Online communities are all the rage in today's talk of web 2.0, social media, new media, and other buzzwords, but despite the hype, communities should not be dismissed as a fad. Online community engagement is a critical part of any company's strategy. This presentation examines best practices and tips for engaging with online communities and will help you understand how to incorporate community efforts into broader marketing programs and other company initiatives.

1. Companies and Communities
Participating without being sleazy
Dawn Foster
dawn@fastwonder.com
Fast Wonder Consulting
http://FastWonderBlog.com
10/10/08 FastWonderBlog.com 1

2. Agenda
● Introduction: Community is Key
● Case Studies and Best Practices
● Engaging with Existing Communities
● Building and Managing a New Community
● Incorporation into Existing Online Marketing Efforts
10/10/08 FastWonderBlog.com 2

3. Agenda
● Introduction: Community is Key
● Types of online communities and ways to participate
● Why you need to engage with online communities
● Community “ownership”
● Guiding principals for participation
● Case Studies and Best Practices
● Engaging with Existing Communities
● Building and Managing a New Community
● Incorporation into Existing Online Marketing Efforts
10/10/08 FastWonderBlog.com 3

4. What is this thing we call community?
In Person Community Activities
10/10/08 FastWonderBlog.com 4

5. What is this thing we call community?
Broad Community Sites
10/10/08 FastWonderBlog.com 5

6. What is this thing we call community?
Corporate / Customer Communities
10/10/08 FastWonderBlog.com 6

7. What is this thing we call community?
Virtual Communities
10/10/08 FastWonderBlog.com 7

8. Why Have an Online Community
● People: gives people a place to engage with
your company
● Product Innovation: get product feedback
● Evangelism: help you grow evangelists for
your products from outside of your company
● Brand Loyalty: engagement can drive a
tremendous amount of loyalty for your
products
10/10/08 FastWonderBlog.com 8

9. Community Ownership
● The community quot;ownsquot; the community
● A company who starts a community:
– owns the infrastructure
– facilitates the discussions
– moderates and keeps people in check
● If the company doesn't play nice with the
community, the community will take
discussions elsewhere
● Like hosting a party
10/10/08 FastWonderBlog.com 9

10. Guiding Principles: It's All About the People
● Focus on the individuals: Participate as a
person, not a corporate entity
● Be Sincere: Sincerity = believability & credibility
● Not all about you: Community is about
conversation, which is by definition two-way
● Be a Part of the Community: Don't try to control
the community
● Everyone’s a Peer: You are not the expert;
knowledge comes from everywhere
10/10/08 FastWonderBlog.com 10

11. Play Nice
quot;I'm the Lorax who speaks for
the trees which you seem to
be chopping as fast as you
please.
NOW...thanks to your hacking
my trees to the ground, there's
not enough Truffula Fruit to go
'round.
Translation:
Play Nice: Be polite and And my poor Bar-bar-loots are
all getting the crummies
respectful in your
because they have gas, and no
interactions with other food in their tummies!quot;
members
10/10/08 FastWonderBlog.com 11

12. Agenda
● Introduction: Community is Key
● Case Studies and Best Practices
● What works well
● What to avoid
● Dealing with the difficult (topics, members, etc.)
● Engaging with Existing Communities
● Building and Managing a New Community
● Incorporation into Existing Online Marketing Efforts
10/10/08 FastWonderBlog.com 12

13. What Makes a Community Work?
● Open, inclusive and transparent
● A company who listens (to good and bad)
● Actively engaged in the community
● Encouraging new members
● Making it easy for people to participate
● Integration into other relevant areas of the
site
● Responding to criticism (never deleting
negative comments)
10/10/08 FastWonderBlog.com 13

14. Companies with Communities to Avoid
● Community is lip service, not a serious
endeavor
● Pushing marketing messages takes
precedence over 2-way collaboration
● Community software / configuration /
policies that get in the way of collaboration
● Neglected communities where no one in
the company monitors or responds
10/10/08 FastWonderBlog.com 14

15. Flickr: Community Done Well
● Clear and simple guidelines (ex. Don’t be
creepy. You know the guy. Don't be that guy.)
● Easy to use and intuitive to participate
(comments, favorites, tags, notes)
● Transparency about people (profile, favorites,
groups, etc.)
● Private, public
● Little things: Comments you've made
10/10/08 FastWonderBlog.com 15

16. Dealing with the Difficult
● Negative Comments: Do not delete negative
feedback. Respond constructively
● Spammers: Put aggressive measures in
place to deal with spam
● Pain in the ***s: Put them to work if possible
10/10/08 FastWonderBlog.com 16

17. Don't Feed the Trolls
“oh-oh!” Sally said.
Don't you talk to that cat.
That cat is a bad one,
That Cat in the Hat.
He plays lots of bad tricks.
Translation: Don't you let him come near.
You know what he did
Don't encourage the
The last time he was here.”
trolls. They want
attention. Resist the urge
to give it to them!
10/10/08 FastWonderBlog.com 17

18. Agenda
● Introduction: Community is Key
● Case Studies and Best Practices
● Engaging with Existing Communities
● Where to participate (and where not to participate)
● How to avoid being spammy
● Building and Managing a New Community
● Incorporation into Existing Online Marketing Efforts
10/10/08 FastWonderBlog.com 18

19. Where (and how) to Participate
● Industry Communities (PCWorld, etc.)
– Participation by subject experts (not marketing)
– Find people passionate about the topic and have
them participate as part of their job
● Blogging (corporate & personal)
– Talk about ideas, thoughts, & industry trends
– Comment on other blogs with insightful information
● Social Media sites
– Engage as people on Facebook, Twitter, etc. with
discussions about your job as one part
10/10/08 FastWonderBlog.com 19

20. Where and How NOT to Participate
● Do not participate on competitor's sites
(considered slimy & bad manners)
• Do quietly monitor competitor’s communities and
learn from them
● Do not participate in communities solely to
pimp your products. If you can't participate as
a person with diverse interests, then have
someone else do it
● Do not mention your products in every post
or comment. Talk about the industry first &
your products second
10/10/08 FastWonderBlog.com 20

21. People are Watching You
“My eyes see.
His eyes see.
I see him.
And he sees me.
And so we say, Translation:
“Hooray for eyes! People see everything
Hooray, hooray, hooray... you do in the community.
... for eyes!” Be a good example of
the “right” behavior.
10/10/08 FastWonderBlog.com 21

22. Agenda
● Introduction: Community is Key
● Case Studies and Best Practices
● Engaging with Existing Communities
●
Building & Managing a New Community
● Articulating the strategy and purpose
● Managing communities over time
● Incorporation into Existing Online Marketing Efforts
10/10/08 FastWonderBlog.com 22

23. Clear Purpose is Key (start here)
● Do you need to build new or can you
leverage an existing community
● What do you hope to accomplish and what
are your goals for the community?
● What is your overall strategy and how does
the community fit with it?
● What are your plans for achieving your
goals and how will you measure it?
● Do you have the resources (people & $) to
maintain it long-term?
10/10/08 FastWonderBlog.com 23

24. Refresher: Why Have a Community
Build these into your strategy / purpose
● People: gives people a place to engage with
your company
● Product Innovation: get product feedback
● Evangelism: help you grow evangelists for
your products from outside of your company
● Brand Loyalty: engagement can drive a
tremendous amount of loyalty for your
products
10/10/08 FastWonderBlog.com 24

25. Community Managers
“Jobs of the future, #1: Online What Skills do we need?
Community Organizer
– Patience
... If you were great at this, I'd imagine
you'd never ever have trouble finding good
– Networking
work.”
--Seth Godin
– Communication
– Facilitation
What do we do? – Technical Skills
– Ongoing Facilitation – Marketing
– Content Creation – Self-Motivation
– Evangelism – Workaholic Tendencies
– Community Evolution – Organization
10/10/08 FastWonderBlog.com 25

26. Make it Fun
Why do you sit there like that?
I know it is wet.
And the sun is not sunny.
But we can have lots of good
fun that is funny!
I know some good games we
could play.
I know some new tricks.
I will show them to you.
Translation: Your mother will not mind at
all if I do.
Have fun! Lighten it up
occasionally!
10/10/08 FastWonderBlog.com 26

27. Agenda
● Introduction: Community is Key
● Case Studies and Best Practices
● Engaging with Existing Communities
● Building and Managing a New Community
● Incorporation into Existing Marketing Efforts
● Participation and motivation
● Promotion
● Incorporation into other efforts
10/10/08 FastWonderBlog.com 27

28. Why Do People Participate?
Social Status &
Fun Recognition
Passion Gift
Culture Financial
Work
Career
Develop Learning
Advancement
Skills
● Motivation is complex (multiple influences)
● If people aren't motivated, they won't participate
● Promotion must take motivation into account
10/10/08 FastWonderBlog.com 28

29. Promotion
● Use existing promotional vehicles to reach
your customers
● With any new community, run a limited beta
for customers. Get their feedback and let
them help promote it to others
● Augment traditional community efforts with
social media: corporate & personal blogs,
audio, video, Twitter, Facebook, etc.
● Incentivize people to join & participate
10/10/08 FastWonderBlog.com 29

30. Promotional No-No’s
● Do not use your community to sell anything
– Use your community to get people excited about
your products
– If you get people excited, they will figure out how
to buy it.
● Do not promote your community on
competitor's sites (slimy)
● Do not use social media (twitter, facebook,
blogs, etc.) with the sole purpose of pimping
– Talk about your ideas, thoughts, and products
with a personal spin (what YOU are doing)
10/10/08 FastWonderBlog.com 30

31. Incorporation into Existing Efforts
● Look at your overall strategy
● Find the places where community fits in:
– People can engage with your company
– Product Innovation & get product feedback
– Evangelism to help you grow evangelists (outside)
– Brand Loyalty for your products.
● Articulate a clear purpose for the community
● Promote it using traditional channels
● Use social media to further grow your
community
10/10/08 FastWonderBlog.com 31

32. Be Flexible
Never budge!
That's my rule.
Never budge
in the least!
Not an inch to the west!
Not an inch to the east!
Translation: I'll stay here, not budging!
I can and I will
Be flexible.
Improvements and ideas If it makes you and me and the
come from unexpected whole world stand still.
places.
10/10/08 FastWonderBlog.com 32

33. Conclusion
● Community is Key
● Clear purpose, plan, and strategic
alignment with existing efforts
● Engage in a variety of communities
● Incorporate communities into existing
online marketing efforts
● Play nice, be flexible and have fun
10/10/08 FastWonderBlog.com 33

34. Q&A
Additional Resources:
● http://fastwonderblog.com/starting-point/
● http://www.web-strategist.com/blog
● http://www.onlinecommunityreport.com/
● http://www.communityguy.com
● http://bestengagingcommunities.com/
About Dawn:
● Online Community and Social Media Consultant
● More Info: http://fastwonderblog.com/consulting
● Dawn@FastWonder.com
● @geekygirldawn on Twitter
10/10/08 FastWonderBlog.com 34

35. Backup Materials
10/10/08 FastWonderBlog.com 35

36. No Community is Perfect
● Things will go wrong
– Your community software will have bugs
– Someone will get defensive or irate
– Companies have PR nightmares (remember Pentium floating
pt issue?)
● In great communities, the company
responds effectively
– Addresses the issue and works to resolve it quickly
– Keeps the focus on summarizing and fixing, instead of blaming
and justifying
– Maintains open communication channels
10/10/08 FastWonderBlog.com 36

37. Reputation Systems
● The Good ● The Practical
– People like points & – Transparency
recognition – Members award points
– Encourages – Adjust over time
participation
– Highlight and reward
key members
● The Bad
– They will game it!
– Does this make it
worthless?
10/10/08 FastWonderBlog.com 37

38. Participate Where it Makes Sense
● Your own community
● Related communities where your audience is
already participating
● Blogging (personal and corporate)
● Audio & video (YouTube/Vimeo/BlipTv)
● Twitter
● Facebook
● Many others
10/10/08 FastWonderBlog.com 38

39. Community Structures and Adoption
● Emergent
– Pros: Easy to implement, User buy-in, Unanticipated
structure
– Cons: Writer's block, Off-topic
● Highly Structured
– Pros: Control, Clear expectations
– Cons: Restrictive, Inflexible, Community resistance,
Structure that doesn't work for community
● Adaptive
– Pros: User buy-in, Some control, Evolve in unanticipated
positive directions
– Cons: Less Control, User traction required
10/10/08 FastWonderBlog.com 39

40. Traditional Promotion (Customers)
● Use your existing promotional vehicles to
reach your customers
● Tell them about your community efforts
● Share your strategy & purpose with them
● Incentivize them to join & participate
● With any new community, run a limited beta
for customers. Get their feedback and let
them help promote it to others
10/10/08 FastWonderBlog.com 40

41. Social Media Engagement
● Augment traditional community efforts with
social media
● Blog about your community efforts on
company & personal blogs (make sure your
blogs are listed)
● Use Audio / Video to share information
relevant to your community. Host it on popular
sites (YouTube, etc.) and embed it in your
community
● Talk about what you are doing on Twitter,
Facebook, and other social sites
10/10/08 FastWonderBlog.com 41

42. On Domain or Off Domain: Strategic Decision
● YourCompany.com
– More focus on your products
– Clarity about who facilitates the community
– Authority source for product info (features, etc.)
● Off-Domain (YourIndustry.com, etc.)
– Focus on a segment or industry
– Accept discussions about competitors
– Possibly better perception of neutrality
– Slightly less authority about your products
10/10/08 FastWonderBlog.com 42