Like most kids, Deirdre Walsh, Jive's Director of Social and Community Marketing, loved LEGO. She would spend hours building everything from a space shuttle to a house for my chihuahua (true story). As an adult, building a community has that same sense of "everything is awesome" for her. Here are the 7 lessons learned from LEGO about how-to build a successful online community.

1. By: Deirdre Walsh 2014
How to Build Your Online Community
with Lessons from LEGO

2. Like most kids, I loved LEGO.
I would spend hours building everything from a space
shuttle to a house for my chihuahua (true story).
As an adult, building a community has that same
sense of "everything is awesome."
(Sorry...is that song now stuck in your head?!?)
Here are the 7 principles LEGO taught me about
building successful online communities.

3. Accessible
• You can find LEGO building
blocks anywhere (especially
stuffed between the couch
cushions at my cousin's
house).
• Social business needs to be the
same. A strong enterprise
community should span
internally and externally, across
departments, geographies, and
devices.

4. Usable
• Unlike Ikea furniture, anybody
can pick up a few LEGO
blocks, stick them together,
and build something amazing.
• A good community should
make it easy for members to go
from a newbie to expert in
record time, with engaging
tutorials and introductory tours.

5. Fun
• LEGO allows people spend
hours being creative.
• Enterprise communities should
engage users.
• With recent improvements in
areas like gamficiation, this
becomes a lot easier.

6. Beneficial
• LEGOs are more than just an
entertaining toy. By playing with
LEGOs, kids learn things like
simple mechanics.
• The same should ring true for
your community - members
should learn through building
and sharing.

7. Next Generational
• LEGO has evolved its product
offerings. In a previous role, I
got to help launch the LEGO
Mindstorms NXT. This flavor of
LEGO allows you to build and
program robots - a far
advancement from the
standard building blocks.
• A good community will also
adopt next-generation
technologies.

8. Versatile
• With a single set of LEGOs you
can make several different
creations. One day, you'll build
Hogwarts for Harry Potter and
the next you’ll be in space.
• Building a community is similar.
With an investment in one
strong platform, you can build a
variety of vibrant communities
for areas like customer support,
sales and marketing, and
communications.
• Of course, my favorite platform
is Jive (disclaimer: I’m a
customer-turned-employee.)

9. People-Powered
• Every box of LEGOs comes
with one of those cool plastic
people.
• Like those guys, it's key to
have a community manager
who can serve as the front-
man.
• Jeremiah Owyang studied
community manager job
descriptions and found four key
elements:
• community advocacy
• brand evangelism
• savvy communication skills
• liaising between internal
decision makers and
community members.

10. Summary:
While building a community might not feel like
child's play, it is fun and rewarding!
Now, if I can only get my hair to stay as perfect as
the LEGO girl's....

11. Stay Connected
Deirdre Walsh
linkedin.com/in/deirdrewalsh
Jive Software
jivesoftware.com