Community Management & Community Building A presentation by Nikos Athinaios & Niki Sotiropoulou

1. Community Management
& Building
Nikos Athinaios
Niki Sotiropoulou
Periklis Vanikiotis

2. AGENDA
• Community Building in 5+1 steps
• Introduction to Viral Loops
• Community Building Myths & Tips
• Don‘t be afraid of the community manager
• Community management basics: Dos And Don’ts
2

3. AGENDA
Community Building
& Viral Loops
3

4. DEFINITION
“Community building is a field of practices
directed toward the creation or enhancement of
community among individuals within a regional
area or with a common interest.”
4

5. COMMUNITY BUILDING PROCESS
5
Before even starting. Make sure that
you can track everything, focusing
on:
• Users growth
• Community Demographics
• Engagement
• Retention percentage
• Churn rate

6. COMMUNITY BUILDING PROCESS
6
Target the right audience, which
should be:
• Well-defined
• Reachable
• Passionate
• Growing

7. COMMUNITY BUILDING PROCESS
7
Create a seed community of
users, who are part of primary
target group
• Personally select & invite the first
dozens, if not hundreds of users
• Monitor their behavior on other
online communities
• Evaluate the content they create,
as well as their participation rate

8. COMMUNITY BUILDING PROCESS
8
Engage with the seed community
• Seed your community with the type
of content you’d like to see
• Use A/B testing to experiment with
different types of content
• Learn their interests and behaviors
• Pick the most engaged users of your
seed community and convert them to
ambassadors, in order to enable
them to promote your work

9. COMMUNITY BUILDING PROCESS
9
Monitor the retention/churn rate on
your seed community
• If the retention is high and churn low,
then you should expand the
community
• If the retention is low and/or the
churn rate high, then you need to
either optimize the seed community,
or change your content strategy

10. COMMUNITY BUILDING PROCESS
10
Create a viral loop* process in
order to organically acquire new
users
https://docs.google.com/spreadshee
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11. COMMUNITY BUILDING MYTHS
11
Myths about community building
#1: Your primary growth metric is the size of
your community
#2: Communities on the web always arise
organically
#3: You must impose strict guidelines for
interaction
#4: If the community you want to create
already exists, you missed the boat
#5: You know what’s best for your
community

12. COMMUNITY BUILDING TIPS
12
Please, have in mind
#1: Don't rush in, have a plan, even it’ll take
more time
#2: Leverage any and all available
connections you have
#3: Think in terms of advocates, not just
numbers
#4: Dedication's what you need
#5: Don't let the haters get you down
#6: Have a personality

13. AGENDA
Community Management
13

14. HOW WOULD YOU IMAGINE A COMMUNITY MANAGER?
14

15. WHO ARE THEY?
“Community Managers are the main voice to the
user community. They are responsible for getting
users to understand how to use the product or
service and get excited about new features and
developments.”
15

16. SO WHAT DO THEY DO?
16
Strategy Alignment of social media strategies
Results Assessing the effectiveness of social media
activities
Data Taking Social Data and turning it into actionable
data
Content Curating and creating content for social
platforms
Security Maintaining the security of social media
accounts
Moderatio
n
Enforcing guidelines, policies & managing
public platforms
Insights Delivering insights about your community

17. COMMUNITY MANAGEMENT DOS AND DON’TS
DOs
17

18. DOs
Be Pro-
Active
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Set guidelines/pre-defined
answers and enrich them
over time

19. DOs
Keep it
short
19
Studies has shown that
posts of 80 characters or
less are the most
engaging.

20. DOs
Be Visual
20
Your content can generate up
to 94% more views if you add
compelling visual elements
and graphics.

21. DOs
Be timely
and
relevant
21
Create and engage in
conversations that are
happening now. Take
action. Be part of NOW.

22. DOs
Be
Responsiv
e
22
Respond to users
quickly, and even if you
don’t have an answer
ready (from the list of pre-
defined answers), respond
that you will get back to
them as soon as possible.

23. DOs
Know your
audience
23
Identify your brand lovers
and haters. Get to know
their likes and dislikes. Act
accordingly.

24. DOs
Support
your
customers
24
Customer Support thought
SoM is very important. So
if you have great customer
supports, you can turn
users into real fans

25. DOs
Be Honest
25
Don’t avoid questions or
lie. Own up to your
mistakes and put them
right.

26. DOs
Check
your
spelling
26
Poorly written posts can be
very off-putting for people
who are looking to your page.

27. DOs
Be
thorough
27
Always check before you
post/respond.
1
0

28. COMMUNITY MANAGEMENT DOS AND DON’TS
DON’Ts
28

29. DON’T
Ignore
Comments
29
Comments give the most
useful insights of the
users. Listen closely,
answer them and learn
from your mistakes.

30. DON’T
Feed the
trolls
30
Identify the trolls and don’t
feed them. Don’t give
them anything they can
harm you with.

31. DON’T
Give the
same
answers
31
Answer to each user
personally, don’t copy/paste
the answers. Give a personal
not

32. DON’T
32
Don’t let personal feelings
get in the way. Respond
calmly with the proper
tone of voice, even if you
are furious.
Lose
your
temper

33. thank you!
33
@nikisot
E-mail: Niki.Sotiropoulou@publicis.gr
@athinaios
E-mail: nikos.athinaios@black-pencil.gr