Explore business opportunities and build your own B-to-B community

The online community does not have value for every website. However, in some cases, the online community has indeed created some potential business opportunities. One of the important reasons for establishing an online community is to help create a leading position in a certain field.
Let's take a look at the case. Siebel Systems is a world-leading company selling automation software. In February 1999, the company announced that it would create a commercial portal website Sales.com. According to company chairman Thomas Siebel, sales.com integrates the world's most comprehensive resources to provide all the tools, materials, and services required for professional sales staff, helping them work more effectively. To implement the plan, Siebel works with Sun Microsystems, Dun & Bradstreet, and Miller Heiman.
On September 19, December 1999, Siebel announced that Sales.com would consolidate sufficient investment capital into an independent joint venture.
Sales.com's move made its competitors suddenly realize: Why didn't we think of it?
This is a classic case of a traditional business company entering a new field. Its main means is to rely on the Internet and apply the business-to-business community concept to its own marketing objectives.
Of course, Sales.com is very large, and many companies do not have such abundant capital. However, on the internet, small companies can also be designed to look very large. Any online company, regardless of the size, you can build your own online community, or at least one "target site ".
Build your own community in that way
If you have realized the importance of building an online community and are planning to start, below are some basic content for building a community.
1. Determine the desired community type
Is your target audience an employee (company intranet), a customer or a supplier (external network), or an online public community? Special security measures need to be designed for the enterprise Intranet or external network to ensure the security of confidential information and the permissions of participants. Users or member rules should also be established to restrict access to public communities. However, if your goal is to build a public community that attracts widespread attention, you may want eligible individuals to use community services.
2. Decide what the community should achieve
Set clear goals for your community and make a business budget, such as the expected number of participants, predict the impact of the community on customer service input and income, and establish a community business budget, this includes the start-up cost, development cost, and daily expenses. Building a community is far more complex than building a basic website. Due to its special interaction characteristics, a community contains many potential support for later stages, therefore, the possible costs and human needs should be fully estimated to ensure the normal operation of the community.
3. Establish a community architecture
By studying other commercial communities and actively participating in the community, you can understand what the community is, how the community operates, and the basic content of the community. Generally, you need to consider the following factors in your community:
(1) Information Center
The information center is usually the core of the community. Depending on the type of community you have set up, the information center can be a list of your industry, company, and Enterprise (if applicable) information about related news, search links, search tools, and other companies, such as products and services, white papers, and special reports.