golden rules from online community facilitators

Golden Rules from

Online Community

Facilitators

Compiled by Michael Norton

Online Facilitators Community – Knowledge Hub

Golden Rules from Online Community Facilitators

Contributors

Tim Ellis

Alex Marshall

Liz Copeland

Jo Allchurch

Rachel Stevens

Melissa Whittle

Barrie Minney

Jamie Kirk

Richard Overy

Edmund Lee

Rebecca Cox

John Jarvis

Nick Wellington

Ceri Wild

Vicki Goddard

Heidi De Wolf


“It’s all about people and engaging them. Find people who want to

contribute and be involved in organising the group. So to achieve that you

need to make people feel valued and recognised but you also need to find

what works for them in their day job because there aren’t many people who

can do it purely out of the goodness of their heart. It’s going to be more

about if there is some kind of synergy for them.”

Tim Ellis

Project and Programme Management Community


“Be enthusiastic, sometimes you have to very diplomatic because you get

emails direct complaining bitterly that they can’t do something and

sometimes you just have to phone them. Some people have very poor IT

skills but I know if they can get into it and get the result they want they will

be very pleased..”

Barrie Minney

Local Authority Civil Enforcement Forum

(LACEF)


“It’s hard work, it’s about putting the work in and encouraging people to

join, but by doing that you will definitely reap the benefits and rewards and

the community will be successfully for everyone. It a lot of hard work

initially and a lot of work throughout but if it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing

well. Also you don’t have to be alone, if you can have other facilitators

helping as well, two or three other colleagues that can share the workload

with and take different roles, that will help”

Melissa Whittle

GeoPlace Authority Contacts Group


“Try and ensure that each post gets a response. Even if you don’t know

the answers, at least acknowledge the fact that someone has posted.

Either open it up again to the community and say you’re not entirely sure

does anyone else know or alternatively recognise it and go offline and try

and find someone who knows and try and force them to post a response.”

John Jarvis

Supporting Troubled Families


“Make sure your content is current. I’m always updating the group

announcement with new content. I try to post something new every day,

even if it’s a little update or a question. This generates an email alert and

helps members come back again to the community and builds up a rich

bank of information.”

Alex Marshall

LG Inform - Improving services through information


“Have a constant stream of new material, which is either interesting or of

technical use. It’s a bit like social media that you have got to keep posting

stuff up there; hopefully what you post up will catch the current interest of

members or prove to be of use as a knowledge base in the future. But I

think you have to keep that tick over of stuff being feed into the group and

making sure that there’s always something new to see on the site.”

Nick Wellington

Food Hygiene Forum


“Make the most of Google Analytics. How people are accessing your

community group and are they visiting more after the newsletter has been

uploaded? By watching the timings when visits peak and when the quiet

periods are, you can get a real feel for the dynamics of the group. The

more you click on the Google Analytics reports, the more you want to

know.”

Rachel Stevens

National Member Development Group


“Community facilitation should be about putting people first and technology

second - to use the best tools available so that you can collaboratively

work on a project or goal. If you make a conscious effort to build your group

around a specific/narrow purpose then you’ll be able to tie it more easily to

business objectives and communicate with your members more

effectively... .”

Jamie Kirk

Top Talent Programme


“Use face-to-face meetings alongside the online activity, it reinforces and

consolidate the learning that the community has generated - regular

meetings have always been of great assistance.

The meetings have also helped to cement relationships, putting names to

faces etc and have assisted in nurturing a strong comradery among the

group. Appreciate that if members are disparately placed this might not

always be possible to organise, yet if you can convene regular meetings -

they are a huge help..”

Ceri Wild

Windows 7 Implementation


“Don't get downhearted. If you find there aren't many people engaging in

conversation, don't worry. Keep plugging away. Keep things ticking over.

Use the techniques people have suggested, like adding new content

regularly - and share this role with your fellow facilitators. After a while

you'll post something that will engage people and discussion will happen.

You need to put the work in of course, and it'll probably be the thing you

least expect that will get things going, but it will happen. So, stay positive!”

Liz Copeland

Local Government News


“Promote your new community through a blog, tell people what you are up

to or talk about a subject you feel passionately about (and make sure you

have a link at the end of the post to the community) the easier you make it

for audience to engage the better!”

Richard Overy

Information Graphics and Visualisation


“Be clear of what your community’s objectives are and then act

accordingly. It’s very easy for a community of practice to consume and be

the focus of everything you do.

You need to be objective and sit back and think am I working on something

unnecessarily?”

Vicki Goddard

Community Safety


“Before you start the community make sure you have a core membership

of people who are really engaged and ask them to make quite a few

contributions in the first few weeks to encourage others.

Also make sure the communications are right and make sure you have

enough material to start off with so the first time people go in to the new

group they can see that it is really relevant to them.”

Jo Allchurch

FlowNet


“Focus on the people and not the technology, try to work out what it is that

you want to communicate to a well-defined audience and then the

technology is secondary to that. Find out about the people that you’re

working with and then investigate the tools. The Knowledge Hub gives you

great suite of tools to use. But it doesn’t have to be just the Knowledge

Hub other things may work better for your particular audience.”

Edmund Lee

Historic Environment


“Be as creative as you can be with your words. Different things speak to

different people. For example, in my community I have asked members to

share their thoughts about a variety of subjects, by completing the

sentences I have started for them. For example, Great leadership is great

because … . “

Heidi De Wolf

Lincolnshire CC People Strategy CoP


“Content is king. If you do not have interesting content it will be very hard to

engage people. It will be hard at first but it is worth putting in the time up

front as it will pay off further down the line”.

Rebecca Cox

Localism

golden rules from online community facilitators

Business