Proprietary and Confidential © 2008 iBelong Networks, Inc. Community: A primer on living together online

Proprietary and Confidential © 2008 iBelong Networks, Inc. What is community? Definition –a social, religious, occupational, or other group sharing common characteristics or interests and perceived or perceiving itself as distinct in some respect from the larger society within which it exists Origin –the Latin prefix com- (which means "together") – and the word munis probably originally derived from the Etruscan word munis- (meaning "to have the charge of"). –So literally: together we have charge of

Proprietary and Confidential © 2008 iBelong Networks, Inc. Paleocommunity—Interacting offline Gatherings of like individuals exchanging ideas and information is as old as…well civilization. Why you should stop worrying and learn to love community Plato’s Academy

Proprietary and Confidential © 2008 iBelong Networks, Inc. Paleocommunity—Interacting offline Socrates was the perhaps first community participant expelled for a Terms of Service violation Why you should stop worrying and learn to love community Of course there are risks.

Proprietary and Confidential © 2008 iBelong Networks, Inc. Paleocommunity—Interacting offline In modern times party lines were seen as an easy-to-use way for people to meet and get to know each other. Why you should stop worrying and learn to love community Party Line Telephones

Proprietary and Confidential © 2008 iBelong Networks, Inc. Paleocommunity—Interacting offline And they still are! Why you should stop worrying and learn to love community

Proprietary and Confidential © 2008 iBelong Networks, Inc. You may already have experience in community if you… Conduct focus groups or advisory panels Offer a suggestion box to employees or clients Attend conferences or attend tradeshows Advertise Do promotions or buy promotional materials

Proprietary and Confidential © 2008 iBelong Networks, Inc. © Copyright MITAGroup, Inc The Evolution of Community Online IRC & Usenet Homesteading and Personal Websites Blogs, Wikis Social Networks Information Exchanges Forums, Chat, Instant Messaging Content Centric Unstructured Ubiquitous Pre-webWeb 1.0 Web 2.0Web 3.0 StructuredUnstructured Communication Evolution User Centric Horizontal Decentralized Higher Participation Rate “Destination” Centric Hierarchical Low Participation Rate

Proprietary and Confidential © 2008 iBelong Networks, Inc. Successful Online Communities In existence since 1985 Moved from pre-web into a web-based community Multi-Channel, general interest Forum/Message Board community, some social networking Paid subscriptions

Proprietary and Confidential © 2008 iBelong Networks, Inc. Successful Online Communities Well-Like community combined with dial-up access Multi-Channel, general interest Forums, instant messaging, chat, homesteading, social networking

Proprietary and Confidential © 2008 iBelong Networks, Inc. Successful Online Communities Web personals Member profile, profile matching, member-to-member communications Paid subscriptions, advertising

Proprietary and Confidential © 2008 iBelong Networks, Inc. Successful Online Communities Buyer/Seller transactional community 100 million members strong Stores, catalogs, auction tools Seller posts, buyer auctions, seller reputation

Proprietary and Confidential © 2008 iBelong Networks, Inc. Successful Online Communities A collaborative, community-driven encyclopedia 10 million articles, 250 languages Wiki Free, users enter articles or edit existing articles

Proprietary and Confidential © 2008 iBelong Networks, Inc. What makes an effective community? Relatively large group of motivated people A clear purpose or defining rationale Related set of interactions Users define context Dynamic: lots of content that changes frequently Leaders key to success They didn’t happen overnight

Proprietary and Confidential © 2008 iBelong Networks, Inc. What others have learned Source: Tribalization of Business

Proprietary and Confidential © 2008 iBelong Networks, Inc. Community Audience Leaders Contributing Supporters Opportunistic Supporters Browsing Supporters Potential Supporters 80% + 10% - 15% 3% - 10% 0% - 3% Why success factors matter…

Proprietary and Confidential © 2008 iBelong Networks, Inc. Where might you use “community?” Internally: –Collaborative Market intelligence –Communicating with sales force or partners –Best practice or knowledge sharing networks –Senior manage blogs or podcasts –Wiki-Based collaboration around sales or technical documents –A social network to help find “experts” within your organization External –“Crowd Sourcing” with clients to plan the next product –Communicating tech library, recall and warranty information to current customers –Collaborative help desk communities –Advocacy and public affairs efforts –PR and promotions

Proprietary and Confidential © 2008 iBelong Networks, Inc. Questions to ask when starting a community Why am I doing this? What do I want out of it? Who is my audience? What do they want out of this? What kind of community best fulfills my goals and my audience’s expectations? How do I attract people? How do I keep them coming back? How will I manage this after I start it? How do I measure success?

Proprietary and Confidential © 2008 iBelong Networks, Inc. Things to remember Community is a process, not a product Community is about people, not technology Communities are grown not launched Not “nice to have”…essential and integrated Successful community doesn’t mean you’re accomplishing anything

Proprietary and Confidential © 2008 iBelong Networks, Inc. Things to remember If you’re afraid to hear what people say, don’t ask in the first place If people want to misuse your content and brand they don’t need your community to do it.

Proprietary and Confidential © 2008 iBelong Networks, Inc. Community killers Finding people, getting them to interact and finding the time manage

Proprietary and Confidential © 2008 iBelong Networks, Inc. How to start If you need help, get it –Vendors may not be the best advisors –Your IT shop may not be either Make a plan –Not a community plan…a plan to use community –Plan to spend money, but don’t over-invest –Experiment! Take chances! –Don’t hurry –Recruiting and keeping participants is the hardest part Start small, build on success –Good team = good community –Nurture leaders and early adopters –Cheat if you have to