Development Models of Online Communities | Report

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Introduction
In the contemporary world of technological advancements, companies from every
sector and industry are in constant search of budget-effective opportunities; to gain a
competitive edge in highly competing markets. As the business trends have changed in the
past decades, traditional marketing has been replaced with digital marketing, physical stores
have been replaced with online stores, and medium of communication has become much
stronger through the presence of social media (Tardieu et al., 2020). With a rapid change in
the environment of traditional business, the digitalization of the world has changed business
dynamics too. The connectivity and interaction of businesses with consumers have
accelerated with the development of internet services. Business owners and entrepreneurs
have got an excellent opportunity to cost-effectively save their investments by opening an
online store rather than bearing the fixed cost of the physical outlet (Waters and Lester,
2010).
Businesses interact with their consumers and potential customers through the online
medium by forming an online community – the existence of a well-managed online
community is a fundamental element for businesses with an exclusively online presence.
Online communities enable individuals to have instant communication despite geographical
distances and time differences. The online community gathers a wider customer base, keeps
up sustained collaboration with them, and develops better products by getting quick
feedbacks (Cohen and Kenny, 2020). This report aims at evaluating the development models
of online communities, their behaviors, and trends and briefing recommendations for better
performance in the future – taking into consideration a particular business: Lily Christina –
Bridal Collection.
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An online community is a group of people who might not have a face-to-face
interaction with each other, but they can interconnect by sharing some content visible to all. It
is an online space that can be created by a company for its stakeholders, its staff, or its
customers to engage with them. Such community formed in earlier times was through
traditional mailing lists and bulletin boards, but now it has progressed its interface through
web-based platforms. Online communities work more effectively when they have a surely
defined purpose, engaging content, and target niche (Kraut and Resnick, 2012).
Among several types on online communities, there are corporate online communities
with each having a different aim: B2B (Business to Business) is focused on developing a
relationship with businesses such as vendors and partners; B2E (Business to Employee) is
aimed at strengthening the relationship with employees; and B2C (Business to Consumer)
target at connecting with existing and future customers (Faraj et al. 2016). Research shows
that online communities are capable of being the most crucial asset of the organization by
encouraging communication, sparking innovation, and impacting the overall business scope
positively.
There are many platforms that can be used for building online communities to
promote business, such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Websites, etc. Instagram is one of
the best platforms to be used for business purposes, as more than 60 percent of top-notch
businesses worldwide are using this social platform. The characteristic that stands out
Instagram is its unique strategy of visualizing everything; no content without a photograph
can be posted on this platform. Moreover, Instagram also offers its users the editing feature
so that designing the cost of the businesses is also cut-down, and products’ images can be
shared with the audience quite cost-effectively (Kamali, 2018). Thus, marketing to online
communities through Instagram is effective with and without paid ads.

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Lily Christina – Bridal Collection is an expensive brand of bridal wear under the
umbrella of the fashion business. The platform of Instagram is chosen for this brand because,
in terms of Instagram’s success, all fashion brands are significantly ahead of any other brand
from the entire category. Also, the common feature of fashion and Instagram is the exhibition
of photos; visualization. Attracting photos of fashion outfits is a necessity in marketing those
products. Hence, Instagram fits the best with this strategy (Bug and Heene, 2020). With
Instagram has around 1 billion active users, and most of them belonging to youth; this makes
it too the finest choice for Lily Christina.
Online Community Models
Numerous authors and researchers have worked to develop the models of online
communities considering their various elements. Hagel and Armstrong elevated the Virtual
Community Model as a business model, which is cost-effective and profitable. They stated
that there are four reasons for which the people join online communities, and the reasons are:
relationship, fantasy, interests, and transactions. The latter reasons are consumer-focused and
the reasons because of which those people stick with the communities. They asserted that the
benefits of an online community are derived from these aspects: implementation of virtual
community model; and the special potential of the digital channel or platform where the
online communities are being operated (Wu et al., 2010). The virtual community model
differentiates between online community and websites; it states that an online community
aims at creating a sensibility among users that they are collaborated and are in a bond with
the online community’s owning business and urges the members to visit frequently. This
model majorly focuses on gaining monetary benefits from online communities.
Schubert and Ginsberg explained the concept of online communities by calling them
communities of transaction with the purpose of gathering an audience that shares similar
interests forming a network community. They split communities into two classifications: one