The Rules of Community Engagement: A Study of the Motivations for Participation in Online Communities

At C Space, we have been studying the art of engagement and honing our craft for well over a decade. We understand that vibrant participation begins with community design, maximizing the happy intersection of what clients want to learn and what consumers want to experience. As we continue to push the boundaries of what companies and consumers can achieve when they engage together and genuinely collaborate, we partnered with three researchers from the Marketing Department at Michigan State University (MSU) who were interested in understanding what motivates participation in online brand communities — both public and private.

The MSU team conducted independent research on C Space communities, looking at a range of our clients across industries, and compared their findings to benchmarks gathered from a range of other online brand communities. Download this report to read a summary of the MSU team’s analysis, and learn some key insights and implications — formulated as “rules of engagement” — that provide evidence-based guidance to any company interested in connecting with their customers through online communities.

Authors
Manila Austin, Ph.D., Vice President, Research, C Space
Brian J. Baldus, Ph.D., California State University