.

Global enterprise companies that integrate online communities with traditional marketing programs can more accurately and cost-effectively target, attract, and retain customers. They can also:

• Cost-effectively promote new products with online chat events.
• Increase brand awareness through topical discussion forums with subject experts.
• Gather valuable customer insight from customer message boards and online focus groups.
• Accelerate product adoption by allowing customers to provide product feedback to other customers through online reviews and message boards.
• Reduce time-to-market through online training and promotion.

According to a study conducted jointly by McKinsey and PeopleLink, community users visit a site up to nine times as frequently as non-community users, have twice the retention rate, and also influence the purchasing decisions of other customers.

.