Forrester social media guru Josh Bernoff shared some insights and case studies from the new Groundswell book he co-authored with Charlene Li on a webinar hosted today by Joe Cothrel, VP of Community for Lithium Technologies, a California-based developer of enterprise communities.

Josh referenced learnings from Dell saying the company has been able to drastically reduce the number of community moderators for its support forums because over the years the community has been able to effectively police itself, including one such Dell supporter who has saved the tech giant an estimated $1 million by answering more than 20,000 Dell related product questions over the years.

Joe said to reach that level of success a company wanting to build a branded community needs to grow to a few thousand participants in size before it can really “drive itself.” Joe also advised brands not to be intimidated by consumer-generated forums already created by others because an “ecosystem is a brand’s best friend” no matter where it resides. Joe added that Lithium clients are regularly measuring loyalty and customer satisfaction within their communities, which are much more meaningful metrics than site traffic and number of posts.

If you haven’t already picked up your copy of Groundswell you need to get with the program. It’s a must read for anyone even remotely interested in the impact of social technologies on brand building.

Mike Spataro