Building a Successful Online Community - Social Media FTW

Building a Successful Online Community

Derek Rice

@derekjrice

There is no one-size-fits-all method for building and growing a successful online community.

What is an Online Community?

� More than a message board

� Decentralized platforms that facilitate conversation

Platforms

Platforms

Tip: If you try to establish your presence in too many places, you can quickly wear yourself thin. Review several to find what works best for you.

One Client’s Community

Platforms

Tip: Use your platforms to complement each other, and you’ll build deeper relationships with your audience.

An Online Community IS

� A messaging channel

� Conversational

� Community-driven

� Interactive

� Customer service

� An opportunity to build one-to-one relationships

� Free research

An Online Community IS NOT

� Traditional marketing

� Advertising

� A billboard

� Formal

� Self-centered

� Sales-driven

Why Do I Need an Online

Community?

� Build trust, which in turn helps build brand recognition, loyalty and affinity

� Obtain a deeper understanding of your audience’s needs and wants

� Create one-to-one relationships with customers and prospects

� It’s what people want and expect

What Makes You Act?

Who Do We Trust?

Tip: Trust

� Your online community is your opportunity build relationships and trust with your members.

� When you provide information to them, they become your best allies by passing it along to others who trust them.

� Through social media, they may passing it to hundreds of people.

“The Participatory Web”

People use the web to:

� Browse

� Interact

� Personalize

� Talk about and connect with what and who they’re browsing

� Share those interactions and experiences with others

Characteristics of an Unhealthy

Community

� No response to member questions or posts

� Arguments dwarf other participation

� Members are leaving – and announcing their departure

� Spam

� No clear purpose

� Tumbleweeds

Characteristics of a Healthy

Community

� Active discussion

� Interesting, relevant content and conversation

� Attracts and retains the right kind of people

� No spam

� Respect and civility

� Clear purpose

� Provides value for members

So how do you get there?

Step 1: Determine Your Goals

Goals

� What is the purpose of your community?

� What do you want your community accomplish?

� What’s more important to you: qualitative or quantitative results?

Goals

Client example:

� Develop an active community that is interested in sleep and sleep issues

� Build awareness of new product

� Targeted communication to specific areas

� Gain entry into large warehouse chain through demonstrated sales

Step 2: Management

Management

Your manager is:

� The party host

� An active and high-profile community member

� Accountable to everyone

� Company

� Community

� The “voice” of your brand

� Sets the tone for the community

� Becomes your brand’s online persona

Management

Your manager should be:� Friendly (the Golden Rule)

� Patient

� Creative

� Proactive

� Fun

� Articulate

� An excellent writer

� Knowledgeable about your brand

Management

Find the best fit

� Will you rely one person or multiple people?

Management

Find the best fit

� Do you want a “face” behind the brand, or will your manager act as the brand itself?

Management

Considerations

� Time-consuming

� Can be a full-time job, at least in the beginning

� Community may eventually take some of the load, but may not

� Creating a page or profile takes days, but success takes time – and hard work

� Time-sensitive

� Online community members expect responses in hours (or less)

Step 3: Listening

Listening

Research

� Before jumping in, gather information

Listening

Find out if people are talking about:

� Your company

� Your competition

� Your industry

� Other factors that impact your business

Listening

Who’s doing the talking?

� They may be interested in your company, product or industry (your target audience)

� Your target audience may not be who you think they are

� Helps define and refine your target audience

Listening

What are people saying?

� Figure out what the most popular topics are

� This is what your audience is interested in

� Helps you determine your messaging

Listening Tools

Google AlertsGoogle.com/alerts

Listening Tools

Twitter searchtwitter.com

Listening Tools

search.twitter.com

Listening Tools

Listening Tools

Socialmention.com

Listening Tools

Tip: Listening

Tip: Compiling listening results can be as simple as a checklist, as involved as a Word document where individual conversations are catalogued, or anything in-between.

Tip: Listening

Listening is a continual process

Step 4: Identifying Influencers

Influencers

As you identify your audience, also identify influencers

� Recognizable

� Greater than average reach or impact through word of mouth in a relevant marketplace

� Their opinions matter to others

� Engaged in conversations with hundreds or thousands of people

Influencers

Why influencers?

� When they talk, people listen

� They may talk about you

� More people will join your community

Influencers

Influencers

An influencer doesn’t have to be a celebrity:

� Industry bloggers

� Trade publications

� Local personalities

Influencers

Industry-specific influencers

Identifying Influencers

Blog Search Tool – Technorati.com

Identifying Influencers

Where do you find information that’s relevant to your industry or niche?

These are some of your influencers

They’re talking to your influencers.

They’re talking about your influencers.

Step 4: Developing Content

Content

Create a messaging toolbox:

� Key words

� Key messages

� Protocol

� Engaging

� Responding

� Escalating

Content

Content drives participation and growth

The Content Loop

Good content = return visits = word of mouth = new members = more content (community-generated)

Content

The right kind of content:

� Is high-quality, relevant to community

� Addresses members’ interests

� Sparks discussion

� Provides a sense of purpose and direction

� Establishes your company as an expert in your field

� Positions your company as a valuable resource

Tip: Content

Start by focusing on a small number of topics that speak to your community members’ shared interests. You can build on

these topics later, using your community as a guide.

Content

People are looking for:

� Useful information on a topic they find interesting or attractive

� Engagement in experiences to improve their personal or professional life

� Examples: How to improve job performance or be a better parent

Content

They are not looking for:

� Information on how to buy more of your product

� Calls to action

� Communication that’s mostly brand-specific

Content

Ask yourself:

� What value am I bringing to my community?

� Why would my community members care?

� What kind of conversation could this generate?

Content

Sources for finding content:

� Google Alerts (set up during Listening)

� Blogs

� News outlets

� The web

� Community members

� Influencers

Tip: Content

YOU can be the best sourceof the valuable content you share with your community.

Messaging

Getting it rightFinding the balance between

self-interest and providing

value in your messaging

Tip: Content

Whatever content you share with your community, keep it bite-sized. This makes for a quick read and it can easily be passed on to others.

Content

Before launching, quietly build your online presence (social networking, blog, etc.) and seed those channels with content

� Helps with attraction

� Nobody wants to be the first

� Nobody wants to join a barren or inactive community (which isn’t a community at all)

Step 5: Launch

Launch

� Activate your channels

� Reach out to the audience and influencers you identified during the listening process

� Invite them to join your community

� Members select themselves based on common interests

Launch

Questions to consider before launching:� Where will you communicate with your

community?� Use those tools and platforms you’ve identified as the best fit for you

� When will you communicate?� Experiment to find the days and times when your community is most active

� How often will you communicate?� Experiment, knowing the community will help you find a balance between too much and too little

Tip: Launch

Remember: You’re inviting people to join and participate in your community, and an effective

invitation does not include a sales pitch.

Step 6: Engaging

Engaging

� Engagement is a way to promote your community and attract new members

� Communities are driven by relationship building, not by the sales cycle� Communicate with people as members or potential members, not as prospects

� People seek out those communities that share their interests

� Allow your community to be a platform for open, honest conversation

Engaging

Participate

� Ask open-ended, thought-provoking questions

� Conduct polls

� Offer incentives

� Contests

� Reward good content and/or participation

� Join in others’ conversations

� Provide thoughtful, expert answers to questions

� Become a trusted friend

Engaging

Engaging influencers� Re-tweet something they’ve said on

Twitter (add an interesting comment)

� Post on their Facebook wall or tag in one of your wall posts

� Comment on a blog post

� Comment on YouTube video

� Mention them in a blog post

� Link to their website or blog

� Be memorable!

Engaging

� Participate in your community at least once a day

� Use more than one of the platforms you’ve decided to use

� Make your participation constant and consistent

� Participation doesn’t have to be starting a conversation

� Don’t drown out everyone else

Ongoing: Responding

Responding

Why respond?

� Community is about two-way interaction

� People want to know they matter.

� Immediacy is key: respond quickly to complaints, endorsements or any kind of mentions.

� A response, especially a fast response, will build or strengthen trust

Tip: Responding

Rule of thumb:

� Work day: respond within 1 hour

� Overnight/weekends: respond within 12 hours

� Do your best

Responding

Negative feedback

� Find a balance between moderating (reactive) and managing (proactive)

� Often the best course of action is no action

� Know when (if ever) to delete a post

� If you must respond, avoid being defensive

� Respond kindly, as quickly as possible

Responding

Seize the opportunity to turn this:

Responding

Into this:

Ongoing: Monitoring

Monitoring

� Use your listening tools and tactics as you continue to monitor and participate in the conversation

� Use aggregation tools like TweetDeck, Seesmic, RSS feeds and email alerts for instant notification of updates to your community.

Monitoring Tools

Example:

TweetDeck� Allows you to

monitor:� Twitter

� Facebook

� LinkedIn

� Others

� Updates regularly, automatically

Tip: Change

� Tools, services and networks are constantly evolving, which means your community will evolve too

� Expect and be prepared for change, especially community-driven change

� If something isn’t working, don’t be afraid to ask the community what they’d like to see

The Family Handyman

Website� Interesting,

informative content

� Forum

� Advice blog

� Social networking logos link to profiles

� Newsletter signup

� “My Project Binder”to personalize experience

� Magazine subscription info

The Family Handyman

Twitter� Engaging content

� Directs traffic to Facebook, website, forum, blog

� Regular schedule –at least once a day

The Family Handyman

Facebook� Engaging content

� Active discussion and participation

� Community

� Family Handyman

� Link to website prominent

� Posts direct traffic to forums, blog

The Family Handyman

E-Newsletters� Interesting content

� Articles link to website

� Specific links to blog and forum included in every issue

� Recognition for community members

� Social networking logos link to profiles

� Magazine subscription info

Homework

ASAP

� Identify your manager

� Set up your listening tools

Homework

7-14 days

� Gather and compile information

� Identify your audience and influencers

� Set up at least a Facebook page and/or Twitter account

� Seed your platforms with content

� Determine your messaging and content

Homework

14 days on

� Launch

� Follow

� Invite members

� Engage

� Respond as much as possible

� Make the time!

Homework

30 days

� Evaluate your efforts

� Change what needs to be changed

Contact

Derek Rice

derekrice@gmail.com

derekrice.wordpress.com

twitter.com/derekjrice

linkedin.com/in/derekrice