So, that online community

stuff......it’s all sorted now, right?*

*Some names and anecdotes have been

tweaked to protect the innocent (...and the

guilty)

•New York Times gets its first “social media editor”

•Meg Pickard moves from “head of communities and user experience” to “head of social media development”

•I start at The Times as “web development editor”

•Sky appoints a “Twitter correspondent”<<< Errrrr

5 key questions to ask:

•Your editor

•Your social media/community manager

•Yourself

QUESTION 1

Why are YOU doing it?

•“Common practice should be a factor that we consider...”

Why are YOU doing it?

•Improve your journalism?

•Increase your traffic from social platforms?

•Get people spending more time on your site?

•Improve customer relationships?

•Get customer data?

•(it can be more than one!)

QUESTION 2

How are you measuring that?

•Get yourself some proxy metrics - more than one is fine (we have a few).

•Qualitative data’s ok too (we’re working on that).

•Just make sure you know the strengths and weaknesses.

The Britney Dilemma

If all you care about is unique browsers, then this will be the pinnacle of your

accomplishments

QUESTION 3

Are you paying attention to the results?

•Experiments = A GOOD THING

•if you know what success looks likeif you actually look at the results if you draw some useful conclusionsif you don’t use distraction techniques

QUESTION 4

Are you sharing what works?

Rinse, Repeat UNTIL YOU’RE BORED OUT OF YOUR BRAIN!!!!!(and then teach others how to spread the word)

Community Clinics

“Stand ups” in morning conference

Lunch time talks

Informal training

Formal training

Daily and weekly emails with good examples

QUESTION 5

Are you supporting them once they get the

message?

WORKFLOWWORKFLOWWORKFLOW

In Summary

•Decide why you want to do community

•Find a way to measure it

•Record what works

•Share what works (repeatedly)

•Focus on tools to make it easier to do

QUESTIONS?@guardianjoanna