Sermo

The way that Sermo has approached their revenue model is in direct reaction to the community they're serving: doctors. To reach doctors, and to make doctors feel as though they're in a safe community, you have to take out advertising as a source of revenue. They're inundated with advertising and marketing from pharmaceutical companies. In their private community, no ads allowed.

So, how to make money? Sermo leverages the quality of its members to bring in revenue. The insights of physicians are valuable to a wide variety of interested parties. Companies can pay a subscription fee to be connected with members of the Sermo community in a way that does not break the secure and private environment of the community. Companies can purchase what Sermo CEO Daniel Palestrant calls "heat maps" of information. Certain ideas, or topics, which are discussed by a mass of Sermo members, are produced for corporate consumption. Additionally, members can participate in surveys and focus groups (with monetary rewards), of which their anonymous answers and feedback are provided to the sponsoring company.

The "win" here by Sermo is monetizing the quality of the social community. It's not how many hits or impressions or behavioral targeting, here. For Sermo, it's about giving physicians an opportunity to communicate with other doctors in a secure, private community, and monetizing the demand of the ideas produced in such a place.