Community Marketing: Your Customers in Charge

community marketing your customers in charge Tara Hunt & Chris Messina Citizen Agency

the workshop • introductions • what is community? • fostering a sense of community • the process • community mashpit • exercises & discussion

exercise • What is your definition of community? Virtual community?

defining virtual community “ A virtual space supported by computer- based information technology, centered upon communication and interaction of participants to generate member-driven content, resulting in relationships being ” built up. (Lee & Vogel, 2003)

exercise • What are some characteristics of online communites? • Which tools are common?

characteristics of virtual communities • personal homepage/profile (ie. url.com/people/missrogue) • personal content creation • ability to interact with others’ content • ability to ‘friend’ and share content

sense of community 1. Feelings of membership 2. Feelings of influence 3. Integration and fulfillment of needs 4. Shared emotional connection (McMillan and Chavis, 1986)

feelings of membership • arise from the creation of community boundaries • perception of emotional safety • sense of belonging to and identification with • use of common symbols, language, etc.

feelings of membership • includes: personal profile pages, 'friending', defining groups within the larger group (groups), invitations to groups • allow for lots of personal & group expression • greet new members and introduce them to others with similar interests

feelings of influence • being able to influence group (voice heard) • being able to be influenced by group (learning) • feedback responsiveness • rule enforcement and creation by members • maintenance of norms within the group

feelings of influence • includes: forums, chat, comments, blogging, personalized mail • create many ways in which members can connect and platforms for expression

integration and fulfillment of needs • feeling of being supported by others • rewards of being a member, such as status, expertise • shared values • feeling of competence within group

integration and fulfillment of needs • includes: status rewards, featuring members, vips, karma points, etc. • 'in crowd' knowledge - acorns, tricks, traditions & rituals

Spread Firefox

Last.fm

plazes

shared emotional connection • relationships, shared history & experience • high quality, frequent interaction • discrete/shared events/history and crisis • personal investment of time and resources • the effect of honor and humiliation • spiritual bonds

Pandora

Ma.gnolia Thanks

shared emotional connection • can't be created, but shared experiences with members can help (continual, deep interaction with community) • offline meetups, celebrations and developer days help

the process • identifying your • infrastructure for passion dialogue (onsite) • getting into the • communications trenches • content • partnerships & • infrastructure for co-opetition dialogue (offsite) • INreach

identifying your passion • asking yourself: why am I doing this? • am I solving a need? an issue? do I understand this itch?

exercise! • who do we serve? (whose itch are you scratching, anyway) • why would anybody give a damn? (what are we doing to help our customers kick ass?) • list at least five things we can do today

getting into the trenches • exploring the environment • documenting current tools, existing behaviors, etc. • becoming part of the communities • finding out who is doing things in this area (experts, blogs) • learning from passionate people

infrastructure (offsite) • offsite communications tools are even more important than onsite • Flickr groups • Tags • Google groups • irc/Campfire, etc.

“ ”

infrastructure (onsite) • Blog/blogroll • wikis • member-to- • feeds member mail • invitations • group chats • notifications • forums • avatars • comments • customization • favorites

communications • have a publicity policy • transparency • blog like you mean it • using a human voice for site language • get involved in the conversations • party host

product • transmogrification • defensive design • vision • knowing when to listen to feedback and when to say, “thanks but no thanks” • KISS

10 tips for feedback • • don’t listen to experts communicate change • • watch attention data small changes impact big time • respond to everything • (even to say no) don’t hire fans, hire critics • don’t take it personally • do it right over fast • give credit • no consensus

partnerships & co-opetition • affiliations to benefit users • microchunking • apis • mirroring/supporting competitive apis • open standards

INreach • rewarding your members • vip programs • promotions • events

community mashpit • 4 teams • 4 types of community: • light commitment (i.e. DIGG) • medium engagement w/core service (i.e. Flickr) • heavy collaboration (i.e. Wikipedia) • developer network (i.e. Firefox)

community mashpit • 20 min; 5 min presentations • Goals: • identify your passion • identify your audience and do some light research (5 points) • identify offsite/onsite tools & how to use them (5/2) • identify 5 potential partnerships • identify 10 ways/programs to reward current users

questions? Tara Hunt tara@citizenagency.com 415.694.1951 skype: tarahunt747 Chris Messina chris@citizenagency.com 412.225.1051 skype: factoryjoe www.citizenagency.com

Community Marketing: Your Customers in Charge

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