Community Management Overview

Matt Warburton

matt.warburton@yahoo.com

www.linkedin.com/mattwarburton

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The Role of Community Management

Communication

• Communicate key

messages via the product

blogs

– News, education, system

issues

• Utilize new social media

tools to communicate with

customers

– Twitter, Facebook, etc

Community Insights/Advocacy

• Utilize Community feedback

to drive product strategy

and development

– Roundtable advisory panels,

suggestion boards, etc

• Represent the voice of the

user and report community

insights to the broader team

Engagement

• Member engagement

– Welcome new users

– Badging, Levels, etc

– Power User Programs

– Online and offline events to

build loyalty, retention and

Word-of-Mouth

• Develop guidelines and

enforcement policies

• Moderation

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Community Management - Themes and Top Priorities

Listening to the Community

Use Roundtable Program and Advisory Panels to understand the needs of users and influence product and marketing decisions

Utilize suggestion boards and user groups to identify & communicate the top issues to the product teams

Tapping into passions

Create communities for users to learn from each other, access resources, and interact with Yahoo! staff

Feeling the love

Show users that we care about them: reach out to influencers

Organize Power User groups to recognize power users, provide access to staff, educate, and build loyalty

Get the word out

Communicate news and information externally via Blogs and internally via the Community Gazette newsletter.

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Discussion Forums & User Groups

Objectives• Build Loyalty/Retention• Provide user-to-user Support - Decrease CS Costs• Nurture the Sales Process• Drive SEO with UGC

Measurement• UU’s, PVs, Visits, Posts • Questions Answered• Leads, Sales, Renewals, Up-Sell, Cross-Sell• Customer Surveys (Satisfaction, Sales Drivers,etc)

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User Advisory Panels

Objectives• Enable real-time, qualitative user feedback on a variety of

topics including product development and marketing.

Components• In-Person Meeting• Private Group/Discussion Board• Monthly Phone Calls

User Advisory Council Best Practices• 10-15 Users (in-person meeting) • 12 month term• All sign NDA• Communicate insights throughout organization• Close the loop with participants

Measurement• # ideas/suggestions generated• # ideas/suggestions implemented

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Other Community Feedback MethodsSuggestion Boards & Public Voting

Objectives• Collect ranked feedback through public voting

systems

Benefits• Transparency

• Provides ranked suggestions

• Users feel empowered

• Feedback from large # of users

Closing the loop• As with advisory communities, it is important to report

back to the community with updates on how their feedback impacted the business.

Measurement• # ideas/suggestions generated• # ideas/suggestions implemented

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Communication:Product Blogs, Twitter, etc

Objectives

• Product blogs effectively broadcast news, educate users and gather feedback.

• Use Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and other new communication tools

Measurement• PV’s & UU’s• Tweet stats - clicks, re-tweets

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Community Engagement - Offline EventsTown Halls, Meetups, Member Organized Events

Objectives• Engage and recognize power users.• Communicate news, build loyalty and WOM.

Measurement• Attendance• Satisfaction Survey

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Community Engagement - Online Events Workshops, Webinars, Podcasts & Screencasts

Objectives• Engage users with a multimedia

communications format. • Communicate news and build loyalty.

Measurement• Attendance• PVs of transcript

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Power User Programs

Objectives• Engage and recognize Power Users• Provide additional benefits/permissions to Power Users

• Solicit feedback on ways to make products better