Tech Soup Presentation Jan 2010

Online Community

BuildingOnline Community

Report MeetUp

TechSoup January 2010

The Online Ecosystem

Organizations now have the opportunity to interact with their stakeholders beyond one website.

Source: Common Knowledge

Social Media Derives its Power Thru Trust

Source: Faris Yakob http://tinyurl.com/c8c256

Confidential

And Different Rules Apply

Source: Neil Perkin ‘What’s Next in Media’ (Slide 9)

Confidential

Start with a Purpose in Mind

Scan the environment Get together with top contributors,

advisors, community manager Define the ‘What’ ‘Who’ ‘How’ and ‘Why’ Personalize the pitch to members Test drive and improve

Can you devote enough Capacity, if not rethink!

Confidential

Slowly build your audience / collaborators

The first 10 members set the tone Recruit people who set the standards for

participation and achievement. Look for complementary skill sets,

geographic representation, and cross-membership

Build from your existing offline community

Engage external communities to listen, learn, get involved, and reach out

Experiment & Get Tool Mix Right

Adapted from: Christian Renaud, Technology Intelligence Group

Understand and nurture your communitySource: Edelman

Segment Your Community

Any communities have various types of users:

CreatorsCritics Collectors JoinersSpectatorsInactives

Know your community's ecology and who to give attention to.

Building Online Community

Rule 1: Clear PurposeThe purpose of what you do is more important than the tool you choose

Rule 2: Easy EngagementMake is easy for people to find, join and act

Rule 3: Make it fun!

6 fundamentals rules for nurturing online communities

Building Online Community

Rule 4: Reward ContributionsRecognize individual recognition. Are you empowering your super users?

Rule 5: Hire a community managerImagine going to a party where there is no host

Rule 6: Empower your communityKnow when not to engage

Lesson learned with WiserEarth

Barriers of entry are very low on the online media: Experiment, Measure, Adjust

Participation online is different: reward your power users

Set up modest goals at first for your community building

Keep in mind that you are in it for the long haul!

A few resources to explore

Beth’s blog @kanter Community 2.0 @community20 Community Spark, Martin Reed @martinreed FeverBee, Richard Millington @richmillington Chris Brogan @chrisbrogan John Haydon @johnhaydon WiserEarth Blog @wiserearth Ben Rigby’s Book ‘Mobilizing Generation 2.0′

http://www.mobilevoter.org/book.html The Social Pulpit from Edelman “Barack Obama’s Social

Media Toolkit” http://tinyurl.com/ax2b6b NTEN Webinars And many more…..

THANK YOU

peggy@wiserearth.org