This document provides strategies for maximizing engagement with an online community. It emphasizes building trust with engineers by focusing on relationships rather than products, welcoming negative feedback, and closing the feedback loop by demonstrating how input was incorporated. Specific tips include thanking community members, probing for deeper insights, elevating issues to start dialogs, making participation easy, uncovering unmet needs, and telling members how their input drove changes. The goal is to increase advocacy by showing the community's value.

1. Maximizing
Community
Susan Zellmann Rohrer
ECN Strategy and Development Lead

2. Focus on 3
 Engineer engagement
 Mine your asset
 Close the loop

3. Engineer Engagement
 Build trust. Build relationships.
 Lavish attention.
 Avoid one-way conversations.
 Always probe for deeper understanding and
insight.
 Welcome the negative.
 Make it easy.

4. Engineer
Engagement
Build trust. Build relationships.
 Focus on members and not your product.
 Create affinity across subjects.

5. Engineer
Engagement
Lavish attention.
 Thank them. Follow-up.

6. Engineer
Engagement
Active moderation. Less
anonymity drives more
participation.

7. Engineer
Engagement
Avoid one way.
 “I’ve become very skeptical about all blogs.
They are too one-sided and if you really don’t
know the writers they could be full of mis-
information. My input is I’m not a fan.
 A business blog is, by its very nature, marketing.
 A blog would have captured my attention more
if it were not labeled a blog but as an advice
column. More about helping me; not the writer’s
ego. I pass by blogs.

8. Engineer
Engagement
Always probe for deeper
understanding.
 What led you to ___?
 How did you come to that decision?
 How did you rationalize that?
 You said “RESTATE”, would you be willing to
share your thinking behind that decision?
 What about _____ makes you say that?
 I’d/we’d like to understand your thinking. Could
you walk me/us through your thought process?

9. Welcome the negative.
•Elicit
candor
•Use negative
comments to
start a dialog
•Thank them.
Find out more.

10. Engineer
Engagement • Openness builds trust.
Trust builds more
engagement.
Engagement builds
advocacy.
▲

11. Engineer
Engagement
Elevate and reframe the issue
to generalize the insights

12. Engineer
Engagement
Make it Easy.

13. Mine your asset.
 Look for unmet needs. Work to develop a
methodology for deeper understanding.
“When you
need to “What “How “If you were “Tell us
‘bring happens when frequently the product what you
copies’ what calibration does this designer – think
first comes to starts happen? what would about this
mind? unexpectedly? you do? solution.

14. Close the
loop
Demonstrate you hear. Many
ways to implement.
Tie actions back to
Set up a chat. member comments.
 “You have the attention of key color laser printer R&D
folks here. What else can you tell us about improvements  “John Adams raised a technical issue.
to our printer that would make your job easier?” While we pointed him to the product
support site for a specific answer, it got us
thinking. What support issues do you
most often face? How do you solve
Invite input. them?
Tell them honestly
what you’re doing.
 “We can make huge improvements to documentation in
a short period of time if we can get access to customers.”

15. Close the
loop
Letting customers know they
drive change drives
Listening built perception of
advocacy. value and advocacy
“Thanks for writing in to
me for my inputs.
Your keen interest in
receiving new ideas is a
tribute to what a great
firm you have built over
so many years.
This is deeply
appreciated.”
15

16. Close the
loop
Asking for advice earns the
permission to market. “Recognizing that
technology continues
 “Customers expressed a to increase and
strong desire for an upgrade extending offers to
path. Uncovered the
potential for a significant existing customers
revenue lift.” strengthens the
 Bose asked members to relationship and will
define most attractive influence the customer
packaging to buy again from
 Members purchased ‘their Bose.”
idea’
+$2m in 12
months
16

17. Close the
loop
Align with your business processes. Test
with the community throughout the NPD
process.
 ‘Helped us confirm that 3
of the features we were
developing were
important. But more
important it showed that 6
other features were NOT.
That allowed us to move
developers onto more
important tasks.’

18. Maximizing
Community
Susan Zellmann Rohrer
ECN Strategy and Development Lead