The Internet and new media provides organizations with a never-seen-before opportunity to reach their users in a unique way. Two-way information exchange is becoming a great way to improve products, customer service and brand image. Portions of these are still controlled by traditional marketers, but much power is now held in the role of the community manager. A community manager is not a forum moderator or a content creator, but is someone that initiates, engages, represents, monitors, and inspires the relationship and enables a true two-way dialogue between the organization and users. This is the person that, to your existing users, represents your product or service. Read on for more!

There are many organizations that have been establishing their own communities online. These branded online communities allow your customers to connect and discuss related topics with each other. These communities include, but are not limited to, support forums, wikis, message boards, and even product showcases. Support forums, wikis and message boards generally serve as a way for your customers to fix problems themselves using advice from community members whereas product showcases are more focused with the showing off a given product or service. With the cost of creating these communities decreasing and the willingness of consumers to share their experiences online the question must be asked – are branded online communities really necessary?