Over the past year, America's top brands have made improvements in how they use online branded communities to reach their customers, but some opportunities for engagement remain untapped, according to a new report by ComBlu.

More brands are taking a strategic approach to social media engagement in 2011. Among the 251 online branded communities studied, managed by 92 brands: 

• 41% of brands now have a cohesive strategy for social engagement in which multiple activities roll into a single online experience, compared with 33% in 2010, and 20% in 2009. 
• The social experimentation stage is most prevalent: 50% of brands are experimenting with social communities, lacking a long-term engagement approach, using instead a series of one-off experimental marketing campaigns. That level is up from 45% in 2010.
• Community ghost towns (unpopulated communities) now make up 5% of communities, down from 15% in 2010.
• Community overload (multiple communities fighting for attention from the same audience) afflicts 4% of online communities, down from 5% in 2009.

Below, additional findings from the third annual "State of Online Branded Communities" issued by ComBlu.

Community Engagement Strategies

Some brands are using multiple strategies of engagement within the same community.

ComBlu defines three such strategies, or "pillars" of engagement as the following:

• Advocacy is essentially word-of-mouth marketing around a product, service, issue or idea to develop deeper relationships with stakeholders or activate them to support a specific mission.
• Support refers to using customer experts to provide or extend the customer service (includes post-purchase and support forums).
• Feedback refers to crowd sourcing new ideas for products or services, or gathering input on product quality, customer experience, marketing campaigns, and messaging.

Among the communities studied, most (75%) are focused on advocacy, whereas 33% focus on customer support and 20% focus their efforts on customer feedback.

Adoption of Best Practices

Over the past year, many brands adjusted their social media engagement tactics; among key changes:

• The presence of a community manager fell to 48% in 2011, down from 51% in 2010.
• The adoption of user reviews and content fell to 27%, from 54% in 2010. 
• The use of advocates in online branded communities remained unchanged at 20%.