1. > By Robert Moran, Jennifer Myers, Allison Quigley and Sparky Zivin
The rules of
online communities
engagement
Lessons learned from creating an
MROC for Millennials
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s Kit Yarrow and Jayne O’Donnell, authors of Gen
BuY, have written, Millennials are “the largest, most
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diverse, educated and influential shoppers on the
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planet.” Substantial research has been done to under-
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stand the behaviors, values and opinions of the 71
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million teens and twenty-somethings known as Gen Y or the Millennial gen-
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eration, and for good reason. They are the first generation to have grown up
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online (so-called “digital natives”) and represent the most ethnically diverse
Editor’s note: Robert Moran is executive
vice president at StrategyOne, a generation ever, with a spending power exceeding $200 billion.
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Washington, D.C., research firm. He can As a group, they have been defined by the Pew Research Center as con-
be reached at robert.moran@strategyone.
net or at 202-326-1772. Jennifer Myers fident, self-expressive, liberal, upbeat and open to change, but we believe
is the firm’s senior project manager.
She can be reached at jennifer.myers@ that we still don’t fully understand what makes this complex and increasingly
strategyone.net or at 202-772-3564. influential group tick. Previous studies, such as the Pew Center’s year-long
Allison Quigley is the firm’s marketing
director. She can be reached at allison. series Millennials: A Portrait of a Generation Next, have defined Millennials
quigley@strategyone.net or at 202-326-
as a group rather than exploring their diversity.
1725. Sparky Zivin is the firm’s vice
president. He can be reached at sparky. The recognition that we can’t box them in to neat categories sparked our
zivin@strategyone.net or at 202-326-
1708. To view this article online, enter desire to create a proprietary market research online community (MROC)
article ID 20110402 at quirks.com/
as a way to continue the conversation with Millennials as they evolve and
articles.
their influence grows. The community, called 8095 Live, was built as a joint
snapshot partnership with global communications
firm Edelman. It is composed of 500
The authors detail the nuances of launching and
maintaining an online community of Generation Y U.S. Millennials, born between 1980 and
consumers and offer tips to marketers interested in 1995, who represent a diverse group of
community-building.
life stages, locations and ethnicities.
© 2011 Quirk’s Marketing Research Review (www.quirks.com). Reprinted with permission from the April 2011 issue.
This document is for Web posting and electronic distribution only. Any editing or alteration is a violation of copyright.

2. Become as central have come away with some helpful tity. As Pew found in its 2010
Based on the increased interest in learnings and tips and will spend the study, Gen Y has a higher level of
and steady adoption of MROCs we balance of this article exploring them. cohort consciousness than its Gen
have seen from brands and market- X predecessors. When asked, “Do
ers across all industries, it is likely Keep people with a common you think of your own age group
that communities will become as age range, but not a common as unique and distinct from other
central to the corporate insight passion, engaged. generations, or not?,” 61 percent of
function as the brand tracker has Building a true community - where Millennials felt their generation was
been historically. content is co-created by moderators unique and distinct. This compares
Unlike traditional MROCs built and community members and dis- to 49 percent for Gen X, 58 per-
exclusively for a client with the cussions form organically - is more cent for Boomers and 66 percent
members coming from the client’s difficult in a community built around for the Silent Generation.
target customer base, 8095 Live is a shared demographic characteristic This belief that one’s genera-
cohort-centric, targeting a single than those tied to shared interests tion has a unique identity serves as
demographic group. This distinction or enthusiasm for a specific brand a community bond. Communities
presents advantages as well as disad- or product. In the latter, the nexus built around generations with lower
vantages that must be overcome by between members already exists and cohort consciousness, such as Gen
the community manager in order for our job as moderators is to guide the Xers, mean more work for the com-
the community to thrive. conversation. In 8095, we had the munity manager in building and
Further, there are significant additional step of building “commu- maintaining community identity.
challenges that a community man- nity” itself and the ongoing challenge
ager must address when moderating of maintaining that engagement. Create engagements on a wide
this type of community. Having Fortunately, a majority of range of topics.
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dealt with the unique challenges Millennials believe their generation With a community of Millennials
of a demographic community, we has a unique and distinctive iden- ranging from 16 to 31, mem-
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3. bers represent a wide range of and beverage space to rebuild its There has been a lot of debate
life stages and milestones: any- image. Members discussed whether regarding the optimal size for an
where from getting their learner’s the advertisements and news stories MROC. Some have used Dunbar’s
permit, to going away to college, they had seen were believable and number as one avenue of approach
to embarking on their careers, to how they affected their opinion of on this topic. (British anthropologist
becoming parents. Despite fitting the brand and their willingness to Robin Dunbar theorized that there
nicely into the Millennial or 8095 buy the company’s products. We is a limit - somewhere between
generation, as a group they do not rewarded the creator and the first 100 and 230 - to the number of
have a unifying interest or hobby. several members who responded stable social relationships people can
Recognizing that every engage- and then turned the activity have.) When applied to an MROC,
ment within the community into one in which anyone who Dunbar’s number suggests that
would not appeal to everyone, it responded would receive points. MROCs in the 150-230 range are
was crucial for us to create more This encouraged the conversation optimal and that in larger-popula-
engagements, on a wide range of to continue and it also demon- tion MROCs it may be difficult for
subjects, than typical in a tradi- strated to community members that participants to develop much of a
tional MROC built exclusively for we were listening to what topics sense of group identity.
a client. We found that members they wanted to discuss and were Alternatively, social media con-
will self-select in or out of activi- interested in a dialogue. sultant Jacob Morgan has argued
ties based on their interests, so that applying Dunbar’s number to
offering choices was important Create subcommunities. MROCs is inappropriate because
to help them feel invested and to In a large demographic community we are not trying to build a tribe or
entice them to keep coming back. such as 8095 Live, subcommunities fighting unit and are only attempting
While a segment of community are an essential tool for encourag- to get a critical mass for consumer
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members are active across nearly all ing more interactive discussions. In co-creation. Similarly, some clients
subject matters, there are also clear a single discussion board posted to and prospective clients feel that lim-
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divisions. For example, we have the entire community, we can easily iting communities to a range around
come to expect to hear from differ- exceed 200 unique responses in a Dunbar’s number (typically estimated
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ent voices when asking about life matter of hours, but we often find to be 150) is too restrictive and that
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insurance compared to beer prefer- members are only responding to the the size of the community should
ences. Stay-at-home moms are happy initial post, not interacting with one more closely resemble the sample
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to tell us about their perceptions another. As an alternative, we some- size of traditional national surveys -
on healthy eating but less inter- times developed multiple discussion 800 or 1,000 (or more).
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ested in a reality TV show about a topics around a common theme and Our perspective is that if it is
matchmaker. Community members assigned members to one of those important to the research that a
who are eager to tell us about their discussions. By dividing the com- tight-knit community develops,
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experiences capturing video are very munity into a smaller group, we are then Dunbar’s number seems to be
different than those concerned about better able to manage responses, ask a guide, and traditional MROCs for
protecting their privacy online. thoughtful follow-up questions and brand enthusiasts, employees, etc.,
Encourage organic content. encourage back-and-forth discus- are best kept small.
It is equally important for com- sion by members. However, when it comes to a
munity managers to encourage demographic community, where a
organic content, especially at the Keep members interested with digital tribe is not critically impor-
outset. Managers must actively themes. tant, the community needs to be
listen to what members are saying Weekly and monthly themes larger to allow members to be
and reward those who co-create encourage people to keep coming segmented into subcommunities.
meaningful content. In 8095 Live, back and can rekindle interest in Because 8095 Live asks about topics
members don’t receive incen- members who had stopped par- from travel to technology pur-
tive points (which are redeemed ticipating. For example, February’s chases, we need to ensure we will
for gift cards) automatically when theme was food, and while commu- have a critical mass of community
they create their own activi- nity activities continued to cover a members ranging from working
ties or respond to content posted broad scope of subjects, we included professionals to technology early
by others. But when particularly several food-related activities and adopters at any given time, and that
insightful or interesting content offered additional rewards for our requires a lot of people.
emerges, we foster the conversation most active participants on the fea-
by rewarding points to the creator tured theme. This resulted in higher Community managers are key.
and, occasionally, to members. response rates not only on engage- When designing a survey, research-
One of the first discussion ments related to food but also in ers aim to keep the questionnaire
boards in 8095 Live created by a other subject matters. concise and precise to avoid
member was about a campaign by a respondent fatigue. However,
major global company in the food Size matters. unlike surveys, an online commu-
© 2011 Quirk’s Marketing Research Review (www.quirks.com). Reprinted with permission from the April 2011 issue.
This document is for Web posting and electronic distribution only. Any editing or alteration is a violation of copyright.

4. nity is more likely to rust out than Appreciation Day. Awareness of market research tool.
wear out. Unless the participants this role will evolve, and, in time, Third, we feel that propri-
are being engaged regularly, the best practices and industry train- etary communities will evolve to
community dwindles and dies. ing standards will solidify. become at least as important, if
Therefore, the skill of a commu- not more so, to corporations as
nity manager, a position that some Four basic conclusions the quarterly brand tracker or cus-
current project managers may transi- Our work on 8095 Live has led us tomer satisfaction tracker, because
tion to, is critical. To meet the new to four basic conclusions about the of their real-time nature and cost
demand for community managers, future of MROCs. advantages over traditional qualita-
market research and insight firms First, we believe that “cohort tive research. And we believe that
will need to go through a significant communities” such as 8095 Live can the majority of these communities
evolution in human capital. In addi- be scaled quickly and have a bright will remain as “walled gardens” for
tion to the new skill set that will be future. For example, we envision competitive reasons.
required of today’s project manag- the creation of a successful MROC Finally, our analysis of the
ers, a mind-set change is needed as built around Americans born in MROC marketplace leads us to
well. Focus group training and soft 1951. These Americans, now 60, believe that massive, open com-
skills, like empathy, may be helpful have a strong generational bond as munities will occupy a hybrid
prerequisites for project managers Baby Boomers. With disposable research and public or consumer
transitioning to the role of com- income and aging parents, as they engagement role. These communi-
munity manager. No longer will contemplate their next act, we ties will either rise spontaneously
researchers treat participants as fun- can expect much more from this or they will be created or spon-
gible commodities and nameless cohort. Their purchase and invest- sored by a corporation, but their
and faceless samples in a survey; ment patterns will create ripples open membership and public access
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rather they will be building long- throughout the economy. will make them exceedingly large.
term working relationships with Second, we also believe that With strong text analytics tools we
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community members who will be there is room for the development believe that the content of these
partners in learning. of a new type of MROC through massive communities will be mined
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This is especially the case with the addition of a new option to the successfully for insights. But the
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8095 Live, as Millennials are the ownership/control dimension - a existence of these large communi-
most connected and digitally- shared solution. Under this model, ties and their dual use as both an
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engaged generation the world has a firm creates and fosters an MROC insights tool and an engagement
seen, and there is no shortage of based on a key demographic, life engine will present the market
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competition for their attention and stage or psychographic profile and research industry with a challenge.
time online. That means we have sells access to this community to After all, the co-creative activities
had to work doubly hard to keep multiple buyers for a lower cost of these future communities will
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content fresh, engaging and worth a than any one buyer would pay to in themselves become a consumer
Millennial’s valuable time. build their own proprietary com- engagement or marketing tool.
Community management is not munity. Think of it as the omnibus Will the blurring line between
an easy job, but it is beginning model applied to MROCs. We “marketing” and “research” within
to get some recognition. January believe that under this shared-cost this new type of community be
24, 2011, marked the second model, “multi-client cohort com- embraced by market research or
annual Community Manager munities” show much promise as a rejected by it? Only time will tell. | Q
To purchase paper reprints of this article, contact Rhonda Brown at FosteReprints at 866-879-9144 x194 or rhondab@fosterprinting.com.