My Ideas on Virtual Community

Today, I would like to share some of my ideas on virtual community.

 

Advantages of virtual community

Virtual communities, which rely on Internet, offer the advantage of instant information exchange no matter how far away they may be, which is impossible in a real-life community. Users of online communities can build good relationships by forming specific discussion groups that sharing information and ideas in various topics easily and very fast. What’s more, the communities can give the members a feeling of membership and belonging by intensely participating in all kinds of net-based social gatherings, and giving and receiving support and advice from one another.
Virtual communities can serve as an appropriate netbased business model, as VCs meet the needs of members for communication, information, and entertainment. By identifying and reaching a group of audience with similar interests, VCs provide chance for marketers to define the target consumers precisely, and then to reach them in cost- saving ways for marketing of specific goods and services. Since virtual communities serve as a rich source of information, companies are able to have better understanding of consumers’ needs and desires. Besides, companies can also use virtual communities as a platform for co-creation of new product development with the consumers. What’s more, with constant interaction between members, lead users and opinion leaders exert great influence on the purchase and consumption decisions of the potential consumers. Communities that satisfy both relational and transactional needs will harvest the benefits of greater customer loyalty.

Economically, virtual communities can be commercially successful by making money through membership fees, subscriptions, usage fees, and advertising commission. People are able to engage in many activities at home, such as shopping, paying bills, and searching for specific information. Consumers generally feel very comfortable making transactions online as long as the seller has a good reputation throughout the community. Virtual communities also provide the advantage of reduction of wasteful marketing expenditures and customer service costs by connecting buyers directly to suppliers. 

Owing to their unique advantages, virtual communities have now become part of many brands' social media strategy.By constant and direct communication with the customers and get them highly involved, companies can build brand by boost brand awareness and maintain brand loyalty. Therefore developing online communities and understanding online behaviour can significantly strengthen a brand.

Challenges for virtual community
What are the challenges?
While instant communication means fast access, it is possible that information is posted without being checked or edited. It is also common for people in virtual communities to live out a fantasy as another type of person as identities can be kept anonymous online. Besides, as information spreads with great speed, any negative information about something will do great harm or even ruin it, especially to brands, forword-of-mouth communication between consumers impacts the attitudes and the buying decisions of potential customers.

Participants of virtual communities get together because of the similar interests, or some social or life needs of their own. Therefore what can attract their attention, keep them interested in and make continuous contributions to the communities is a difficult issue. And it’s even a greater challenge for companies that wish to use virtual communities to facilitate communication between customers and themselves and turn the participants into potential buyers.  

How to meet with the challenges?
To achieve the marketing goals, companies should initiate websites of their own and set up company-managed virtual communities so as to steer them into course that is expected to reach their community objectives. To do well, virtual communities should be created according to the members’ needs and desires instead of those of the company by constant analysis of the evolution and trend of the members’ interests and needs. Besides, virtual communities should act as a guide for topics that consumers can actively exchange and share their ideas and opinions and activities that members will enthusiastically participate in so that VC satisfy the consumers’ emotional and social expectations. Only by fostering members’ participation and involvement with the communities can companies strengthen members’ attachment to the community and lead to “affective loyalty”.

Trust in virtual communities is extremely important for interactions to occur and for communities to survive.Trust in the members and inwebsite lead to the reliability of information shared and contributed and also members’ purchase behaviors. Therefore  trust in communities lay sound foundation for enthusiastic participation, good relationship, sales increase and brand loyalty. To gain trust, companies should use virtual communities to provide valid and reliable information, communicate with consumers as much as possible to know and meet their needs. What’s more, efforts should be made to promote cohesion in the community for better interaction among members.

What is also important is to develop positive influence in a virtual community, as members’ opinions can affect others’ attitudes and purchase decisions. So try to reduce negative voices by providing chances for discussing with consumers on how to make improvement on products and services. Thus the consumers’ roles of critics are changed into advisors and co-creators of new products.