1. Community Management and Development
SESSION 2
SITEL Social Media Communication Workshop
Summer 2013

2. SESSION OBJECTIVES Understand the online community management basics.
Know and be able to create basic pillars of community management strategy & plan.
Know and be able to apply community growing methods and tactics.
Know and be able to apply user retention tactics.
Know and be able to apply community members participation increasing tactics.

3. COMMUNITY MANAGEMENT BASICS

4. ALL COMMUNITIES ARE NOT CREATED EQUAL

5. COMMUNITY TYPES
Based on Interest people who share the same interest or passion
Based on Action people trying to bring about change
Based on Place people brought together by geographic boundaries
Based on Practice people in the same profession or undertake the same activities
Based on Circumstances people brought together by external events/situation

6. What type is your community?

7. PEOPLE JOIN COMMUNITIES FOR A REASON

8. WHAT MEMBERS EXPECT? Sense of belonging Mutual support
Greater influence
Exploration

9. What reasons do you give to your members to join?

10. THE COMMUNITY MANAGEMENT COMMANDEMENTS

11. THE 8 FUNDAMENTAL LAWS Your community must have a purpose
You must create content about your community
You must build personal relationships with your top members
You must let heated debates happen
You must recognize individual contributions from members
You must encourage members to recruit friends
You must share control and power with members
You must not use your admin powers unless absolutely necessary

12. Are you a good community manager?

13. FOLLOWING IS NOT COMMUNITY

14. FOLLOWING vs. COMMUNITY
Short-term
Long-term
Quick growth
Slow growth
Focus on growth
Focus on engagement
Unlimited # members
Limited # members
Limited interaction between members
High interactions between members
Fixed strategy
Emergent strategy
Easy
Hard
Centralized control
Share power with top members
Reactive to questions
Stimulating discussions
Audience wants info about products
Audience wants info about each other
Build relationships with group as a single entity
Build strong relationships with top members

15. What do you want to build – following or community?

16. CUMMUNITY BUILDING IS A TEAM WORK

17. THE 5 TEAM ROLES YOU NEED
THE FRIEND Messages lots of people to get them involved, he takes the time to cultivate loosely interested members into regulars. THE RECRUITER Finds people that have something to contribute and builds relationships with them to join and invite others to do the same. THE ENFORCER Removes the naughty posts, scolds the bad members and ensures nothing gets in the way of members participating in the online community. THE EDITOR Implements much of the community strategy. Solicits content, decides who/what matters. THE ENTREPRENEUR Looks for opportunities to add value to the community. Creates alliances, advocates on behalf of the community.

18. What is your role?

19. PUT THINGS IN ORDER

20. COMMUNITY MANAGER PRIORITIES
Technical problems
Initiate strategy for the week
Draft upcoming pieces of content
Contact top members
Community development
Invite members to join the community
Participate
Resolve disputes
Collect and analyze data

21. What is your list?

22. BIG BRANDS DO MAKE MISTAKES

23. USUAL MISTAKES OF THE BIG BRANDS
No core group
No community manager
No follow through
No content about the community
No community spirit

24. What are your mistakes?

25. STRATEGY & PLANNING

26. THE SECRET FORMULA

27. THE COMMUNITY FORMULA
Specific Audience + Clear Benefit Existing Desire - Business Need A Great Community

28. How can you apply the formula to your community?

29. THE PROCESS OF BUILDING A SUCCESSFUL ONLINE COMMUNITY

30. THE COMMUNITY BUILDING MAP

31. Where is your community on this map?

32. STRATEGY, STRATEGY, STRATEGY

33. STRATEGY PILLARS Growth Events and Activities Content Moderation
Relationships
Technology

34. Do you have a strategy for building your community?

35. SET TARGETS

36. ONLINE COMMUNITY TARGETS
What to measure?
How many members are joining per day?
How many newcomers are becoming regulars?
How many regulars are becoming top contributors?
How many top contributors are becoming volunteer helpers?
Benchmarks
Recruitment growth: 1% per week
Newcomers to regulars: 75%
Regulars to contributors: 10%
Contributors to volunteers: 1%

37. What are your targets?

38. KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE

39. AUDIENCE ANALYSIS Why they have joined the community?
Key issues they care about.
Hopes and aspirations.
Fears and concerns.
Language they use when they talk.
Common symbols they share.

40. How well do you know your people?

41. PLAN YOUR WEEK

42. MAIN ACTIVITIES ACTIVITY HOURS NOTES Strategy 2
collecting/analyzing data
Growth 10
direct invites, promotion, referral tactics etc...
Moderation 8
initiating discussions, resolving disputes, soliciting responses, steering the community
Content 4
writing content and encouraging others to contribute
Relationships 6
personal participation, cultivating volunteers, befriending key members
Technology
maintenance, optimizing areas of the site, checking out future technology

43. How do you use your time?

44. @HOME

45. People will participate in my community because…
HOME ASSIGNMENT
Complete this sentence in no more than 12 words:
People will participate in my community because…
Be specific, what is the one clear benefit members will get from participating in your community. Also, be honest with yourself. Is the reason you give strong enough for people to spend hours of their time every week in your community? Will they make sacrifices for it? Like cut down on television, browsing websites and going out?

46. GROWING COMMUNITIES

47. BIGGER OR BETTER? Making a community bigger won’t necessarily make it better. In fact, evidence suggests that making a community bigger will decrease the level of participation. It gets noisier, harder to follow and less personable than it used to be.

48. TYPES OF COMMUNITY GROWTH
Replenishment New members replace departing members.
Expansion Expansion should not be the default setting. Specific growth for a specific reason.
Organic Usually is in the form of a referral or mention of the community in other popular channels. Organic growth is the ideal passage of growth.

49. What is your community’s growth type?

50. JOINING A COMMUNITY IS A PROCESS

51. THE JOINING PROCESS Member hears about the community.
Member visits and browses
Member identifies something they want to participate in.
Member registers.
Member participates.
Member returns to see reaction to participation.
Member gradually builds relationships and continues to return.

52. What is your process?

53. GET TACTICAL

54. BASIC GROWTH TACTICS IDEAS
Ask members to invite friends.
Keep score of top recruiters.
The "share this" page.
Competitions.
Give members something for their friends.
Provoke debates between popular groups.
Birthdays and celebrations.
Interviews.

55. What other tactics do you use?

56. INVITE SMART Don’t ask members to invite friends simply to grow bigger
INVITE SMART Don’t ask members to invite friends simply to grow bigger. How does that benefit anyone? Only ask them to invite friends for a specific reason.

57. GET REFERRALS
The secret to referrals is to ensure that each referral benefits the member. For example:
Increases their status within the community.
Increases their status in the eyes of their friend.
Improves the community.
Helps their friend.

58. What is your referral strategy?

59. THE POWER OF SCALE

60. PROCESSES FOR SCALING Recruit, train, manage and motivate volunteers.
Rewriting guidelines if they are violated too frequently.
Encourage members to submit their own news.
Setup a community address which several volunteers can access and reply to.
Teach volunteers to recruit and train other volunteers.
Automate members inviting their friends.
Let members apply to run various forum categories.
Allow members to create their own groups, initiate events, start live-discussions.
Start a tradition of regulars welcoming newcomers.
Write detailed guidelines for doing your job.

61. Which of these processes are implemented in your community?

62. @HOME

63. CREATE 10 SPECIFIC IDEAS TO GROW OUR COMMUNITY

64. USER RETENTION

65. A WARM WELCOME

66. THE ULTIMATE WELCOME Drop the automated welcomes. Introduce yourself.
Send them a welcome pack (see next slide).
Introduce others to the new member.
Automate discussions (knowledge base).
Have a weekly update of newcomers.

67. THE WELCOME PACK Community guidelines. Latest monthly newsletter.
Community History.
Profiles of top members.
Etiquette, Language and Running Jokes
Upcoming events.
Suggestion box.

68. How do you welcome your new members?

69. PARTICIPATION IS A HABIT

70. 21 DAYS OF PARTICIPATION Early Achievements.
Newcomer of the month award.
Buddy System.
Newbie Rituals.
Weekly Newcomer List.
Introduce new members to groups.
Assign a role.
Have a graduation on the 21st day.

71. Can you keep newcomers’ attention for 21 days?

72. ASK THEM QUESTIONS

73. WHAT TO ASK THE NEW MEMBERS?
How did you first become interested in {topic}?
What was your best experience in {topic}
Who do you most admire/who is your favourite {topic person}?
What do you think will happen in {topical issue}?
What do you want to get from this community?

74. What questions do you ask your new members?

75. NOTIFICATION CYCLE IS THE KEY

76. COMMUNITY NOTIFICATION CYCLE
Notification Types
“Welcome” message
“New reply” message
Updates / News
Hot Topics
Newcomers
Keep the balance
Ask newcomers to make their first contribution
"Do you agree with {member-name} that {x} is better than {y}?"
or.. "How did you first become interested in {topic}?"

77. What is your notification cycle?

78. UNITE THE COMMUNITY

79. HOW TO UNITE THE COMMUNITY
Common enemies.
Common goals.
Being attacked.
Fear.
Clear insider/outsider divide.
Great achievements.
Shared experiences.

80. What uniting tactics do you use?

81. SUPERUSERS

82. YOUR KEY COMMUNITY MEMBERS
Identify who you want to build a relationship with.
Review their contributions to the community.
Question, compliment, or comment.
Continue the discussion.
Sustain the relationship.
Only ask for something when you have completed the steps above.

83. Who are your top users? Do you know them well?

84. REWARD LOYALITY

85. REWARDING GUIDELINES
Who do you reward? Segment your community members by activity, contributions, status, duration in the community and identify those whose behavior you would most like to change.
Why do you reward them? Your most active members are often those you don't need to reward.
How do you reward them? What are their motivations? Efficacy? Fame? Money? Power? Achievement? How do you translate these motivations into a reward you can offer?
How do you measure the effectiveness of that reward? When you issue the reward, how will you measure what level of influence it has on the individual's behavior?

86. REWARDS IDEAS Interview members. Monthly awards. eBook.
Official letter of corporate gratitude.
Official status.
Thank them personally.
Honours badge.
Special privileges.
Invitation to an insider’s group.

87. How do you reward your loyal members?

88. @HOME

89. CREATE 10 SPECIFIC IDEAS TO KEEP MEMBERS IN

90. INCREASING PARTICIPATION

91. THE POWER OF QUESTIONS

92. WHY QUESTIONS?
Questions are more fun than statements.
Questions are mini-competitions.
Questions show you give a damn.
If you’re not asking plenty of questions, you’re missing out plenty of responses.

93. IDEAS: WHAT TO ASK? What is your favorite ………. ?
What is your average day like?
What do you think about ………?
Can anyone recommend …..?
Can anyone fix …… ?
What is the best/worst …………….. ?
Is {x} really better than {y}?
Who/What are your top 5 …………… ?
How would you handle {topical issue}?
Has anyone tried…………….. ?
What would you do if ……. ?
What should every newcomer know about ….?
Share your pictures/top tips here.

94. What questions do you ask?

95. CONVERSATIONS ENGAGE PEOPLE

96. CONVERSATIONS FOR ACTIVITY
What is your average day like?
What was your best/worst experience ….?
What/who is your favorite/worst ….?
What ‘…’ do you use?
Rank these 5 things in order of like/hate.
Nominate a member for ‘member of the month’.

97. What do you talk with your community about?

98. UNDERSTAND THIS…

99. WHY PEOPLE STAY IN? My friends are here. All my data is here.
People know me here.
I have power here.
I have a mission here.
I’ve customized my profile.
I’ve contributed a lot here.

100. What reasons do you give them to stay?

101. FAME & POWER

102. GIVE THEM FAME Have a hall-of-fame for people who achieve something.
Organize competitions to help people become famous in your community.
Have high-achievers mentioned in the newsletter.
Let super-members write their own columns/blogs.
Frequently refer back to big achievements by members
Interview top members.
Host a member of the week.
Hold annual awards.
Have a popularity rating for members.
Send interesting stories about top members to industry journalists.

103. GIVE THEM POWER Give super-members moderation duties
Ask super-members for their advice on key issues and even about your client’s products and services.
Consult top members when considering what to do about a disruptive member.
Give these members the power to approve comments/pictures/columns by other members.
Give members initiatives and projects they can run.
Let members run sections and elements of the community, even grow a related community using the same technology.
Invite all top members to a board that makes decisions on community matters. They can vote who joins the board.
Create a list of members who have these powers – let everyone see.

104. Do you have ways to give fame and/or power to members?

105. GROUP & CONQUER

106. LET MEMBERS FORM GROUPS
Develop a criteria for a worthwhile group.
Approach the members.
Give groups recognition and power.
Provide groups opportunities to do things.
Let some groups have great rewards.
Build close relationships with the leaders of the most active groups.
Give group recommendations to new members.
Call for specific groups to form on issues.
Keep score between groups.

107. Do you have groups in your community?

108. STIMULATE DISCUSSIONS

109. HOW TO STIMULATE DISCUSSIONS?
Find out…
What do your members really care about?
What are your members’ biggest problems?
What do your members do? (habits online/offline)
Initiate Discussions Along These Lines
For example, what is the best way to…?
How many of you have found {x} is really difficult?
Have you ever found that….?

110. How do you stimulate discussions?

111. BOOST RESPONSIVENESS

112. INCREASE RESPONSIVENESS BY…
Ensure every discussion receives a reply within 24 hours. You need to work hard or have volunteers to do this.
Create a weekly list of unanswered questions/toughest questions.
Bump popular discussions towards the top of the community, let weaker discussions slide.
Proactively recruit experts to take responsibility for certain topics. If someone makes an excellent contribution to a discussion, ask if s/he would like to be responsible for responding to discussions on that topic.
Guide contributions with a list of topical issues newcomers might want to make a post about (and topics not to initiate a discussion about)
Recruit members/groups with a particular interest in a specific topic.
Write content about discussions taking place ("Mike asked a tricky discussion about ....")
Promote discussions through social media channels with links back to where members can reply.

113. What methods do you use to increase responsiveness?

114. @HOME

115. CREATE 10 SPECIFIC IDEAS GETTING MEMBERS TO BE MORE ACTIVE

116. BONUS SLIDES

117. REPUTATION SYSTEMS By access levels. By registration date.
By quantity of contributions.
By quality of contributions.
By frequency.
Special distinction.
Leaderboards.
By a combination of the above.

118. DEVELOPING FORUM COMMUNITIES
Private Forums.
Member of the week profiles.
Invite VIPs.
Private message your top members.
Give top experts their own forum.
Introduce to single forums.
Add a blog that rounds up the best of the forum.
Dummies Guide
Create an education course from your best discussions.

119. IDEAS TO INCREASE ACTIVITY
Ensure the latest activity is above the fold on the homepage.
Tweak your notification system.
Write content mentioning members by name.
Ask members what they want in a community, then offer it.
Pick an issue to campaign for/against.
Recruit volunteers for sustaining activity in different areas.
Use weekly issue/discussion themes.

120. COMMUNICATE LIKE HUMAN
Write in 1st person. People talk to people. The us is a clear sign that this is an organization that wont pay attention to your response.
Lead with the question, not the content. e.g. What do you think about {x}? I've been considering {y} or {x} for some time. I noticed recently that {x} now has {something}. Does anyone know much about this?
Engage first, tell second. If you would like convey information in this way, then ask people what they think about it first. Then when they reply you can respond with more information weave into your own thoughts.
Ask specific people in the community to reply. Pick out popular community members and ask them to reply first. e.g. "I would love to hear what Mike or Joanna think about this"
Phrase it as a personal question. Has anyone had any experience with ....?
Use closed questions. Do you think this will be better than {y}. How many of you think this will have a big impact on {y}?
State your opinion. If you want someone's opinion, it helps to give an opinion. People can then agree or disagree with you.
Tell a personal relevance story. Begin with a story. Why are you asking this? Why do you want their opinion? Not why the organization wants their opinion - but why you, personally, want their opinion.
Get emotional. If you think your community might be angry with something, then tell them that they might be angry. Identify with their emotion.

121. How To Handle Troublemakers
Do nothing.
Kick and ban them.
Suspend them.
Punish them.
Reason with them.
Sidetrack them.
Let the community decide.
Bribe them.

122. Thank You!