2.
<ul><ul><li>Independent forum around a place or common interest </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Platform set up by an organisation, to which it invites customers, stakeholders, staff etc for marketing, customer support or research purposes </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Discussion by people on the web, generally </li></ul></ul>Online community, eh?

3.
<ul><li>The variety of formats makes it hard to estimate the scale of usage of online communities. In terms of general take-up of social networking: </li></ul><ul><ul><li>40% of UK adults now use social networking sites at home. Nearly 25m access Facebook, up 31% in a year </li></ul></ul>Source: Ofcom Communications Market Report 2010

4.
<ul><li>The views of peers online – even those not personally known – consistently emerge as amongst the most highly trusted </li></ul>

5.
<ul><li>Why do communities form? </li></ul><ul><li>Interest: Communities of people who share the same interest or passion. </li></ul><ul><li>Action: Communities of people trying to bring about change. </li></ul><ul><li>Place: Communities of people brought together by geographic boundaries. </li></ul><ul><li>Practice: Communities of people in the same profession or undertake the same activities. </li></ul><ul><li>Circumstance: Communities of people brought together by external events/situations. </li></ul>Source: http://www.feverbee.com/2010/11/different-types-of-communities.html

6.
Community of interest Source: http://mygarden.rhs.org.uk/forums/

7.
Community of action Source: http://fairtradetowns.ning.com/

8.
Community of place Source: http://www.sheffieldforum.co.uk/

9.
Community of practice Source: http://www.communities.idea.gov.uk

10.
Community of circumstance Source: http://www.tripadvisor.com/

11.
and also: Community of innovation? Source: http://mystarbucksidea.force.com/

12.
Types of online community Led by individuals Led by organisations Content oriented Conversation oriented Magazine off-shoots Fan forums Hyperlocal sites Customer forums Community blogs Campaign communities Big group forums

13.
Types of online community Led by individuals Led by organisations Content oriented Conversation oriented http://www.kumb.com/forum/ http://www.nme.com/boards/ http://conservativehome.blogs.com/thetorydiary/ http://en.community.dell.com/

14.
Goals for community engagement Listening Audience insight, understanding views Buzz generation Stimulating discussion, encouraging sharing Discussion & Response Driving take-up, asking for feedback Co-production Working with a community to produce a resource

15.
Identifying relevant communities <ul><li>Define a list of keywords and potential synonyms, including slang or casual terms </li></ul><ul><li>Use Google search adding ‘+chat’ or ‘+forum’ to find communities on that topic: </li></ul>

16.
Identifying relevant communities <ul><li>Try dedicated forum or social media search tools </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Omgili: http://omgili.com </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>SocialMention: http://socialmention.com </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Alexa toolbar (sense of site traffic/popularity): http://alexa.com </li></ul></ul>

17.
<ul><li>Five things to look for: </li></ul><ul><li>Number of topics and posts </li></ul><ul><ul><li>not just the number of views </li></ul></ul><ul><li>Date of last post in the main threads </li></ul><ul><ul><li>is the forum dormant? are only some threads active? </li></ul></ul><ul><li>Structure & management </li></ul><ul><ul><li>introductory threads for new members, FAQ etc? </li></ul></ul><ul><li>Contact details for owner/moderator </li></ul><ul><li>Member list </li></ul><ul><ul><li>can give a sense of scale, but many might be inactive/spam </li></ul></ul>

18.
2.8m uniques/month 27,000 forum posts/day 50 volunteer moderators 82,000 pageviews 150+ case studies 900 posts/month

20.
<ul><ul><li>What’s been your experience of finding and working with online communities? </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>What are the pros and cons of partnering with vs building communities? </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Who is (or should be) doing the liaison with external online communities? </li></ul></ul>