The Business Value of Online Customer Communities

TEACHER EXAMPLE:


The business goal of PD 360 was to raise student achievement . They accomplished a lift of 11.3% improvement in student achievement through an online learning community for teachers with on demand professional development .

The School Improvement Network’s PD 360 Raises Student Achievement by 11.3 Percent

October 23, 2008 – Salt Lake City, UT - As schools across the country search for proven ways to increase student achievement thousands of schools, including fourteen schools in Hawaii, have found a solution. For the past year, these Hawaii schools utilized PD 360, the School Improvement Network's on-demand professional development platform. Recent data shows that using PD 360 significantly increased reading scores. Considering that PD 360 typically costs less than $75 per teacher per year, these achievements are truly remarkable. FULL NEWS ARTICLE

IT PROFESSIONAL EXAMPLE:

Kace conducted a survey of IT professionals in June of 2007 to gather data on the value and impact of online communities. The vast majority, 93%, of participants believe they do their jobs more efficiently and save time by using online IT communities. The following are the highlights.

– 93% claim that they do their jobs more efficiently and save time by using IT communities to solve system administration problems. – 100% of IT professionals who participate in online communities report benefiting professionally and 85% report benefiting personally from this use. – 98% of participants believe that the information in online
communities is typically accurate, although many clarified the
importance of validating online sources.
– 70% of respondents participate in online communities focused on
systems or security management.
– 94% of participants cite the need to visit more than one source
of information for each problem that they solve. 75% of
participants who work in IT say that a comprehensive community
that would answer questions without the need to visit multiple
sites would be beneficial.
– 50% of respondents who work in IT would find value in having
relevant community information available to them directly from
their systems management console.
– Better search is the most frequently cited improvement that would
add benefit to online communities for technical information. Other
suggestions included resident subject matter experts and
moderators, live forums and policing of community content for
accuracy and currency.

Click here to access the entire analyst report.

Contact Lauren directly at ldelong@InnerCircleCommunities.com or 207.752.7298 to discuss your social media or online community needs. We look forward to hearing from you.

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