building web communities that add value
DESCRIPTION
Using the web community we built for Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales professional member network as a case study, this presentation gives practical advice on how to build a better web communityTRANSCRIPT
Building Web CommunitiesThat Add Value
Can organizations build better web communities with predictable success?
David Terrar – D²C and WordFrame
with contributions from:
Dennis Howlett – AccMan & ZDNet
Philip Woodgate – Goodman Jones
Agenda
• Why build communities?• What motivates people to participate?• What is ICAEW doing with ion?• Other examples• Success factors for community sites• Can we build communities with predictable
success?• Conclusions and best practice• Recommendations• References
Why build communities?
New Product Development
Customer serviceIdea generation
Market research Developer relations
Amplifying Word of Mouth
Employee communications
General Marketing
Reputation management Product testing
Public relationsLONG TAIL SALES
PROJECT COLLABORATION
Co-innovation
Member networking
Capturing Knowledge
What is a web community?
►An online community is an interactive group of people joined together by a common interest.
What motivates people to participate?
• Expressing themselves• Support• Listening• Sharing• Recognition• Power• The culture of the organization
"Culture is a mealy-mouthed way of talking about power.“ - Euan Semple
Participation Inequality
Jakob Nielsen’s 1-9-90 rule
Diagram courtesy of http://www.useit.com/alertbox/participation_inequality.html
What is ICAEW doing with ion?
http://www.ion.icaew.com
What is ICAEW doing with ion?
http://www.ion.icaew.com/itcounts
What is ICAEW doing with ion?
• Winning awards:
“Best New Web 2.0 Initiative”
Web 2.0 Strategies 2008
Some other examplesSocialMediaToday.com
Building a community
• User won't just come like Facebook• What is the purpose?• What's in it for me?• Champions• Teamwork• Coherent technology framework• Prepare to lose control• Moderation guidelines• Community manager needed• Corporate standards• Not just bottom up
Content and community management
• Seed the community• Need professional content• Engage professionals and be prepared to pay• Need the community manager acting like a party
host• Content guidelines• Help, support, videos, livechat• Focus on what the users want• Marketing is vital
Not in support of any goal…
Success factors for community sites
• Speed of adoption
• Number of active users
• Number of posts
• Number of comments
Life cycle of a successful community
Can we build communities with predictable success?
The more CONTENT you have the more MEMBERS you will get.
The more MEMBERS you have the more CONTENT you will get.
The better you match CONTENT and MEMBERS to MEMBER PROFILES the more MEMBERS
and CONTENT you will get.
Community best practices
BEST
Clear goals + purpose
Right talent
Commitment + time
Topic engenders passion
Social + communal
WORST
Start with technology
Marketing “campaign”
Mixing business/consumer motives
No facilitation
Metrics vs. business measures
Conclusions
The Technology Infrastructure of the community is important
The Social Infrastructure of the community is MORE important
Recommendations• Recognise it will be hard work• Focus on usability• Community manager needed, and they have to act like a party host• Content, content, content• Basic marketing e.g. email key posts• Brand advertising and incentives don't work• Use available resources e.g. Wikipatterns• Coherent technology is important• People and culture more important• Make sure the key stakeholders involved understand new marketing• Make sure they understanding social networks by using some and
getting their hands dirty
Key take away from Enterprise 2.0 Conference 2008 Boston
Recommended reading
Meatball Sundae: Is Your Marketing out of Sync? – Seth Godin
References
• Tribalization of business study 2008 – Francois Gossieaux– http://www.emergencemarketing.com/2008/04/24/2008-tribalization-of-business-study-preliminary-results/
• Online Community Best Practices– Jeremiah Owyang– http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2008/03/14/online-community-best-practices-slideshare-and-zero-cost-
publishing/ • Wikipatterns
– Stewart Mader and friends– http://www.wikipatterns.com/display/wikipatterns/Wikipatterns – http://ikiw.org
Contact details
David TerrarCEO - D²C Limitedand Executive Director - ITBrix / WordFrame
p: +44 (0)1727 838285 (direct)m: +44 (0)7715 159423
e: [email protected] and [email protected] w: www.d2c.org.uk and www.wordframe.com skype: david_terrartwitter: DTlinkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/davidterrar blog: http://biztwozero.com