Start a Fire in Your Social Network

Maddie Grant, CAE

Agenda for today

How do you light the spark of engagement?

• With Good Planning• During Launch• Through Content

• By Finding Champions

© 2013 Private Community Management Certificate Programwww.socialfish.org/certificate

Spark engagement through good planning

1.

Defining PURPOSE

WRONG: WE NEED

• We need to get more members engaged.

• We need to generate non-dues revenue.

• We need to draw members to the website.

• We need to collect content from members.

RIGHT: MEMBERS NEED

• Members need a trusted environment to collaborate.

• Members need a place to find trusted experts who can help them.

• Members need a way to comment on technical information.

MEMBER PERSPECTIVE IS CRITICAL.

But wait…do they REALLY need that?

• Volunteer group collaboration• Upgrade to established listservs

or forums• Social learning• Conferences (time limited)• Hybrid events (time limited)

EXAMPLES OF PURPOSE-DRIVEN COMMUNITIES BY ASSOCIATIONS

• Community for member networking (because members should be posting on our site instead of LinkedIn.)

• Community to build more member-generated content (because we’ve had trouble getting members to contribute content in the past.)

EXAMPLES OF BUSINESS PURPOSENOT ALIGNING TO MEMBER PURPOSE

FAIL

What’s the (“member need”) purpose of your community?

CHAT IN:

Once the planning is done…

Did our new board member just say he’s

never used the community?

PROMOTING YOUR COMMUNITY IS A PROCESS THAT NEVER ENDS.

PROMOTIONTWO-PRONGED APPROACH TO ONGOING PROMOTION

MULTI-CHANNEL MARKETING

• Membership marketing and new member onboarding

• Email newsletters

• Features in magazine

• Conference marketing and on-site activities

• Promotion on website homepage and house ads

• Platform email notifications for announcements, digests

CHAMPION AND INFLUENCER MARKETING

• Training and guidance for volunteer group leaders

• Training and guidance for staff

• Outreach to champions to keep the site active

• Outreach to influencers to brainstorm ways they might like to use the community

Spark engagementduring launch time

2.

SOFT LAUNCH - MEMBERS

ARCHETYPES OF USEFUL BETA GROUPSArchetype Size Activity Privac

y Example

Small and good

10-15 High Private Board, working group, event volunteers

Large and social-media-savvy

50-150

Medium Public Technology special interest group, communications special interest group

Up and coming

50-150

Medium Public Young professionals or student leaders

Content creators

10-15 High Public Bloggers, authors, speakers, volunteer leaders

Location-based

50-150

Medium Public An active chapter

PICK THE RIGHT PEOPLE, AND MAKE YOUR FIRST MISTAKES AMONG FRIENDS.

SOFT LAUNCH - MEMBERS

• Tech-savvy volunteer group leaders.• Active listserv users who are asking

for updated functionality.• Social members who

may not be active in any of the other beta groups you’ve identified.

BETA TESTERS WILL FEEL MORE INVESTED. SO WHO DO YOU NEED ON YOUR SIDE?

SOFT LAUNCH - MEMBERS

• Set expectations low.

• Explain the vision for the future.

• Be specific about what to test. For example: – Set up a profile with a picture.

– Add a colleague and send a message.

– Join a group/post to a discussion/comment

• Tell them how to share feedback.– Set up a feedback group for beta testers.

• Prepare them for technical glitches.

SENDING A BASIC INVITE TO YOUR BETA TESTERS ISN’T ENOUGH

SOFT LAUNCH – STAFF

DEFINITELY YES• Technical staff (working on

the community)

• Member-facing staff (e.g. volunteer liaisons, member services)

• Reps from content-rich departments (e.g. pubs, education, conferences)

• Reps from communications and marketing

• A rep from executive leadership

PROBABLY NOT• Not everyone (except in

very small-staff associations.)

• Not finance, or other staff with little-to-no member-facing responsibilities.

• Not junior staff who have not been cleared to participate by their boss.

• Not the entire executive team. (Wait till things are more polished.)

WHICH STAFF SHOULD BE INVOLVED EARLY

SOFT LAUNCH - STAFF

• Have staff beta testers set up their profiles.

• Create a private group to serve as the sandbox.

• Be specific about what to test.

• Use the group to share community-related information with staff.– Updates on technical progress

– Launch plans

– Staff policies, roles, responsibilities.

• Tell them how to share feedback.

• Prepare them for tech glitches.

BUILD A SANDBOX AND USE IT.

SOFT LAUNCH - STAFF

5 APPROACHES TO STAFF INTERACTION.

1. No staff posting.

2. All staff posting funneled through a single community manager.

3. Member-facing staff may post in pre-approved areas, about pre-approved topics.

4. Staff with technical knowledge may post as it relates to their pre-approved area of expertise.

5. All staff may post. Training on posting policies may be required first.

FIND THE RIGHT BALANCE BETWEEN TRUST AND CONTROL

What’s the tone of staff participation in your community like? Informal and chatty? “Helpdesk”

only? Invisible, behind the scenes?

CHAT IN:

LAUNCHING AROUND A CONFERENCE

I got it! Let’s launch at the Annual Meeting…right when everyone is their busiest and

most distracted.

PROS• High-touch face-to-face

opportunity for training• Opportunities to

integrate marketing• Signage and branding

opportunities• Organic content and

champion engagement around the conference

CONS• Messages competing

with other messaging around the event

• Audience is (generally) limited to those attending

• Glitches with mobile/tablet use of community or sketchy wifi on-site.

• Staff is stretched to the max.

LAUNCHING AROUND A CONFERENCE

TIMING THE BIG LAUNCH

ALTERNATIVE LAUNCH TIMING

1. AROUND YOUR MEMBER’S SCHEDULEFor example, tax professionals might find a new community most useful in the quarter prior to tax season.

2. AROUND YOUR STAFF’S SCHEDULELaunch during a quieter period for staff, and let the community slowly build.

CONFERENCES AREN’T THE ONLY OPTION!

Spark engagementthrough content

3.

NO ONE CARES• Have your own profile.• Add colleagues.• Post

blogs/discussions/comments.

• Access the resource library.

IT’S NOT ABOUT THE TOOLS. IT’S ABOUT WHAT MEMBERS CAN BUILD WITH THEM.

EVERYONE CARES• Showcase your accomplishments. (profile)• Connect with people who are solving the same

challenges you face. (Or connect with your next employer, if they’re in transition.) (Add colleagues)

• Get specific advice from industry experts who can answer your questions. (post blogs/discussions/comments.)

• Share your perspectives on the latest (standards/regulations/effective practices) that are impacting the way you do business. (access the resource library).

MESSAGING SHOULD FOCUS ON WIIFM (WHAT’S IN IT FOR ME)

Look what you can build!

• Focus on easy tasks in the right order.

• Initial tasks: login for the first time and create a profile.

• Follow up tasks: join a group, connect with colleagues. – Even better: suggest which groups or

colleagues!

• Follow up tasks: Read and comment on a recent discussion.– Even better: suggest active discussions to

comment on.

WHEN IT COMES TO INVITATIONS, KEEP IT SIMPLE

WHY ENGAGEMENT?

• Support member retention?• Support commerce and revenue

goals?• Recruit potential volunteer leaders

and content creators?• Capture member knowledge?

ENGAGEMENT IS A MEANS TO AN END. WHAT DO YOUR STAKEHOLDERS REALLY WANT?

TYPES OF ENGAGEMENT

Social Technographics Ladder(Josh Bernoff, Forrester Research, 2010.)

ENGAGEMENT IS NOTONE-SIZE-FITS-ALL.

CREATORS

CONVERSATIONALISTSCRITICS

COLLECTORSJOINERS

SPECTATORSINACTIVES

TYPE WHAT TO MEASURE

Creator Post blogs, discussions, documents

Conver-sationalist

Post discussions, comments; send messages

Critic Comment, rate/review

Collector Add contacts, bookmark

Joiner Join groups

Spectator Sign in regularly, spend time on the site

Inactive Sign in rarely or never

MEASURE DIFFERENT ENGAGEMENT TYPES

Where are your members on the engagement ladder?

CHAT IN:

COMMUNITY CONTENT IS DIFFERENT

STRIKE THE RIGHT BALANCE BETWEEN TRADITIONAL CONTENT AND MEMBER-GENERATED CONTENT

TRADITIONAL MEMBER-GENERATED

sharing links and articles

blogging

Commenting, rating, reviewing

Peer-to-peer discussion

promotions

news updates

announcements

DEVELOPING CONTENT FOR COMMUNITY

Build a team

• SMEs (staff and members)

• Group leaders

• Marketing/communications

• Education/conferences (staff and speakers)

• Government relations

• Owners and volunteers for other programs

STOP DEVELOPING CONTENT—STARTDEVELOPING CONTENT CREATORS.

DEVELOPING CONTENT FOR COMMUNITY

Work with your team to constantly refine.

• How might you present the content to generate an active discussion?

• How might you build community activity around education content or a conference?

• How might you help groups use the community to talk amongst themselves?

• What’s coming up (not finished yet) that warrants asking the community a question?

ACT AS ADVISOR, EDITOR, AND CURATOR

CURATING CONTENT

Content curation is the process of sorting through the vast amounts of content on the web and presenting it in a meaningful and organized way around a specific theme.

(Beth Kanter, Content Curation Primer, Beth’s Blog | http://www.bethkanter.org/content-curation-101/)

THREE UNIQUE WAYS COMMUNITY MANAGERS CURATE

CURATING CONTENT

1. CURATE IN CONTEXTEnrich peer-to-peer discussions.

2. CURATE FOR GROUPSTarget content to groups based on special interests.

3. CURATE FOR ENGAGEMENTLeave no question unanswered.

Spark engagementby finding and rewarding your champions

4.

• Volunteer leaders

• Speakers

• Writers

• Industry influencers (consultants?)

• Digital extroverts from other social spaces

ENGAGING CHAMPIONS STARTS WITH KNOWING WHO THEY ARE

HAVE YOU ASKED YOUR CHAMPIONS FOR HELP TODAY?

WORKING WITH CHAMPIONS

1. ASK DIRECTLY

2. BE SPECIFIC

3. SET A DEADLINE

4. FOLLOW UP

THREE IDEAS FOR GETTING CHAMPIONS TO CONTRIBUTE

WORKING WITH CHAMPIONS

1. Make them the leader of a group.

2. Reply to unanswered questions.– Send a link to the specific unanswered

thread when you need their help.

3. Write about a hot topic.– Do an email “interview” then ask them

to post their reply.

– Game mechanics– Promote content from

champions– Create a volunteer role

for champions

Find ways to reward champion involvement.

How have you rewarded champions in your community?

CHAT IN:

And now, a reminder…

• Public social media sites are important because that’s where your people already spend time.

• A private community is never a replacement for public social media platforms and a strategy for using them.

REMEMBER THIS: A COMMUNITY IS DEFINED BY PEOPLE, NOT PLATFORM.

And…people win

by a landslide!

PROVIDE CLARITY FOR BOTH STAFF AND MEMBERS

How is the private platform any different

from what we’re already doing on

LinkedIn?

Maddie Grant, CAE Web Strategist at ICF Ironworksmaddie.grant@icfi.com

Blog: www.socialfish.org

www.socialfish.org/certificate

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