Online Community Training

Online Community Training

Dawn Foster
dawn@fastwonder.com
Fast Wonder Consulting
http://FastWonderBlog.com

03/26/09 FastWonderBlog.com 1

Agenda
Introduction and Guiding Principles
●

Planning and Getting Started
●

Content Roadmaps
●

Online Community Management
●

Summary
●


Communities are Different
Websites can be created and left alone
●

Online communities require constant attention
●

and management

Websites with few visitors look the same as a
●

website with many visitors
Online communities with no participation fail
●

publicly


Why Have an Online Community
People: gives people a place to engage with
●

your organization
Innovation: get ideas and feedback
●

Collaboration: work jointly with people
●

toward a common goal
Evangelism: help you grow evangelists for
●

your efforts
Loyalty: engagement can drive a
●

tremendous amount of loyalty toward your
efforts


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


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:
And my poor Bar-bar-loots are
Play Nice: Be polite and
all getting the crummies
respectful in your
because they have gas, and no
interactions with other food in their tummies!quot;
members

What Makes a Community Work?
Open, inclusive and transparent
●

An organization 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 rather than deleting
●

constructively critical comments


Barriers to Community
Community is lip service, not a serious
●

endeavor
Pushing 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 organization monitors or responds
Stale content and lack of participation
●


Planning and Getting Started
Objectives
●

Functionality
●

Structure
●

Seeding Content and Beta Period
●

Example Communities
●


Planning and Objectives
What is your overall strategy and how does
●

the community fit with it?
What do you hope to accomplish and what
●

are your goals for the community?
What are your plans for achieving your
●

goals and how will you measure it?
Do you need to build new or can you join an
●

existing community?
Do you have the resources (people & $) to
●

maintain it long-term?
Spend as much time as you need in this step
If you can't answer these questions, a community might not be the best choice.


The Right Functionality
Not every project needs to be an online
●

community
Not every community needs the same
●

functionality

Match functionality to your requirements
●

Do you need discussions or just a blog?
–

Do you need wiki documents?
–

Do you need something new?
–


Appropriate Structure
Start with as few topic categories as possible
●

Discussions spread across many categories
●

look sparse
Discussions spread across a couple of
●

categories make the community look more
active
Add new topic areas when you need them
●


Seeding Content is Important
You never want to launch a community without
●

content.
Few people want to be the first to participate in
●

an empty community
People will also use the existing content as a
●

model for how they should participate.
All community functions should have some
●

content: blog posts, discussions, resources,
wiki pages, etc.


Seeding Content and Beta Period
Timing: 1-2 weeks prior to announcement
●

Seed the community with at least 5 pieces of
●

content in each area (discussions, wiki, blog)
Invite a dozen people from outside of the
●

organization to join. Pick people with a passion
for the topic who will participate
Ask them to participate by responding
●

(discussions, blog posts) and creating new
content (new discussion topics, wiki pages)


Promotion
Use existing promotional vehicles to reach
●

your audience (email, webinars, newsletters,
customer lists, etc.)
Encourage people from beta phase to help
●

promote it to others
Augment traditional community efforts with
●

social media where appropriate (other blogs,
audio, video, Twitter, Facebook, etc.)
Incentivize people to join & participate
●


Example Communities – Good and Bad
No community is perfect
●

Flickr
●

PC World
●

Navy for Moms
●

Clearstep
●


No Community is Perfect
Every community has strengths and weaknesses
●

Things will go wrong
●

People are human and will make mistakes
–

Your community software, like all software, will have bugs
–

Someone will get defensive or irate
–

Companies have PR nightmares (Intel Pentium floating point)
–

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
–


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
●


PC World Community
http://forums.pcworld.com/index.jspa
●

Good
●

Plenty of activity
–

Good content
–

Focus on members
–

Questions answered quickly by other community
–
members
Improvement
●

Too many subcommunities; some with little activity
–

Sometimes slow to identify and remove spam
–


Navy for Moms
http://www.navyformoms.com/
●

Good
●

Active
–

Filling a need
–

Community answers each other's questions
–

Good use of all features (video, blogs, photos, etc.)
–

Good use of guidelines
–

Bad
●

Too many communities: some with little activity
–

Cluttered interface / hard to find content (Ning)
–


Clearstep
http://www.jivesoftware.com/clearstep/
●

Good
●

Small number of subcommunities
–

Active community
–

Good information
–

Bad
●

Too much company participation, not enough members
–

Difficult to navigate
–

Huge banner pushing content down the page
–


Content Roadmap
Process
●

Overview
●

Content Types
●

Example Format
●


Content Roadmap Process
Rolling one month plan
●

Community manager puts the roadmap together
●

and works with people on assignments and due
dates
Everyone provides suggestions for content
●

Community manager reviews it weekly, makes
●

adjustments, and plans an additional week
Content roadmap is not set in stone:
●

If a great idea comes to you, just write it!
–

Adjustments and substitutions are OK.
–


Content Roadmap Overview
1-3 posts per week in each area:
●

Blog posts
–

Discussion threads
–

Resources
–

Wiki pages
–

etc.
–

Written by a variety of people with expertise
●

Covering a variety of topics – usually pick 3-4
●

topic areas and make sure that you stay focused
and cover all of those 3-4 key topics each week

Content Types
Stimulate Discussion
●

Blog posts and discussion topics should focus on
–
engaging people in discussion and debate or
encouraging them to share information
Thought Leadership is Important (Blogs)
●

Thought leadership posts are interesting to others in
–
your industry and to people who are not members
They should by interesting, thoughtful, analytical, and
–
forward looking.
Inform
●

Resources, web page updates, and wiki pages
–


Example Format

Apparel Inc
Due Person Category Type Topic
Jan 03 Joe Helping Blog Eco Friendly Approaches to Manufacturing
Jan 04 Jim Product Discussion Help us improve our shoes
Jan 05 Beth Helping Blog Partnership with non-profit
Jan 06 Sally In the field Blog Customer showcase: Joe Climbs a Mountain
Jan 07 Jane Helping Discussion Share your stories about giving back to a good cause
Jan 08 Tim Product Document New product line brochure
Jan 09 Ben Product Blog Environmentally friendly new product line
Jan 10 Jill In the field Document Case Study of Distribution Partner


Community Management
Participant Motivation
●

Responsibilities and Skills
●

Dealing with Difficulties
●


Why Do People Participate?
Status &
Social
Fun Recognition
Passion
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
●


Community Managers

Responsibilities Skills
Welcome Wagon Patience
– –

Ongoing Facilitation Networking
– –

Content Management Communication
– –

Evangelism Facilitation
– –

Community Evolution Technical Skills
– –

Marketing
–

Self-Motivation
–

Workaholic Tendencies
–

Organization
–

Dealing with the Difficult
Negative Comments: Do not delete negative
●

feedback. Respond constructively
Spammers: Put aggressive measures in
●

place to deal with spam
Trolls: Don't feed the trolls. They want
●

attention. Resist the urge to give it to them
Highly Critical: Put them to work if possible
●

Bad Behavior: Clear guidelines allow you to
●

delete content that is sexist, racist, hateful,
etc.


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.
Your mother will not mind at
Translation:
all if I do.
Have fun! Lighten it up
occasionally!

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 Consultant
●

More Info: http://fastwonderblog.com/consulting
●

Dawn@FastWonder.com
●

@geekygirldawn on Twitter
●


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