How To Build Vibrant Communities Within The Enterprise

How to build vibrant communities within the enterprise Can organizations build better web communities with predictable success? David Terrar – D2C and WordFrame with contributions from: Dennis Howlett – AccMan & ZDNet Philip Woodgate – Goodman Jones

Charles Darwin – natural selection “ The theory of evolution by cumulative natural selection is the only theory we know of that is, in principle, capable of explaining the existence of organized complexity.” Richard Dawkins

Recommended reading http://www.throwingsheep.com/ “ Networked Web 2.0 tools and technologies are making a profound impact on every aspect of our lives as social networking changes forms of entertainment in our personal lives and business models in the workplace.” John Chambers, Chairman and CEO, Cisco “ Web 2.0 social networking has far-reaching consequences for corporate executives managing relationships with customers, employees and business partners.” Henning Kagermann, Chairman and CEO, SAP

From Command and Control to Teamwork and Collaboration http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WX7BNnYTf8&eurl=http://blogs.zdnet.com/collaboration/?p=315

Agenda

Why build communities?

What motivates people to participate?

What is ICAEW doing with ion?

Other examples

Success factors for community sites

Can we build communities with predictable success?

Conclusions and best practice

Recommendations

References

Why build communities? New Product Development Customer service Idea generation Market research Developer relations Amplifying Word of Mouth Employee communications General Marketing Reputation management Product testing Public relations LONG TAIL SALES PROJECT COLLABORATION Co-innovation Member networking Capturing Knowledge

What is a web community?

An interactive group of people joined together by a common interest.

What motivates people to participate?

Expressing themselves

Support

Listening

Sharing

Recognition

Power

The culture of the organization

"Culture is a mealy-mouthed way of talking about power.“ - Euan Semple

Participation Inequality Jakob Nielsen’s 1-9-90 rule Diagram courtesy of http://www.useit.com/alertbox/participation_inequality.html

What is ICAEW doing with ion? http://www.ion.icaew.com

What is ICAEW doing with ion? http://www.ion.icaew.com/itcounts

What is ICAEW doing with ion?

Web 2.0 Strategies 2008 - “Best New Web 2.0 Initiative”

Finalist Accountancy Age - “Best Use of the Internet - Business”

Some other examples SocialMediaToday.com

Wachovia Office 2.0 Conference 2008 SF Pete Fields - Leads Enterprise 2.0 Business Strategy for Wachovia http://office20.com/docs/DOC-1130

Building a community S W I = our methodology T C H

S tart with the end in mind

User won't just come like Facebook

What is the purpose?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/leena/2748174727/in/pool-roadsigncities

W hat's in it for me ?

I ntuitive and simple http://blogs.msdn.com/officeoffline/archive/2007/12/12/easy-to-use.aspx

T echnology supporting not leading

C ommunity management

C ommunity facilitation

C ommunity management

Champions

Teamwork

Prepare to lose control

Moderation guidelines

Community manager needed

Corporate standards

Not just bottom up

H elp and resources

Online help and documentation

“ How to”s

Videos

Examples

Contributor guidelines

Helpdesk

Chat support

Community manager support

Building a community S tart with the end in mind W hat's in it for me I ntuitive and simple T echnology supporting not leading C ommunity management H elp and resources

Content and community management

Seed the community

Need professional content

Engage professionals and be prepared to pay

Need the community manager acting like a party host

Content guidelines

Focus on what the users want

Marketing is vital

Not in support of any goal…

Success factors for community sites

Speed of adoption

Number of active users

Number of posts

Number of comments

Life cycle of a successful community

Can we build communities with predictable success?

The more CONTENT you have the more MEMBERS you will get.

The more MEMBERS you have the more CONTENT you will get.

The better you match CONTENT and MEMBERS to MEMBER PROFILES the more MEMBERS and CONTENT you will get.

Community best practices BEST Clear goals + purpose Right talent Commitment + time Topic engenders passion Social + communal WORST Start with technology Marketing “campaign” Mixing business/consumer motives No facilitation Metrics vs. business measures

Conclusions The Technology Infrastructure of the community is important The Social Infrastructure of the community is MORE important

Recommendations

Recognise it will be hard work

Focus on usability

Community manager needed, and they have to act like a party host

Content, content, content

Basic marketing e.g. email key posts

Brand advertising and incentives don't work

Use available resources e.g. Wikipatterns

Coherent technology is important

People and culture more important

Make sure the key stakeholders involved understand new marketing

Make sure they understanding social networks by using some and getting their hands dirty

Key take away from Enterprise 2.0 Conference 2008 Boston Christopher Keohane, Unity Product Owner Shawn Dahlen, Unity Program Manager

Recommended reading Meatball Sundae: Is Your Marketing out of Sync? – Seth Godin

References

Tribalization of business study 2008

Francois Gossieaux

http://www.emergencemarketing.com/2008/04/24/2008-tribalization-of-business-study-preliminary-results/

http://www.nevillehobson.com/2008/10/09/fir-interview-francois-gossieaux-on-tribalization-of-business/

Online Community Best Practices

Jeremiah Owyang

http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2008/03/14/online-community-best-practices-slideshare-and-zero-cost-publishing/

Wikipatterns

Stewart Mader and friends

http://www.wikipatterns.com/display/wikipatterns/Wikipatterns

http://ikiw.org

Contact details David Terrar CEO – D2C and Executive Director - ITBrix / WordFrame p: +44 (0)1727 838285 (direct) m: +44 (0)7715 159423 e: [email_address] and [email_address] w: www.d2c.org.uk and www.wordframe.com skype: david_terrar twitter: DT linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/davidterrar blog: http://biztwozero.com