BAS 115: Community Development 101
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This document provides an overview of community development and building a sense of community. It discusses why communities are developed, the benefits they provide like customer retention and advocacy. Key factors for an effective community are discussed such as exclusivity, rituals and traditions, having a community home, and fostering real relationships between members. Celebrating small victories and successes of members is also presented as an important aspect of community building. Examples are given of successful communities like Ravelry and how communication barriers initially helped the Scottrade community grow.
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BAS 115: Community Development 101
- 1. BAS115: Community Development 101 Simon Poulton Manager of Inbound Marketing
- 2. Who am I? ‣ Simon Poulton • Manager of Inbound Marketing ‣ BA Psychology – UCLA • Poulton et al. (2011) To Catch a Liar ‣ Top 25 Social Business Leader
- 3. Overview ‣ Why Develop a Community? ‣ Benefits ‣ A Sense of Community ‣ Key Factors
- 5. Exclusivity
- 9. Communities & Simon A Backstory
- 10. MyClass
- 11. Facebook
- 12. Failure
- 13. “Most communities are a waste of time & money.” - Richard Millington, CEO Feverbee Richard Millington
- 14. McMillan & Chavis (1986) “A feeling that members have of belonging, a feeling that members matter to one another and to the group, and a shared faith that members' needs will be met through their commitment to be together.” - A Sense of Community (1986)
- 15. A Sense of Community Customer Retention
- 16. A Sense of Community Customer Advocacy
- 17. “68% of consumers are more likely to adopt a product or feature if it is endorsed by other users.” - Nielsen, Trust in Advertising, Sep 2014
- 18. “84% of people trust recommendations from people they know versus 69% who trust information from a brand website.” - Nielsen, Trust in Advertising, Sep 2014
- 19. A Sense of Community Knowledge Exchange
- 20. A Sense of Community A Psychological Approach
- 21. Exclusivity Defining the Boundaries of Membership
- 22. “[The] sociometer theory suggests that the self-esteem system is an internal, psychological gauge that monitors the degree to which the individual is being included versus excluded by other people” - Dr. Mark Leary, Sociometer Theory (1995) Sociometer Theory
- 23. Exclusivity
- 25. Rituals & Traditions Creating Shared Experiences
- 26. “Our results suggest that rituals could be put to use to influence a wide variety of desirable behaviors” - Kathleen D. Vohs et al. (2013), Rituals Enhance Consumption Rituals Enhance
- 32. Community Home Home is Where the Heart is
- 33. Have a Place
- 35. Real Relationships Driving Return on Relations (RoR)
- 36. Ravelry
- 37. Ravelry – Knitters United
- 38. Adam Joinson ‣ “People feel a stronger sense of community when engaging in self- disclosure”
- 39. “The communication barriers enforced due to the regulations facing our industry actually helped us grow initially.” - James Sarino, Community Manager, Scottrade Case Study - Scottrade
- 40. Scottrade
- 41. Celebrate Small Victories Member Appreciation
- 44. A Sense of Community ‣ Exclusivity ‣ Rituals & Traditions ‣ Community Home ‣ Real Relationships ‣ Celebrate Small Victories
- 45. Resources ‣ Course survey: www.laserfiche.com/EmpowerSurvey ‣ Let’s connect: ‣ Twitter: @SPoulton ‣ LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/smpoulton ‣ Email: simon.poulton@laserfiche.com
Editor's Notes
- Good Morning and welcome! Before we get things started, I’d like to take a moment to thank all of you for making the trip over to the Sheraton from the keynote at the Marriott for this session. I know it can be hard braving the Southern California winter, but you all made it, so thank you. Additionally, I’d like to thank my father who is also in attendance today, having made the arduous journey from Redondo Beach this morning. Now, on to the real reason we’re all here today! We’re here because we believe in the value of that comes with a well developed community. But, communities don’t just create themselves, they take work and require careful nurturing. Today we’ll be discussing how, using psychological principles, we can grow and develop vibrant, active communities, but first, I’d like to take a moment to introduce myself…
- …My name is Simon Poulton and I am the Manager of Inbound Marketing Programs here at Laserfiche. I graduated from UCLA in 2011 with a degree in Psychology – and a published paper regarding lie detection which received commendation at the Stanford Psychology Conference. Although I was never formally trained in Marketing, the field of psychology and understanding the intentions of others based on behavior is one of the core elements of inbound marketing. As an inbound marketer, I believe education is the best form of marketing. I love empowering people to make informed decisions and ultimately growing engagement across the Laserfiche & wider ECM community online. As you may have seen in the course description, IBM & the Economist recently named me one of the global top 25 social business leaders. During my time in the social business field, I’ve spent a lot of time researching and understanding online communities. What makes a community successful? Why do some fail where others succeed?
- Well, today we’ll be discussing these questions, in addition to addressing what communities are, what they look like, why you should care and ultimately how social science can play a pivotal role in differentiating between a vibrant, active, engaged community and a ghost town.
- If today is your first Empower conference, welcome – you might not know it yet, but you are now part of a very exclusive community.
- In fact, it is this word, “exclusive” that helps us define the existence of a community. It is exclusivity that cultivates a sense of belonging due to a common bond – this is the same reason why games like “Battle of the sexes” seem to spark such instantaneous competition. But communities are much more than a single exclusivity factor, it is important to note that communities can come in many different shapes and sizes. Let’s take a look at how we define various types of communities and what these mean for the members who are part of them…
- There’s the common interest definition – as the name implies, this is a community where people share a common interest or a shared trait – if I support UCLA football, then I’m automatically a member of the community. It doesn’t really require much commitment to be interested in something, but there also isn’t much return.
- Next, we have the specific place definition – this includes the common interest definition, but also includes a specific home – this could be in the real world or online engagement. It doesn’t matter what the tools are – it could be facebook, blogs, even 5 people getting together on meetup.com would be considered a community.
- Finally, we have the relationships definition – this definition requires actual relationships to be formed. This is the one I use most often, as relationship building is key to the success and longevity of a community. Every single person in this room has been a member of a community before. In the past, communities have been limited in their reach due to engagement mediums – typically in person or via some kind of physical correspondence. The idea of a community is nothing new, but the way we can engage in modern communities is – the internet initially changed this by removing geography as an alienating factor. However, the potential of online communities wasn’t truly discovered until the birth of social media. These new mediums have democratized the way communities are formed and the ways they can grow.
- My interest in communities started long before I ever realized the business value they can provide. As a 13 year old, I started learning HTML in middle school, I put together a small website with pictures of my classmates and their e-mail addresses – this was revolutionary at the time. The idea was to create an online version of the class directory for easy access when you had questions or wanted to contact a peer - I called it…
- …myclass – of course there were thousands of other people out there with the same idea and one man named Mark Zuckerberg who developed the largest online community of all time – facebook.
- So why did my attempt at a developing an online community fail? Well, it lacked a “Sense of Community” – in fact, this is why most communities fail. A sense of community is the emotional bond that ties you to a certain group – why are we tied to Facebook? Our friends are there, our shared narrative is there – these are real relationships that are growing & evolving. It doesn’t matter what the tool or medium is, it’s all about real relationships driving this sense of community. Now, not every community is Facebook and the hard reality is that most online communities fail.
- Earlier this year, I attended a session with Richard Millington, the CEO of Feverbee, and his very first slide simply said, “Most communities are a waste of time & money.” This, of course, is an excellent way to start a presentation on community development to a room full of social media professionals. But it’s true! Except if you have one thing… a sense of community. This concept was operationally defined by McMilan & Charvis in 1986…
- … now I’m not a fan of reading from slides, but this understanding of a sense of community is so spot on… Quote Its this sense of community….
- It’s a sense of community that correlates highly with every major benefit communities have to offer. It’s this sense of community that drives people to want to be involved. To want to purchase more from a particular company because they feel an emotional bond. So, we know the benefits, but what about the tactics? How do you develop a sense of community?
- Not only that, but this sense of community drives customer advocacy.
- A recent study from Nielsen (Trust in Advertising, Sept 2014) found that 68% of people are more likely to adopt a product or feature if it is endorsed by others.
- Furthermore, the same study found 84% of people trust recommendations from people they know versus 69% who trust information from a brand website. This literally means your community is your greatest marketing tool, and making them feel an emotional connection with your organization is fundamental to your growth.
- It’s the sense of community that drives knowledge exchange, as people share information and insight they make the community more valuable and drive the types of activities you’d like to see like higher adoption rates of new products.
- So, we know the benefits, but what about the tactics? How do you develop a sense of community?
- We first need to define the boundaries of a community, as a general rule, the more exclusive a community, the more investment people will have in it. But why? Why is it the higher the boundary, or the harder it is to become part of the community, the more people want to be a part of it? Well this actually relates to our self-esteem.
- As outlined by Mark Leary in his 1995 work regarding the Sociometer theory, we are naturally driven to want to be part of exclusive communities to boost our ego. We, as humans, want to feel validated for our knowledge - this is why we give up our own time to participate in communities. We form particularly strong bonds when we feel we have influence within a group. Of course, a common interest here is a given.
- Let’s take an example - you’re all members of an exclusive community – the Laserfiche community, and beyond that, members of the Laserfiche Empower community. The latter being the more exclusive of the two. Not only do you use Laserfiche, but you are the power users – you are the greatest source of product feedback and you ultimately play a role in the future of Laserfiche.
- Now, doesn’t that make you feel good? You are part of something special. Go ahead – let those endorphins flow through your brain. Of course, there are a number of motivations for joining and taking part in any community, and exclusivity is just the tip of the iceberg. Whatever it is you come for, exclusivity helps create that sense of community which is key to long-term engagement. So what else drives long term engagement? Just because I’m part of an exclusive group doesn’t mean I’m going to always want to be involved. What keeps us connected and drives proactive engagement?
- Rituals & Traditions Since the dawn of time, we as humans have self-organized in groups. Within these groups, we formed bonds and in turn created shared experiences that made us even closer. Initially out of survival, then out of enjoyment, we started developing traditions. These rituals & traditions help us refresh our passion and enthusiasm for the wider community.
- . In fact, a study by Vohs et al. (2013) found that positive rituals actually provide a heightened emotional state, leading to greater positive reviews and memories when compared with a control group. This idea holds true across communities of all sizes. Let’s take one a community that many of us are members of.
- The USA! While you might not think of this as a community, it absolutely is – we share common bonds, there is exclusive membership definition and yes – there are rituals, like the 4th of July or Thanksgiving. And this isn’t just unique to the USA – in fact many countries have days that celebrate who they are and their community. These are important to keep that shared experience and shared bond alive. It’s these types of events that are referenced in the culture of the community on an ongoing basis – think about how many songs mention the fact they are happening on the 4th of July – why does this matter?? It’s just a random date – right? Wrong – it’s the day we bond together as a community.
- This scales too – I live in Manhattan Beach, if you flew in via LAX you were right by my house. It’s nice little beach town, that has an amazing sense of community. Every year we have the annual hometown fair, the Christmas tree lighting ceremony and more. It is these events and traditions that help define us and drive people to play an active role in the community. I’ve personally volunteered at the local library before because I really do feel connected to this community, but the exclusive definition of living in Manhattan Beach alone might not be enough.
- As mentioned, rituals can come in all shapes and sizes – accountants for example, they have a special day – April 15 – or better known as Tax Day.
- Similarly, Governments have elections and other recurring events that create a shared experience. And that really is the focus here.
- Fun fact – you’re actually part of a Laserfiche tradition by attending Empower 2015 right now. Now shared experiences are great – but when coupled with a location or medium, they become even effective at creating that sense of community. We’ll call this, the community home.
- Community Home Earlier we briefly touched on this idea of a communal home. Somewhere members of a community can go and engage with other members – for our purposes today, we’re going to focus on online communities. We should not view these as singular tools, communities can have several places they consider as homes like forums, or even a common hashtag on twitter (Where are all my #Empower15 tweeters at?). The key here is that all of these mediums are consistent and seamlessly provide ways for community members to transition across them. Whether someone is engaging on twitter using a hashtag, or on a forum, you should look to provide them with similar experiences.
- This speaks to the larger idea of social media as a tool that enhances community engagement, not one that replaces in personal engagement. I often get asked by people how they should develop a social strategy for their organization, it’s simple – look to engage as you would in real life. Have a personality – don’t cheat engagement by automating everything – look to form real relationships as this is key to real social engagement. Providing a central location lets those community members know the best ways for them to engage. Let’s take Mike Wells for example….
- Real relationships Let’s dive a little deeper into this idea of forming relationships. Something about RoR
- For those of you who know Melissa Henley, the Director of Marketing Communications here at Laserfiche, you might know that she is a serial knitter. Her favorite website is ravelry –
- – here it is. Ravelry is the world’s premier knitting community that was started out of someone’s basement several years ago. Ravelry not only provides this shared space, but it provides Emotional Safety. They drive self-disclosure. They encourage their members to share projects and ask for advice from the community. This in turn provokes vulnerability as members of the community discuss topics they couldn’t elsewhere. This also helps make them appear as unique and be seen as a source of value by their members.
- This principle was highlighted in a 2001 study by Adam Joinson when a study found that people feel a stronger sense of connection to a virtual community when involved in self-disclosure discussions. You may think ravelry is isolated in their success because knitting is a fun hobby – it’s hard to get people to engage around their work… right? Not at all – you just need to ensure you know who your audience is and that you tailor your engagement style to them.
- I was recently speaking with a friend of mine, James Sarino, who at one time was a community manager for Scottrade. The challenges presented in the Financial Services space are unique – for starters they have some very strong regulations regarding recommendations of services or providing advice – so what does this mean for “self-disclosure”?
- Well they have to get creative. They would share case studies, they created fantasy portfolios, they looked to connect with individuals, life gave them lemons and they made lemonade – they used the fact they were regulated to their advantage and started the first of its kind – fun financial community. Do you know what else they did?
- They celebrated small victories. It’s no secret that we all love recognition for our work. But often, these small successes can go unnoticed when not in regular contact with people.
- We at Laserfiche truly believe in celebrating those community members that go the extra mile. Earlier this year, we heard that Maureen Reynolds from Tompkins County had successfully lead and implemented a Records Management solution under budget – so what did we do? We named her a Records Management rockstar and celebrated her achievements! This is turn drove awareness and greater appreciation from the wider community – Maureen actively helped create content and drive our online community forward, so when she visited our offices earlier this year, Katie Burke, our Government Program Strategist had a little something special prepared…
- …this is how I wish I was greeted every day when I walk in to work. While small, this was a huge victory for Maureen and we wanted to help her celebrate. If you can do this on a continual basis, you are rewarding the most positive behaviors. Not only did Maureen finish this project but she told others about it, and word of mouth spreads fast – for everything Maureen has given the Laserfiche community we wanted to give back.
- So let’s quickly recap all of elements that make up this psychological foundation for developing a sense of community. We have: - Exclusivity – defining the boundaries - Rituals & Traditions – creating shared experiences & memories - Community Home - Real Relationships - Celebrate Small Victories As isolated activities, they won’t provide a complete foundation for developing a community, but when combined, we see a gestalt effect in that the value is now greater than the sum of the parts. We see people take on new proactive rolls – they go out of their way to organize, contribute and drive the community forward. They are the real value of the community – and you will find these people when you develop a sense of community.
- End your presentation on this slide, but remember to ask for questions. List other courses, papers, videos, etc., relevant to your course material.