Kickstarting a community

Kickstarting a Community Kristof Nizet #CMBE 2

Let’s build a community!nWho do you want to reach?nWhat do you want to achieve?nChoose metrics to measure your success

Different types of communitiesn Interest. Communities of people who share the same interest or passion.n Action. Communities of people trying to bring about change.n Place. Communities of people brought together by geographic boundaries.n Practice. Communities of people in the same profession or undertake the same activities.n Circumstance. Communities of people brought together by external events/situations.

Different types of communities hardest typen Interest. Communities of people who share the same interest or passion.n Action. Communities of people trying to bring about change.n Place. Communities of people brought together by geographic boundaries.n Practice. Communities of people in the same profession or undertake the same activities.n Circumstance. Communities of people brought together by external events/situations.

Different types of communities hardest typen Interest. Communities of people who share the same interest or passion.The more communities someone has joined, the less theyparticipate in them.Your effort would be better spent on casual internet users.By far, someone that has never joined a community is morelikely to become an active participant.The fewer communities someone has joined, the morevaluable they are.

Reality CheckYour audience is probablybusy, apathetic, lazy andselﬁsh.Incorporate this into yourstrategy

Different types of communitiesn Make your community topic on a matter people are very passionate aboutn Appeal to basic desires like the need to be recognised and feel importantn Keep the technology simple. Use a platform they already known Don’t overwhelm people with boring messages

Finding your ﬁrst community members: Start with a small groupn Passionate employeesn People who contacted customer servicen Commentors on your siten Commentors on news stories about your brand/industryn Conference attendeesn Bloggers blogging about your brand/industryn Regular visitors to your siten Search Twitter for mentions+ Their friends

Who not to approachn All of your employeesn A-list bloggersn All of your current customersn Newsletter subscribersn Existing online groups/rival communities

Contacting them for the ﬁrst time Do’s Don’ts n Carefully select who, when and how to invite n Invite everyone indiscriminately n Personalise every e-mail n Copy/paste e-mails n Explain why you selected them n Cluster people into general groups, e.g. "farmers" n Treat the e-mail as the beginning of a n End the e-mail without a question or an conversation opportunity for them to consider n Ask for their ideas to improve the community n Offer to contact anyone else they know for them n Demand they "send this to everyone in their inbox" n Name-drop people they know who have joined n Throw big numbers at them. n Be informal n (Unless youre addressing formal groups) n Try to strike an emotion or inﬂame an ambition n Explain the dream/vision/purpose of the n Feed them high-level bullshit or objectives. community n Remember to explain who you are, and what you n Pretend to be anything youre not. do

You’ve got your ﬁrst members. Now what?n Make it easy to participate. Keep it simple.n Ask questions. n about your product n about your fans (get to know them)n Make them feel specialn Give a reward to most active membersn Want an active community? Stay active yourself!

Expanding your communityn All of your employeesn All of your current customersn Newsletter subscribersn People in similar communities Give them a real reason to join.Contests work, but attract a lot of wrong members If you have a contest: give away something only a true fan would be exited about.

Your thoughts? Kristof Nizet http://twitter.com/c_concepts

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Kickstarting a community

by Kristof Nizet

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