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10 Ways You Can Build a More Effective Online Community

March 20th 1:30 pm ET

Angelika Lipkin

Manager of Strategic Partnerships, Higher Logic angelika@higherlogic.com

@angelikalipkin, #HigherLogic

AGENDA • Welcome!

• Association Then & Now

• 2013 Solutions

• Implementation & Launch

• Top 10 Engagement Strategies

• Private Social Community Site in Action

• Discussion & Conversation

SOCIAL MEDIA STATISTICS

• "Social media accounts for one out of

every six minutes spent online in US."

(Journalism.co.uk)

• "It only takes 20 people to bring an

online community to a significant level

of activity and connectivity." (Ning via

TheNextWeb)

• "Nearly half (42%) indicated that if

they've already allocated a portion of

their marketing spend to social media,

they would increase this spend over the

course of the year.” (The Next Web)

STATE OF ASSOCIATIONS

Circa 2009

• Using Lyris Listservs for committees and interest groups

• Lyris Listservs not integrated with AMS (ACGI’s Association Anywhere)

• Relatively low social media presence

Circa 2013 Needs

• Your members are asking for it!

• Drive member retention and engagement

• Attract Gen Y Members

• Transparency

• Provide new member benefits

• Generate non-dues revenue and fund new innovations

• Access to you 24/7/365

THE SOLUTION: LAUNCH A PRIVATE, PROFESSIONAL SOCIAL NETWORK

• Integration with ACGI’s Association Anywhere

• Branded

• Established SSO (Single Sign On)

• Pre-populated member profiles

• Communities, Committees, Special Interest Groups controlled by data within your AMS

LinkedIn Twitter Facebook Your White-

Labeled Community Site

Discussion Forum x x

Exclusive Association Focus and keeping your brand

x

Ability to share documents – Resource Library

x

Find & connect with all association members who have specific attributes

x

Tied directly to your AMS database

x

See your association events & event resources

x

x x

Blogs & Industry News

x x x x

Private Network

Drives traffic to your site Private behind log-in Connected to AMS Engagement reporting Easy to access – on your site Branded to look like your site Banner ads drive revenue Syndication of content

Public (Facebook, LinkedIn) Bill of Privacy Rights Drives traffic AWAY from site Public, unsecure No way to manage members FB being BLOCKED No way to customize look Banner ads inappropriate Recruiting Site

COMPARISON OF PRIVATE/PUBLIC

IMPLEMENTATION

• Create a name for the community site

• Determine initial committees being pulled from your AMS

• Synch over member types, member data and community data

• Member beta testers

HOW MEMBERS USE THE PROFESSIONAL COMMUNITY

• Sharing community resources, i.e., alumni surveys, program evaluations, project management, agenda

• Discussing innovative strategies and best-practices within the industry

• Using their peers as sounding boards

• Exchanging information and solutions

• Sharing opportunities for fellowships, research, hiring

LAUNCH – Marketing Strategies!

• Launch in conjunction with in-person events – Live demos – Handouts posted in conference

community – Camera available for

profile photos

• Transitioned existing Lyris users

• Electronic and print communications – Virtual welcome email – Monthly broadcast email – Feature in monthly assn e-newsletter

• Leveraging social media: FB, Twitter, LinkedIn

Member of the Month

Never underestimate the power of

peer pressure. Help your favorite

members have a complete and

interesting profile. Then, highlight

them (and their sharp Profile

pages) in a recurring Member of

the Month promotion.

Users will click on the link and get

the hint – Profiles reflect the

sophistication of members to their

primary peer group.

1

idea

as seen on

http://engage.reading.org

Top 10 Engagement Strategies

Encourage Open Profiles

Encourage your members to set some Profile items like

company name, position, bio, and email address to public.

Help your members get found through Google for:

• New employment opportunities

• Media inquiries

• Promoting the professional organization

This is especially useful for CPAs, medical, and law

associations where the “member is a business”.

2

idea

Top 10 Engagement Strategies

Train your Users with Webinars

Lead monthly or quarterly webinars on ‘Maximizing the

Value of Private Social Media for Industry Professionals”.

Provide a 30-minute demo of the benefits of the

community site for networking and collaboration.

Record both and post them as webinars in a “New Users”

Resource Library.

3

idea

Top 10 Engagement Strategies

Tease on the Home Page

Preview members-only

content in the Latest

Discussions and Latest

Shared Files items on the

Home Page to promote

joining.

The Parameter is

MemberKeyIfNotLoggedIn.

4

idea

as seen on

http://neuronline.sfn.org

Top 10 Engagement Strategies

Committee Tips

NJSCPA has made the community landing

page the official home for each of their

committees and interest groups.

Success has been maximized by defining

their use as part of committee

procedures. ALL committee documents -

minutes, agendas, handouts, budgets - are

now required to be posted there). Also

displayed are the member list, leader(s) of

the committee/group as well as any

upcoming committee meetings.

Meeting and leader data is pulling directly

from the AMS.

5

idea

as seen on

http://connect.njscpa.org

Top 10 Engagement Strategies

Create a Volunteer Town Square

Offer your members the

opportunity to apply for

volunteers positions,

whether it’s for a year-long

position (Council or committee

seat), quick task (writing a

blog), or short project

(contributing to a newsletter)

6

idea

As seen on ASAE’s

Collaborate

http://collaborate.asaecenter.org/Home/

Top 10 Engagement Strategies

Bribery!

“Bribery” may not be how you want

to label your promotions to

members. But make no mistake

about it, bribery works!

You have metrics you want your

members and users to meet.

Reward your bloggers, your

Community Admins, and your rank

and file by giving them something –

or a chance at something – as a

reward.

7

idea

ethical bribery as seen on

http://network.aia.org

Top 10 Engagement Strategies

Create an Online Mascot

Branding strategies, for everything

from cereal to cars to websites,

often include mascots to help make

the product approachable and

friendly. Many organizations are

applying this element of branding

to their Community websites.

Your Community website mascot

can then have his own profile page

to demonstrate the functionality.

Have fun with your mascot.

8

idea

Higher Logic’s Floyd Frog

http://hug.higherlogic.com/Floyd

Top 10 Engagement Strategies

Renewing Dues on the Community!

Ensure that every member has logged into the

community by redirecting them to renew their

dues on the community site and enticing them to

see all of the latest industry content!

9

idea

Top 10 Engagement Strategies

Hyperlink your Members & BOD to the

Community Site

A great way to drive traffic back to your

community site is to hyperlink any members,

speakers, staff, or board of directors to their

community profile from your www site.

10

idea

Top 10 Engagement Strategies

Training Video, FAQ’s, and Help Line

Create training videos to help your members get

acquainted with the site and FAQ’s for quick answers

S

11

idea

BONUS TIP

External Search

Did you know you

can embed Higher

Logic on your main

site? Doing so will

help users find the

Community Content.

REST web services

make this possible.

Yes, it takes a

developer, but the

instructions needed

to code it are on the

Docs site.

12

idea

BONUS TIP

At the Annual Conference

Drive engagement to your community site pre and post-conference by encouraging:

• Annual conference, have a “Social Media BYOL Session” and “Post-Launch Party”.

• Red carpet & community site backdrop where members can a) take pictures, b)

interviewed via a “Flip Camera”

• Upload of presenter PPT presentations to the Event Community Resource Library

• Crowd-sourcing highly rated and desired sessions

• Blogging by keynote and speakers prior to the conference

• Members to add each other as a contact after they meet their peers at sessions,

receptions, and networking events.

• Starting conference Discussion threads across communities where attendees are

active posters.

• Creating an “Community Contributor” ribbon

• Giving awards for your “Most Active/Engaged Members” at the conference

• Scheduling a tweet-up at the annual meetings for the members that are engaged

in the Open Forum or community discussion groups to meet in person.

13

idea

BONUS TIP

BENEFITS

• Opportunities for members to get a “foot in the door”

• Being the facilitator of dialogue

• Collaboration

• Networking

• Mentor-Mentee Matches

• Keep members engaged

MOBILE APP

AVERAGE ENGAGEMENT STATS

• 6,739 members have logged in at least once

• 6,175 connections made

• 13,883 remain subscribed to Open Forum

• New names on most-engaged list

• New people participating in Open Forum

• New bloggers

• Slow adoption by committees/interest groups – resistance to change

• “Overzealous” members

MEASURING RESULTS

AC

TIV

ITY

B

Y D

AY

DISCUSSION EGROUP STATISTICS

ASCRS: eyeCONNECT Community

BEST PRACTICE HOMEPAGE

• ASHA Connect

• Quick Links

– Communities, Members, Discussions

• My Latest Discussions

• My Recent Shared Filed

• Getting Started

• Popular Search Terms

HOMEPAGE FEATURES

HOMEPAGE FEATURES

• Tweets of your Association

• Most Active Members

• Upcoming Events

• Follow Us On…

• Creation of any new content items

DIRECTORY: PROFILE PAGE

Highlights Include…

• Profile Picture

• “Edit Contact Information” redirects to your AMS

• List of a Member’s Communities

• Lists of Member’s Networks

• Demographics

• Digital Ribbons

• View Friends

• View Mutual Friends

LIST OF “MY NETWORKS”

• Auto-creation of networks based on demographics

• List of peers to network with based on similar interests

DIRECTORY: FIND A MEMBER

DIRECTORY: CONTACT MEMBERS

DIRECTORY: MY MESSAGES

• Contact Requests

• Community Invitations

• Messages in your Inbox

• Messages Sent

COMMUNITIES LIST • Integrate Committees

from your AMS to the Community Site

• Members create new ad-hoc communities on your community site platform

• View Discussions

• View Resource Library

COMMUNITY: LANDING PAGE

COMMUNITIES: JOIN A COMMUNITY

• Members can join member-created communities

• Member can create member-created communities

RESOURCE LIBRARY • File Sharing

• File Categorization and Sorting

• Upload numerous files into an entry

• Add documents as “My Favorites”

• Recommend the document to a friend

• Tag a document

• View statistics of “Views” and “Ratings”

• User Comments

• Related Documents

• Related URLS

• 5-Star Ratings

• Personalized RSS Feeds of Library Updates

RESOURCE LIBRARY: LIST OF ALL LIBRARIES

RESOURCE LIBRARY: VIDEO STREAMING

RESOURCE LIBRARY: SEARCH

• Search by File Types: Audio, PPT, Doc, Zip, XLS, Video

• Search by Specific Library

• Search by Tags and Keywords

RESOURCE LIBRARY: WIKI GLOSSARY • Add association-

specific terms to the glossary for new members to get acclimated

• Members can request definition

• Members can revise entries

DISCUSSION GROUPS Combines two proven technologies…

1. Email List Servers (ListServs)

– Active, immediate response

– High speed communications

(uses Lyris)

2. Threaded Discussions/Forums

– Permanent, searchable content

– Longer thread life

… And improves them

• Much more readable emails

• Reinforce your brand

• Bring members back to the website

• Avoid file attachment issues

• Significant non-dues revenue

opportunities

DISCUSSIONS: VIEW ALL DISCUSSIONS

• View all posts

• View all files

• Auto-Subscribe members to Discussions Forums to increase engagement

• Welcome Email

• Subscriber Reporting

DISCUSSIONS: VIEW THREADS

• Clean, formatted messages look

• Real time, PDA and Daily Digest

• Advanced search feature

• Summary view of all messages sent

• Automatic login option

DISCUSSIONS: POST A MESSAGE • Post a message to up to two Discussion Groups

• Attach a document to a Discussion Post

DISCUSSIONS: MY SUBSCRIPTIONS

• Receive RSS Notifications of New Posts

• Subscribe to the Discussion Forums

– Real Time

– Daily Digest

– PDA

DISCUSSIONS: ADVANCED SEARCH

• Search by…

– Keywords

– Posted Dates

– Authored by

– Specific Discussion Forums

DISCUSSION FORUMS APPEARANCE IN YOUR INBOX

BLOGS

EVENT CALENDAR AND MANAGER

• Allows Event Registration

• View List of Upcoming Events and Details

• Add Events

• View in Calendar and List format

• Search for events

MICROSITES • Individual websites

(microsites) for committees, chapters, councils, ad-hoc groups,or special events

• Separate Content Management System per microsite to manage the homepage and interior pages

• Can Assign Community Admin to manage the microsite

• Unique homepage for the respective microsite

SOCIAL TOOLS

• It’s all about member engagement

– Keep Members Connected

– Improve Communication with and Among Members

– Promote Collaboration and Community

– Huge Member Benefit- Missed if Not Renewed

– One Integrated System – AMS, Private Community, and

Mobile

• With Significant Non-Dues Revenue Opportunities

MOBILE APP

• Mobile App Features:

• View Connected Community Discussions, Resource Libraries

• Member Directory and My Contacts

• Event Calendar, details, and registration

• News and information: Including blog posts, resources, twitter

Angelika Lipkin

angelika@higherlogic.com

@angelikalipkin

Arj Devadas ADevadas@acgisoftware.com

@ACGISoftware

CONNECT WITH US!