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1. The Biggest Challenges with Private Online
Communities and the Secrets to
Overcoming Them
December 7 1:30 - 2:45
H u b Ta g : # Te c h 1 1 x y z
Paul Schneider
Co-Founder
Socious
Chris Bonney
VP of Client Experience
Vanguard Technology

3. Primary Areas of Challenge
• Planning
• Implementation
• Launch
• Ongoing Management

4. Planning
• Mapping to strategy
• Realistic goals and expectations
• Aligning staff
• Recruiting champions and influences

5. Implementation
• Change management
• Execution of implementation

6. Launch
• Starting small and specific
• How to launch

7. Ongoing Management
• Content plan
• Is it worth it?

8. Challenge: Mapping the Online
Community to the Org. Strategy
WHY are we
doing this?

9. Mapping The Online Community
to the Org. Strategy
You can think of
your online
community as
an extra burden
for your staff.
Or…..

10. Mapping The Online Community
to the Org. Strategy
You can integrate
your online
community into
how you do
business to
create something
better!

11. Secret: It Takes as Long as It Takes
How much
MORE work is
an online
community
going to take?

12. Secret: It Doesn’t Have to be for
Something New
How can an
Online
Community help
me do what I am
already doing--
BETTER?

13. Secret: From Orgs Just Like You
Initially our staff saw online networking as something that was an
extension to our website and therefore not something that would
affect their daily responsibilities. As they came to understand the
toolset, it was the staff themselves who recognized new ways to do
their job through online networking. To put it more succinctly, the
product sold itself!
While there were concerns about it being a “time drain”
or “just one more thing” for staff to think about, everyone
appreciated that the additional time and energy required
to learn the new system and assist in the development of
content would ultimately lead to an improved member
experience, which is everyone’s goal in the office.

14. Mapping The Online Community to
the Org. Strategy – Part 2
Why would members come • If Facebook as a country, it would
be the third largest in the world.
to your site? • Users: 18-29 86%, 30-49 61%,
50-64 47%
• Companies: 71% use Facebook,
59% use Twitter, 50% Blogger,
33% YouTube, 33% Message
Boards.
• Assns: 91% on Facebook, 71%
on Twitter, 53% in LinkedIn, 27%
blog, 18% private SN.
• Google+ was the fastest social
network to reach 10 million users
at 16 days (Twitter took 780 days
and Facebook 852 days)

15. Secret: Must be One-of-a-Kind
To get members to
participate, you have to
give them something
they cannot get
anywhere else.

16. Secret: From Orgs Just Like You
“AADE did have a vision which AADE members
would feel that they are part of the AADE
family whether they are participating in the
local, state or national level. We wanted all
members to have access in their local area to
other AADE members (something that the
current chapter structure could not always
provide) and we wanted to provide a strong
foundation for the future of the profession
which supports AADE's Strategic Goal for
Membership”
Nadine Merkur
Director, Member and Volunteer Services
AADE

17. Secret: How They Did It
• Facilitating member networking across
geographies within the industry.
• Supporting the development and
dissemination of child life education and
research in one useful place.
• Encouraging membership connections and
engagement between members.
• Increasing public awareness of CLC and the
child life profession

18. Mapping The Online Community to
the Org. Strategy
WHY? = Technology

19. Secrets Overview: Mapping The
Online Community to the Org.
Strategy
Secrets to
Success:
• Answer the question
“Why?”
• Be sure community goals
map to existing association
goals.
• Answering non technology
questions, drives
technology solutions.

20. Challenge: Realistic Goals and Objectives
Will they come?

21. Creating Realistic Goals and Objective
• It will take time to get people
engaged in your online
community (3 months to 1 year.)
• You may need to hire a
community manager.
• Make it a PRIORITY.

22. Creating Realistic Goals and Objective
• It is going to take effort to
change the way members
interact with your org and use
the site.
• An online community needs to
be marketed.
• Adoption will be incremental,
not monumental.

23. Secret: The Wikipedia Rule
1% 9% 90% ?
Influencers Actives Members Disconnected
Thought leaders
Contribute Rate
Experts Not connected
Comment Rank
Create content Not active
Consumer Read
Comment

24. Total
Consumers Commenters Creators Consumers Commenters Creators
Profiles
client 1 5477 1661 548 7686 71% 22% 7%
client 2 837 52 16 905 92% 6% 2%
client 3 1174 520 286 1980 59% 26% 14%
client 4 1213 150 40 1403 86% 11% 3%
client 5 1597 319 138 2054 78% 16% 7%
client 6 269 41 24 334 81% 12% 7%
client 7 11095 4064 1803 16962 65% 24% 11%
client 8 268 97 34 399 67% 24% 9%
client 9 3208 685 275 4168 77% 16% 7%
71% 20% 8%
client 10 255 73 30 358
79% 16% 5%
client 11 329 65 20 414
76% 18% 6%
client 12 314 74 25 413
58% 28% 15%
client 13 824 395 212 1431
78% 18% 3%
client 14 2980 692 130 3802
52% 30% 17%
client 15 296 170 98 564
19% 8%
Totals 73%

25. Secret: It Won’t be a Blow Out
Average online
community
participation is
8.7%.
-Marketing General 2011 Association
Benchmarking Report

26. Secret: But It’s Still a Good Thing
Organizations that
have a private
online community
are tending to
increase in
membership.
-Marketing General 2011 Association Benchmarking
Report

27. Secret: From Orgs Just Like You
You will never be Facebook, so don’t try. Building a
successful online community is not magic, and it is not
rocket science, but it does take work.

28. Secret: From Orgs Just Like You
Know that volunteer leaders never move as fast as you do, so
set realistic milestone dates for the implementation. Recognize
that all current chapters may not embrace/transition to your
new model- and that’s ok- but leave the door open for them to
return.

29. Challenge: Aligning Staff
Challenge:
How do I get my staff
excited about and
using the new online
community?

30. Secret: No Unilateral Decisions
Get staff
involved in the
selection
process.

31. Secret: From Orgs Just Like You
A staff team was selected to help design the platform and
another internal team was created to work on the service
support- so that we could foster staff support and also
their ownership of the initiative.

32. Secret: How Can We Help?
Survey staff on
what they would
hope this new tool
would help them
do.

33. Secret: From Orgs Just Like You
We surveyed the volunteer staff at the time on
what they needed to do their jobs better and what
tools they would find useful. This gave them a voice
in the process, but also gave us insight into what
technology we needed to look at.

34. Secret: Does Bruce approve?
Get top-down
support.

35. Secret: From Orgs Just Like You
We involved our entire staff in early discussions of the
direction we were heading with our online community,
how it would serve our members and meet the goals that
were outlined in the organization’s overarching strategic
plan. Our executive director was always very invested in
the project, and his support and direction were key in
ensuring that all of the staff were on board and committed
to making it a success.

36. Secret: Don’t Let Things Slide
Update early and
often.

37. Challenge: Champions and Influencers
No one person can
make an online
community
successful.

38. Champions and Influencers
It's about how your members feel about it,
not about how you feel about it.

39. Secret: Know Your Audience First
Creators
Critics
Collectors
Joiners
Spectators
Inactives

40. Secret: Know Your Audience First

41. Champions and Influencers
• Board
• Members
• Staff
• Who else?
• How will they be involved?

42. Secret: Champions and Influencers
• Select carefully
• Don’t have too many
• Provide incentives and rewards
• Get them involved early
• Provide means for sharing

43. Secret: From Orgs Just Like You
I would recommend two things: 1) Transition your
membership and educate its members about what the
private community means and can mean to them. 2)
Educate the membership in regards to all the features
that the community can bring and the advantages over
the public communities and social networks

44. Secret: Ask Them
Survey members to
see who is using
online tools and
what they are doing
on them.

45. Recruiting Champions and Influencers
Don't underestimate the resources required to
facilitate the community. Whether a staff person
or a member (ideally the latter, or several of
them), that person needs ongoing development
and must commit the time to foster the
community.

46. Challenge: Change

47. “While the association may want the community to
succeed and is willing to put unlimited resources
towards it, ultimately the members must REALLY want
it (to the point of being willing to openly engage and
keep the community vibrant) in order for it to be truly
successful.”

48. Change Management – Case Study
• Young membership
• Vibrant conversations online
• Organizational buy-in for change
• Potential for future growth
• People dedicated to managing community
• Great ideas for points of engagement

49. AND THEN THEY LAUNCHED….

50. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news

51. How to Avoid Disaster
Don’t
– assume change is needed/wanted
– assume new is better
– launch without notice
– act unilaterally without member buy-in
– exclude champions
– think a few voices aren’t important

52. Secret: You Must Facilitate Change
• Early buy-in
• Find evangelists/sponsors/champions
• Over-communicate
• Listen
• Make success easy
• Reward participation
• Sell your wins

53. Challenge: Planning for the Implementation
Your implementation
can be a nightmare or a
great experience. The
better you plan, the
more effective your
implementation will be.

54. Secret: Have a Process
• The Process- What to Expect
– Plan for the implementation to take 30-90 days.
– Plan for many people from the organization to be
involved.
– Take time to DREAM.
– Roll out doesn’t need to be all at once-have a
plan.

55. Secret: Know Your Resources
Resources-What to Plan for
• Project Lead
• Functional Area Leads
• Technical Leads
• Domain Contact
• Testers

56. Planning for the Implementation
Pitfall #1:
Launching at
Your Conference
Avoid Pitfall #1:
Launch after
conference

57. Planning for the Implementation
Pitfall #2:
Assuming Your
Users Are Going to
be Just as Excited
as You Are
Avoid Pitfall #2:
Launching is a
process

58. Planning for the Implementation
Pitfall #3:
Planning to
Launch Over a
Major Holiday
Avoid Pitfall #3:
Launching
during an
average week

59. Planning for the Implementation
Pitfall #4:
Only One or Two
Staff Members
Know How to Use
the Software
Avoid Pitfall #4:
Train the whole
staff

60. Planning for the Implementation
Pitfall #5:
You Have No
Strategic Plan
Moving Forward
Avoid Pitfall #5:
Create a content
plan

61. Challenge: Defining Community

62. It’s This

63. Neither are the Goal

64. This is

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66. Secret: Selling an Online Community
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67. DIRTY LITTLE SECRET: NEVER LAUNCH

68. Secret: Elements of a Soft Launch
• Don’t have a major promotion around it
• Call it “Beta”
• Fill it up with content
• Get 1% involved first and early
• Facilitate word of mouth
• Don’t be perfect, just be good

69. Challenge: Ongoing Management
What is a
content
plan?

81. Secret: Content Plan Creation
Content
Plan
Narrative

82. Secret: Content Plan Creation
Download the
plan for the
Socious website
at:
www.socious.com/tech11

83. On Demand Webinar
7 Secrets to a Successful Social Networking
LAUNCH
www.vtcus.com/sociallaunch.aspx

84. Is it Worth it?
The RWA mission states that: "Romance Writers of America is dedicated to
advancing the professional interests of career-focused romance writers through
networking and advocacy." With our online community we can now - finally-
provide the kind of networking and advocacy that our mission demands. The
online community has given us a platform for education and a vehicle for
advocacy that has, heretofore not been available or affordable for us. Now we
can offer more....much more....to our members.

85. Is it Worth it?
The biggest benefit is "connections-" to one another, to
AADE, and to a one stop professional resource.

86. In Closing
The only place success
comes before work is in
the dictionary.
-Vince Lombardi

87. Contact Information
Paul Schneider
Co-Founder
Socious
602-734-5353
pschneider@socious.com
www.socious.com
@SociousSuccess
Chris Bonney
VP of Client Experience
Vanguard Technology
312-263-1322 x 505
cbonney@vtcus.com
www.vtcus.com
@vanguardtech