as their Metrics & Reporting tool and 12% (6) use Omniture.

Job Title
A high percentage of the respondents have high level positions within their organization, with Community Director positions, 29% (15), being most frequently reported. Director related job titles include Director of Communities, Community Relations Director, Director of Social Networking, Managing Director, Regional Director, Senior Director Customer Experience and Director Community and Products.

The second most commonly reported job title was Community Manager, 21% (11), with an additional, 12% (6) of respondents reporting other Management job titles including Associate Manager Consumer Insights, Community Product Manager, Product Manager, Program Manager and Senior Program Manager of Client Programs.

It is interesting to note that over half of the respondent, 55% (28) have the word “Community” in their job titles, whereas only 2 have the word “Media” in their job titles.”).

Platform Attributes
The two most commonly reported attributes that respondents said was important when purchasing a new community platform was the Feature set of the platform (28) and the Ability to customize the user interface (26). Over half of the respondents indicated that these two factors were among the top 3 attributes they used in making purchasing decision.

Other attributes that respondents felt were important in the decision making process include the Price or Pricing Structure, Ability to scale the platform and the Reporting functionality of the platform.

It is interesting to note that the maturity of the platform option was only selected by 3 participants as an important factor when considering a new platform. Respondents were interested in newer, flexible platforms that have advanced features and customizable interfaces.

Platform Features
86% (44) of the respondents said that their company’s current community platform utilizes Discussion Forums. This was the most commonly reported feature reported during this survey and was 17% higher than the second most utilized feature, Blogs 69% (35).

Approximately half of the respondents indicated that their organization used Groups, 51% (26), and Surveys & Polls, 49% (25), as part of their current company’s platform.

The least reported feature that people used in their current platform was Chat 18% (9).

Community Platforms – Rated
Overall ratings to this question were above average in every area, with the highest average ratings given for the vendor delivering the platform on deadline (4.9) and post-purchase support from the vendor (4.8). The lowest average rating was given the platform’s capabilities in the area of Metrics & Reporting (4.0). All these ratings are out of a rating of 6.0.

HIGHEST AVERAGES:
The following Platforms were reported as having the highest averages (all attributes):

• HiveLive’s LiveConnect (5.4 out of a rating of 6)
• Leverage Software (5.4 out of a rating of 6)
• Groupsite (5.3 out of a rating of 6)

The Complete Online Community Platform Services & Satisfaction 2010 Report

The full 42 page report may be purchased here: http://store.onlinecommunityresearch.com/coplsesa20.html and includes detailed information, analysis and charts on:

• Organization Type and Size
• Annual Community Platform Budgets
• Respondents Primary Community Platforms
• Detailed Ratings of Community Platform Features and Functionality
• Other Products & Services Used for Community Operations
• Platforms & Services Wish List