Building Communities<br />Techniques, Technologies &
Best Practices<br />Connie Bensen<br />Online Marketing Summit<br />June 8, 2011<br />

Introduction<br />Educator<br />Creative Marketer<br />Change
Agent<br />

Definitions<br />Community<br />Social Business<br />Challenges<br
/>Culture shift<br />Industry Dependencies<br /><ul><li>Executive Buy-in</li></ul>Executive Support<br />Budget<br />

Every Company Needs a Digital
Footprint<br />

Get to know your People<br
/>1. Listen<br />

Choose Listening Tools <br />Basic<br
/>Google Alerts<br />Twitter – Hootsuite, Seismic, Tweetdeck<br />Premium<br />Trackur<br />Alterian SM2<br />Radian6<br />Sysomos<br />Visible Technologies<br />

What to listen for<br />Brand
Name<br />Products<br />Key Executives<br />Competitors<br />If no conversations…<br />Industry terms<br />* Identify patterns & trends<br />

Get to Know Them<br />Identify
where consumers are at<br />Which social networks <br />The influencers (beyond top tier)<br />Topics of interest & context<br />* Create consumer profiles and understand <br />what motivates them <br />

Online Preferences<br />Time of day<br
/>Social Networks<br />Formats – chat, video, forums, games, etc<br />

Planning<br />Create a Strategy &
Metrics<br />2. Planning<br />

Plan Based on Objective(s) <br
/>Choose One that Meets Your Business Goals<br />% Reduced spend on PR, Marketing & Advertising<br />% Increase in Sales<br />% Reduction in Customer Service Costs <br />% Reduction Product Development Costs <br />% Increased SEO Presence<br />% Increase in Leads from Campaign<br />% Increase in Brand Visibility<br />* Note: the objectives drive <br />the metrics which need to be <br />measureable.<br />

Platforms<br />Build<br />Hosted<br />Social network
(Facebook, Ning, LinkedIn)<br />Items to consider:<br />Do you own your data?<br />Is the platform scalable?<br />How difficult will it be to migrate it?<br />

Content is King & SEO
is Queen<br />3. Digital Marketing<br />

Social Media has radically changed
Marketing<br />Company-centric (old) Buyer-centric (new)<br />Identify buyer<br />Search & find info, links<br />Outbound<br />Inbound<br />Send an Email<br />Visit website<br />Call prospect<br />Download a resource<br />Assess the need<br />Request a call<br />Determine budget<br />Describe a project<br />Give a demo<br />Give spec’s & budget<br />Participate in a demo<br />Submit proposal<br />Request a proposal<br />

One Event/Piece of Content Assets
in Many Formats<br />Repurpose content <br />Make it conversational<br />Create for variety of formats<br />Data sheets<br />Sales guides<br />Previous campaigns<br />Whitepapers<br />Webinars<br /><ul><li>Place in existing social channels

Map content& create a content
Library</li></li></ul><li>Encourage User Generated Content<br />

Build Word of Mouth<br />Use
Shareable sites<br />Encourage sharing of content in emails<br />Send newsletters with links<br />

Build an Inbound Strategy<br />Share
Your Story<br />Create Interesting Content <br />Add Value & Provide Resources<br />Syndicate your content – help it grow legs<br />Widgets (Slideshare.net)<br />LinkedIn, Facebook<br />SocialMediaToday.com, MyVenturePad.com<br />* Set information free<br />

Create a Party<br />4. Engagement<br
/>

Kicking it off<br />Seed the
community <br />Provide guidelines that suit the community<br />Start with a simple profile<br />Add additional fields over time<br />Set expectations<br />

Connect with them early on
<br />Evangelists <br />Advocates<br />Influencers<br />

Advocates<br />Reward them <br />Give
them more privileges<br />Encourage them to moderate<br />Provide a private place for discussions<br />* Identify what motivates them<br />

Dealing with Trolls<br />

Measuring Success<br />4. Reporting<br />

Measure what meets the Objective<br
/>% Reduced spend on PR, Marketing & Advertising<br />% Increase in Brand Visibility<br />Amount of increased conversation<br />% Increase in Sales<br />Overlay sales performance on volume of conversation<br />% Reduction in Customer Service Costs <br />Number of uses of online content<br />Number of issues resolved online by peers<br />Increased customer satisfaction - qualitative<br />% Reduction Product Development Costs <br />Number of ideas gathered/implemented<br />Compare previous cycle cost to present<br />Reduced cost due to beta<br />% Increased SEO Presence<br />Google your brand/product!<br />% Increase in Leads from Campaign<br />

Calculating ROI<br />Decide on the
objective (it needs to be measurable).<br />2. What is the % increase or decrease change in behavior that is wanted. (Need to know the value of increment)<br />3. Measure the baseline.<br />After a given period (or campaign time) <br /> take the measurement<br />5. Calculate the ROI based on the cost <br />* Remember! It’s about building relationships.<br />

Possible quantitative data <br />Number
of active members<br />Percent with complete profile<br />Number of new members<br />Number of new threads started<br />Number of mentions<br />Number of comments<br />Number of views (YouTube, Slideshare, Flickr)<br />Number of embeds <br />Number of downloads<br />Number of followers (*careful!)<br />Rank (Google, Twitter, Technorati, Klout, etc)<br />

Possible qualitative data <br />Sentiment
and/or tone<br />Quote from advocate<br />Issues (frequency)<br />Topics frequently discussed<br />Recommendations (velocity)<br />Brand differentiators<br />

Monthly Reporting<br />Report on Objectives<br
/>Established from goals of the position<br />Qualitative<br />Trends in members, topics, discovery of new communities<br />Quantitative<br />Benchmark based on previous report <br />Web Analytics <br />unless someone else is tracking them<br />Recommendations <br />Based on interactions with customers<br />

Growing Your Community<br />Provide thought
leadership<br />Comment on related posts<br />Guest blog<br />Participate in related communities<br />Organize industry related events online & offline<br />

Fail Fast<br />Learn from Mistakes<br
/>Build on What Worked <br />Grow the Engagement<br />Get More Teams Involved<br />Train Willing Teams<br />

Team Exercise<br />

Connie Bensen<br />Community Strategist<br />ConnieBensen@gmail.com<br
/>@cbensen<br />www.communitystrategist.com<br />www.slideshare.net/conniebensen<br />