So You Want to Launch an Open Forum…

Kelly Flowers-Steggles (@growthvine)Principal

GrowthVine Consulting

Martha Jack (@mdjack)Director

eConverse Social Media

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POLL!

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What is an Open Forum?• A community for all members--providing a place

for the entire membership to communicate and collaborate.• Discussion is open to anything and everything,

not limited to a specific interest group, role, committee or component• Purpose is to open lines of communication

between entire membership and get the broadest reach for feedback among the membership. Takes away barriers of participation (cost, geography, experience, etc.)• One of the greatest tools in your arsenal and

often the mechanism to give your members access to each other that they’ve been asking for

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Why would you do this?• Ensures all members are subscribed to at least one

community• Takes away barriers to participation• Assists in data collection• Provides a sense of community• 24/7, 365 Access to other members• Huge member benefit• One central place to communicate and track statistics• Provides qualitative data on where member interests lie• Regular reminder of community in members’ inboxes• Associates industry expertise with your association

brand

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POLL!

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Stages to launch the Open Forum• Approval• Pre-Launch• Tech setup/decisions• Communicate – coming soon/transition from old• Launch process• Hand-holding• Troubleshoot• Manage• Report

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Approval

• Defining WHY, goals, metrics• Getting reference success stories from other HL clients• Assigning staff ownership• Outlining board involvement• Proposed launch date• Proposed staff/board time investment

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Pre-Launch Tasks• Write down tangible goals at launch, 3 months, 6 months,

1 year• Decide data points for reporting• Find beta/super users• Validate emails then clean data and auto-subscribe• Place community on full moderation so no messages will

go out• Develop launch messaging• Develop seed questions, answers and member

contributors• Create timeline for seed question launch• Define owner of community for management and

engagement• **Branding or specific logo for Open Forum – “Ask your

mates”

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Tech Crash-Course• Which Connected Community components will

be offered• Discussions• Library• Blogs• Events

• Who will be included? (member types/security roles)• Higher Logic needs to create if it will be auto-

subscribed• Importance of email validation• If >2,000 address, $0.05/address• Full moderation

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Membership in Open Forum

Auto-subscribed

Opt-in

Open

Clos

ed

At Launch

After Launch

Your Open Forum

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Seed Question Pointers• Look at Analytics to see what are the most heavily

trafficked pages and develop questions around those topics• Get answers for every question you develop• Develop provocative subject lines• Run questions by super users• Create timeline spreadsheet to track when you will

launch each question• Invite super users to post questions that will get caught

in moderation that you can then post when you launch• Make them short, but personal

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Example – Seed Question Spreadsheet

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Communicate• 1. Coming Soon emails/Transitioning timeline – via

constant contact (4 weeks – to get seed questions) then again 1 week out• 2. Launch date “We’re OPEN” mail merged with User

name and password CEO/board president –via constant contact• 3. Why this Open Forum ROCKS? (Board president)- via

community • 4. “Thanks” High ranking member- via community • 5. Staff / Community Manager “Getting started/TIPS”- via

community

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Crucial Post-Launch Period• Posting seed questions• Monitoring organic questions and responses• Pull reports frequently in beginning• Asking for feedback and implementing changes• Weed out unsubscribe requests and negative comments• Remind of Terms of Use and Rules/Etiquette and

Consequences• How long…?

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What is normal/expected?

• 5% – 15% unsubscribe rate over time• 1% - 2% may be vocal about it in the beginning• If you go with an opt-in model, it typically takes

6 months to get 20% subscribed• For every 500 members, look to have 20

posts/month

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Case Study: Society of Hospital Medicine

• Problem: Hesitancy to auto-subscribe

• Process/Solution: After many proposals, an auto-subscribed Open Forum was created April 2014. Huge selling point was the ability to pull people in to opt-in special interest groups.

• Result/Outcome: All members are now auto-subscribed, respecting expiry dates and grace periods. Unique logins, SIG membership, continues to grow.

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Trouble Case Study: American Academy of Periodontology

• Problem- History of negative posters to list serv

• Process/Solution- Moved to Higher Logic to be able to moderate and minimize negative and unprofessional posts• Result/Outcome- A standardized process

to moderate, triage and keep the Open Forum valuable and productive

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Problem: Inflammatory postings • Define what is inflammatory or a

violation • Re-define Terms of Use –what is

acceptable, what is violation

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Process/Solution #1• Put Open Forum on Self-Moderation• Flag as Inappropriate

• Sent Message to Open Forum defining what self –moderation meant• Moderating items moved into self-

moderation• Responding to members/complainants• Making adjustments

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Outcome/Problem of Self-Moderation• Many members used “Flag as

Inappropriate” just to DISAGREE with the posting

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Process/Solution #2- Discussion Ad feedback form• Changed to No Moderation• Created Triage Process for moderation• Read all messages/review • Pull messages as needed• Put individuals on moderation as needed

• Created discussion ad linking to review of Terms and complaint form• Concerned about a posting page• Created complaint form using Wufoo to

allow members to alert staff of possible violation

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Process/Solution

AAP Triage team and resolution

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Outcome• Only 8 posts pulled in 12 months• Average of 150-200 clicks on Discussion ad

monthly• Productive listserv• Allows members to voice concerns• Significantly decreases staff time to

answer calls, emails, etc about what is inappropriate

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Case Study: Institute of Public Works Engineering Australasia• Problem:

• How to grow database of non-members while providing value to both members/non-members

• Establish IPWEA as a global leader in Public Works Engineering

• Process/Solution: Created open forum that auto-subs all AMS contacts (web account creation, event registration, purchases, etc.)• Result/Outcome: Membership has grown 50%, prospects

doubled, website traffic quadrupled

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Increasing Engagement- Open Forum 2.0• Review reports• Adding functionality/components• Ongoing feature additions• Discussion Ads• Conjunction with In Person event “Ask your mate

HH”• Moderated discussion/Live Chat – 1 pm Dr.

Johnson will discuss…AANAC• Book Club• Introduce yourself here• Infographic with 1 year stats

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Manage Community

Report Troubleshoot

*You may need to Relaunch*

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What are you going to do Monday…?• Audit need for and/or state of current Open Forum• Explore how your Open Forum fits in your org strategically• Have “owner” connect with other departments• Create an engagement strategy

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Thank You!

Martha Jack, B.J., M.A.

Director, eConverse Social Media

martha@econversemedia.com

@mdjack

519.830.8183

Kelly Flowers-Steggles

Principal, GrowthVine Consulting

Kelly@growthvine.com

@growthvine

703.598.4614