building an online community

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Building and Managing a CommunityJordan Viator, Convio

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An interactive group of people joined together by a common interest

What is an online community?

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• Profiles

• Discussion Threads

• Groups

• Events

• Tagging

• Widgets

• Blogs

• Multimedia

• Ratings

Elements of an Online Community

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• Openness and transparency

• Trust

• An organization that truly listens

• Active engagement

• Welcoming new members with open arms

• Being open to feedback and responses (yes, even the negative ones)

What makes a community thrive?

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• What do you want to achieve with your community?

• What resources do you have to leverage?

• What is your strategy for the community and how does it fit into your overall communications strategy?

• Who is your audience and what will THEY get from being a part of your community?

• How much time are you willing to spend nurturing this?

“If you build it they will come” attitude

does not work here

Where to start: Strategy

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1. A well-defined audience or tight-knit group

Why choose to build your own community?

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2. Sensitive Topics

Why choose to build your own community?

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3. Passionate Supporters

Why choose to build your own community?

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4. Specific Functionality

Why choose to build your own community?

Interactivity

Login

Events

Take Action

Profiles

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• Integration with other online entities• Website

• Other social media: Facebook, Twitter, etc

• Email campaigns

• Direct Mail

• In-person events

• Essentially, every touch point with a constituent is good to help spread the message of your community!

Promotion of your community

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• Focus on the community members

• Sincerity is of the utmost importance

• Make it about the people participating, not you

• Engage with community

• Treat everyone as an equal

• Honing in on key skills of:• Patience• Networking• Facilitating• Marketing• Communication!

Principles to live by:

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1. Set expectations about what you can achieve in the community early

2. Have a strong understanding of why you want a community in the first place

3. Define your success metrics

4. Make it about your constituents and provide the tools and information most important to them

5. Be genuine and show a humanistic side in all community efforts

6. Be participatory and responsive

Practical Tips for Community Management

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• Common Knowledge blog http://commonknow.typepad.com/blog/

• Connection Café blog www.connectioncafe.com

• ThePort Blog http://theport.com/blog

• Common Knowledge Resources libraryhttp://commonknow.com/html/resources

• Convio Research www.convio.com/our-research

• ThePort Resources libraryhttp://theport.com/resources

Resources