The title of the classic 60’s Broadway play “A funny thing happened on the way to the forum” kept popping into my head as the evaluation results smacked me in the head and led me in an entirely new direction.

We’ve just finished phase one of our in depth evaluations of leading online communities in the IT industry. Phase two launches this week, which focuses on providing insights and recommendations to siteIQ clients.

As I started the insights and strategy portion of this research, the title of the classic 60’s Broadway play “A funny thing happened on the way to the forum” kept popping into my head as the evaluation results smacked me in the head and led me in an entirely new direction.

The Rosetta Stone turned out to be a close look at metrics that show how leading communities are structured and organized, and how effectively they address the needs of four key audiences: non-technical managers & purchase influencers, partners, support users, and developers. When I looked at these results, it became clear that companies are going in two directions.

Some are building (or expanding existing) communities to target classic technical audiences, and are, by and large, looking for payoffs in lower support costs. But others, like IBM, are trying to break new ground through a new generation of brand and social media marketing communities. A third group—and arguably the largest—reminds me of the blind men and the elephant. They have a firm grasp on the tail but they sense there’s some really big ears somewhere. Their inability to see the big picture is creating communities that behave somewhere between a practicing schizophrenic and a “frankensite.”

For my money, the brand and social media marketing activities and strategies are the most interesting for a couple of reasons. First, these communities focus on creating and nurturing brand loyalty (product, strategy, vision, company) — and generating new revenues by using the voice of the corporation & the voice of the customer to woo and win over purchase influencers and prospects. Second, defining and documenting the payoffs is going to be tricky – and failing to do so could be a career stopper for many current advocates.

Oh, and there’s a third one. You can build brand and social media marketing communities all day long – but manning them and making them meaningful requires a HUGE shift in the company’s culture. From what I’ve seen thus far, I don’t think that any of the companies in our study get this (yet).

What’s your opinion about new generation  brand and social media marketing communities? Sound off in the comments below.