presentation by Stuart Hall
Good practice & strategy: online community & social media
Introduction: the simpler the better
A good strategy = simple strategy: one that can be implemented, measured & adapted to promote growth (offline & online)
Implementation and metrics go hand in hand so it’s clear what’s working & why
Results can be feedback to advance new & existing objectives, to drive performance
Strategy
The importance of guidelines & governance
Need consistent use of the community guidelines – and for them to be owned by the community: culture is key
Needs also to be guidelines for staff & offline groups on how to use social media: with training workshops > online support
Plus agreement on how to respond to difficult community questions & system to log issues
Objectives > metrics > results
Any such strategy needs to founded on meeting organisational aims
Objectives need to be measured, monitored and targets agreed, with allocated actions linked to team objectives & appraisal
Periodic healthcheck to guide to success Challenge is to measure readers offline
Engaging your audiences
Core purpose of social strategy is to promote engagement, not just member numbers?
Engagement success is based on an understanding of what your audiences want
Strategy for engagement needs to start from inside out – first with existing presence
Use listening tools to reach right people in right places: finding ‘influencers’
The feedback ‘figure of eight’
‘Use or lose it’ - strategy needs to connect offline & online groups & events, networks & consultation
Tactics need to fit both member and org goals > connecting site & community in a feedback figure of eight
Key contributions will be those that publicly impact on content, processes or products
Practice
First step: create a workable strategy
Start with understanding of digital strategy Then lead the development of an online
community & social media strategy Based on audit of current state of online
community, and social media assets Internally to include team approach, through
to success in meeting overall objectives
Second step: match up strategy & objectives
As a result create a practical strategy as the roadmap for development
It in turn would be supported by agreed objectives, metrics & targets
Which would be matched vs. individual team objectives, with system of overall & individual performance monitoring put in place
Third step: guidelines & governance
Moving to improving engagement would first focus on the community and look to improve role of advocates/champions
Plus implement clearer, shared community guidelines & system for recording issues
And set up an internal shared learning resource for examples of good practice and issue resolution for the team
Fourth step: promoting the community
Next need to look better promote the value of the community for the audiences - making sure its promoted at offline events & conferences
Plus use existing social media tools to also drive awareness and engagement of the community, such as Facebook group
Create feedback loop between the two
Fifth step: interaction and integration
Finally look to enhance use of social media tools in line with objectives through interaction and integration
Integration in sense of meeting objectives for overall strategy, and to allow community to share posts via Twitter for example
But need to allow individual voices, rather than an organisational one, to get full value
Finally..
Aim is to create a strategy that is clear in its objectives – ask what will success look like?
To support its implementation with metrics & monitoring, with clear team responsibilities
To ensure feedback from audiences, metrics, and results is all acted upon
Any questions?