Ownership

One of the trickiest elements of an emerging field like community is deciding who the community initiative belongs to. Community can serve a lot of roles, and there can be a sense of paralysis in some teams as everyone watched to see which department will take charge. Is it the responsibility of support to implement a forum community to deflect tickets? Is it marketing's job to implement one as a way to generate more sales? How about operations, or PR?

In truth, most businesses would be best served by implementing a dedicated community team, due to the cross-functional nature of most community initiatives. A community team can work with marketing to find new ways to present products to customers, with support to put measures in place to lighten their workload, and public relations to ensure a united front in customer facing communication. A good community team needs to be fully integrated into the business that it's a part of to achieve the best results. An isolated community team won't ever be able to fulfil the promise that community initiatives can provide.