Cascade Network Event - Cultivating Your Online Community

Cultivating your online community Engage & Connect with Social Media LVSC - Cascade Network Event 13th January 2010

Making a connection

What is a community? “Web communities happen when people are given tools to use their voice in a public and immediate way, forming intimate relationships over time.” - Derek Powazek’s definition of communities written for his book, Design for Community: the art of connecting real people in virtual places. http://www.amazon.com/Design-Community-Derek-Powazek/dp/0735710759

3 Questions ● Who is the site for? ● What can they do? ● Why will they want to do it?

Building Blocks ● Help new and potential members of the community learn how to engage effectively. ● Privacy Policies/Terms of Use/Service ● Copyright and Ownership ● Community Guidelines ● Abuse Grid/Action Plan

Structure User friendly is important, but every community excludes someone.

Where to put the barrier to entry? Do you want everyone posting or only highly motivated people?

Wisdom of Crowds Value is in the aggregate of thoughts, guesses, estimates. Value is not identifying the smart individuals to listen to, but averaging out the voice.

Give people, small simple tasks If you are not getting the feedback you hoped for, ask for something smaller.

Online communities are self-selecting: like attracts like Create diversity of people, opinion and input to avoid 'groupthink' and prevent your group from being too single tracked/minded. Bring in new members to support minority opinions.

Becoming a Community Manager

Community Manager = editor, shepherd, cheerleader, advocate, judge, executioner. ● You may only hear from unhappy people. Be prepared to deal with this. ● Learn when to respond – you don't have to respond to everything. ● Set the tone in the beginning then members start to take on roles and become champions themselves.

Reward Good Behaviour ● Bring good and interesting content to the fore. ● Shine the spotlight on community members (if they let you!) ● Example content sets a tone far more effectively than terms and conditions/community guidelines ever could.

Transparency ● Own it when you're wrong, sometimes we all make mistakes. ● Tell people what's going on, post clear and timely updates. ● If introducing change, explain it, give people time to learn and an option to pull out, then make the change.

Taking it offline Use back channels to thank the people who are helping out or to check in with people who aren't playing ball with their behaviour.

encourage participation - the 3 c's Content ● Create timely, helpful and interesting content. ● Highlight stories that motivate your community the most. ● Take credit by giving credit to others. ● Before and after – success and progress reports.

encourage participation - the 3 c's Community ● Continue to build relationships through current communication methods as well as online. ● Engagement should be easy, fun (!) and meaningful. ● Be transparent – Build trust. ● Listen – Don't talk all of the time.

encourage participation - the 3 c's Calls to Action ● Help your members know and understand what to do next. ● Make following through as simple as possible. ● Explain what their actions would accomplish and what would happen next.

Why aren't people participating? ● You sound like a press release. ● You sound like an info-mercial ● You sound like a know-it all. ● You haven't shown them how. ● You haven't created the right atmosphere. ● You just don't seem that into it. credit – Michele Martin, Bamboo Project –six reasons people aren't commenting www.michelmartin.typepad.com/thebambooprojectblog

How others do it - An example of how Intel encourages it's employees to be effective in online communities through it's Social Media policy. Intel isn't just allowing workers to use social media for work purposes; it's encouraging them to be themselves whilst doing so...

“The choice to participate in social media is yours. If you do, please follow these principles • Provide unique, individual perspectives on what's going on at Intel and in the world. • Post meaningful, respectful comments - in other words, no spam and no remarks that are off-topic or offensive. • Reply to comments quickly, when a response is appropriate. • Respect proprietary information and confidentiality. • When disagreeing with others' opinions, keep it cool.” extracts from Intels Social Media Policy http://www.intel.com/sites/sitewide/en_us/social-media.htm

“On transparency: If you are blogging about your work at Intel, use your real name, identify that you work for Intel, and be clear about your role. If you have a vested interest in something you are discussing, be the first to point it out.” extracts from Intels Social Media Policy http://www.intel.com/sites/sitewide/en_us/social-media.htm

“On perception: In online social networks, the lines between public and private, personal and professional are blurred. Just by identifying yourself as an Intel employee, you are creating perceptions about Intel by our shareholders, customers, and the general public―and perceptions about you by your colleagues and managers. Do us all proud. Be sure that all content associated with you is consistent with your work and with Intel's values and professional standards.” extracts from Intels Social Media Policy http://www.intel.com/sites/sitewide/en_us/social-media.htm

“On starting conversations: Don't be afraid to bring in your own personality and say what's on your mind. Consider content that's open-ended and invites response. Encourage comments. On sharing: Our business activities are increasingly focused on high- value innovation. Let's share with the world the exciting things we're learning and doing ―and open up the channels to learn from others.” extracts from Intels Social Media Policy http://www.intel.com/sites/sitewide/en_us/social-media.htm

“On mistakes: Did you screw up? If you make a mistake, admit it. Be upfront and be quick with your correction. If you're posting to a blog, you may choose to modify an earlier post ―just make it clear that you have done so. On negative comments from the public: If the content is positive or negative and in context to the conversation then we approve the content, regardless if the content is favorable or unfavorable to Intel. However if the content is ugly, offensive, denigrating and completely out of context then we reject the content.” extracts from Intels Social Media Policy http://www.intel.com/sites/sitewide/en_us/social-media.htm

Final reminders - ● Ask questions ● Acknowledge good work ● Accept and respond to criticism ● Have fun! thank you for listening and sharing – Laura Whitehead - www.popokatea.co.uk

Credits - Thank you for the quotes, best practice and references - • Derek Powazek • Heather Champ • Michele Martin Also, a thank you to all the people on flickr who take wonderful photos, and share them with others using Creative Commons licensing. Photos in this presentation are with thanks to - – http://www.flickr.com/photos/pinksherbet/ – http://www.flickr.com/photos/ifindkarma/ – http://www.flickr.com/photos/luc/ – http://www.flickr.com/photos/timparkinson/ – http://www.flickr.com/photos/creativecommons/ – http://www.flickr.com/photos/joeshlabotnik/ – http://www.flickr.com/photos/heather/ – http://www.flickr.com/photos/pagedooley/ – http://www.flickr.com/photos/mobology/ Laura Whitehead - www.popokatea.co.uk - www.twitter.com/littlelaura

Cascade Network Event - Cultivating Your Online Community

by Laura Whitehead on Jan 15, 2010

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Cascade Network Event - Cultivating Your Online Community — Presentation Transcript