Online Communities: the Social Web

Online Communities: The Social Web dave vogler, sparkhouse

3 Questions: What? Why? ...is social media? ...is this important? ...is a social network? ...bother? How? ...do you build a community? ...do you keep it alive?

What is Social Media? • a platform for interaction and relationships • conversation empowered by technology

What is a social network? • A group of interdependent people • United by a common interest or cause

What is a social network service? • an online space where a group convenes • a conversation enabled by internet technologies

a little history... Four Major Landmarks in Human Communication: Printing Telegraph/ Press Telephone Pictures/ Radio/ Movies Television

The Internet • Delivers all media types • text • images • audio • video • Native support for conversation • it took 35 years to ﬁgure this out

Media Model one to Then many

Media Model one to Then many and back

Media Model everyone Now talks

Why does this matter? • 75% of North Americans use the internet • 96% of Gen Y reports joining a social network • Age 35+ is fastest growing demographic on facebook.com

Why does this matter? 50 million users: Radio TV 38 years 13 years Internet Facebook 4 years 3 years

Why does this matter? • Facebook now has 300 million users • the last 50 million since July • that’s almost as big as the United States

Why does this matter? • YouTube: 1,000,000 viewers each month • 15 hours of video uploaded per minute • Wikipedia: 14 million articles • 200 million blogs online

Why does this matter? • Pieces of content shared on Facebook in a single week: 2 Billion

Why does this matter? • By the end of 2008, social networks have surpassed email in popularity • Social media is now mainstream • Technological value becomes social value

Types of social networks • Extension of existing community • Entirely new community • Geographically independent • Local to certain area

Building a Community Research • What do prospective members need? • What are perceived communication gaps? • Survey, poll, interview, gauge enthusiasm • Benchmark similar sites • Look for niche if needed

Building a Community Action Plans • Content strategy • Engagement strategy • Governance • Feature list • User experience • Technology

Content Strategy Where will content come from? • Authors, guest authors • User-generated content (UGC) • Aggregators • Licensed content

Engagement Strategy UGC Drives Growth • perceived value to new user • ﬂywheel: • zero inertia at start • participation attracts more participation • incentivise participation • avoid ‘ghost town’... keep size ‘just right’

Engagement Strategy • Face to face events • Email newsletters • Traditional promotion, word of mouth • Your users become your evangelists

Governance • Convene your community, not control it. • Community guidelines are key • Moderation tools • Community manager • Listen well (both on and off site) • Easily accessible feedback process

Features • Member database • Ranking/voting/polling • Blogs / Articles • Moderation control • Article comments • Photo galleries • Discussion Forums • Video galleries • Event Calendar • File sharing • News ticker • “Mysite” customization • Links to other • Newsletters

User Experience • Good user experience= good impression • Well designed interface delights users • Verify workﬂows are reasonable • Usability testing is cheap with big payback

Technology • Content Management System (CMS) • Domain registrar • Reliable hosting & database support • Scalable hosting as trafﬁc grows • Service provider or custom- built

Services • groupsite.com • socialgo.com • ning.com • blogger.com • facebook • twitter

Custom Built • Drupal • Joomla • ExpressionEngine • MODx • Elgg • Proprietary

thank you sparkhouse.com

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Online Communities: the Social Web

by Dave Vogler on Nov 06, 2009

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Online Communities: the Social Web — Presentation Transcript