Laura Ramos [Posted by Laura Ramos]

In my last post, I steered B2B marketers away from building social
destinations focused on their products and services by suggesting they
participate in open, social networks before jumping on the community
bandwagon. I do think there is a place for B2B communities, but these
sites need to focus truly on the community first, not trying to sell a
firm’s wares.  Case in point: ComplianceOnline.

I wrote up how you can can use ComplianceOnline’s model to build an online community serving the needs of your firm in a recent report.  I found that B2B marketers can learn how to build a successful B2B community by
following three key lessons: Gather the best content, encourage the
community to vet and contribute to it, and give members equal
opportunity to engage with potential buyers who visit.

In my blog post on this topic at B2BMarketingPOSTs, I look at these three lessons as they apply to this case study. 

After you give it a read, do you know of any other B2B community examples like ComplianceOnline that you would like to share?

PS: Yes, I’m still backfilling my posts after a long summer vacation. Stay tuned for more.