LavaCon Las Vegas 2016 Presentation

1. Content and Community: Pitfalls and Practices in
Managing Communities of Users
Connie Giordano, Editor/Moderator, TechWhirl
Photo credit: Trev Grant on flickr.com
LavaCon 2016

2. People come for content, but they stay for community.
Ben Martin, OnlineCommunityResults.com

3. A little background
• One-half of INKtopia Limited, publishers of
TechWhirl
• Dual role as Executive Editor of TechWhirl, and
consultant/content services provider via INKtopia.
• Masters, Organizational Communication, Queens
University.
• 25 years in technical and marketing
communications.
• Cross-functional experience in knowledge
management, process design, and business
analysis.
• Expertise in editing, journalism and tech comm
industries.
• Joined the TECHWR-L discussion list in 1998.
Bought it in 2011.
@CPGiordano
connie@inktopia.net
www.linkedin.com/in/conniegiordano

4. Definitions
• User
• Community
• Interest &
purpose
User: a person who uses or operates
something, especially a computer or other
machine.
Community: Self-organized network of
people with common agenda, cause, or
interest, who collaborate by sharing
ideas, information, and other resources.
Community of Interest: Communities built
around a shared interest, but with no
single defined goal.
Community of Purpose: Community
organized around a common, clear,
defined goal.

5. This community’s purpose
(agenda)
• Understand how user/online communities develop
and mature.
• Uncover how the management of user communities
links to business objectives.
• Review some best practice considerations around
managing content in the community to achieve
specific goals.
• Gather some ideas for a TechWhirl series on
managing user communities and content.

6. How online user communities
evolved
• Radio communications
• Trade events/professional conferences
• Telephone call centers
• Direct mail/email
• Electronic Bulletin Boards
• Discussion Lists
• Blogs
• User group forums
• Knowledge bases
• Social media
• Full blown user communities

7. 1945 1955 1965 1975 1985 1995 2005 2015
1986: Eric Thomas
invents LISTSERV
1945: FCC
establishes two
citizens’ band
radio frequencies
1991: Microsoft
establishes MSN
Groups
1997: AOL Instant
Messenger
released
1983: Delphi
forums launches
2002: LinkedIn
launches
2003: Skype
launches
1993: Eric Ray
launches
TECHWR-L
1946: ENIAC
formally dedicated
at University of PA
1979: Usenet
established at
UNC Chapel
Hill and Duke
1978: Christenson
and Suess develop
dialup BBS in Chicago
1988: Jarkko
Oikarinen creates
the first IRC
1974: Truckers
organize rolling
blockades via
CB radio.
1969: ARPANET
establishes link
between UCLA
and Stanford
1952: UNIVAC 1
correctly predicts
Eisenhower’s
election as POTUS
2001: Yahoo!
Groups launch
1962: “On-Line
Man-Computer
Communications”
published
1973: David
Woolley creates
PLATO Notes at U
of Illinois
2004: Facebook
launches
1996: Mirabilis
launches ICQ
2003: MySpace
launches
2006: TED posts
first six talks
online
2006: Google
acquires YouTube
2012: Facebook
reaches 1 billion
users
2016: Microsoft
acquires Skype

8. Customers who actively post questions and respond to others’
questions in the community are less likely to log SRs [service requests]
Sterling Bone, et al
Photo credit: Josef Relnthaler on flickr.com

9. User groups and content
generation
• Users create content to:
• Complain
• Compliment
• Argue
• Discover
• Master
• Share
• Such content can:
• drive product design
• supplement product or technical support
• generate new sales
• Initiate new movements, methodologies or companies
This
product
sucks!
Hey, did you know
you could fix this
really simply?
Well, I believe
the evidence
shows…
I just LOVE using
this app to…
Here’s some good
examples of how to…
It would be great if
the product could…

10. Where the user community fits
into strategy
• Product strategy
• Support
• Product roadmap
• Marketing strategy
• Brand
• Promotion
• Content
Product
Strategy
Brand > Marketing &
Content Strategy

11. "[D]espite the limited direct control of individual people’s actions, online communities can be
designed and managed to achieve the goals that their owners, managers, or members desire.“
-Resnick & Kraut
Photo credit: Don Hankins on flickr.com

12. Best practices (for consideration)
• Build a content strategy that addresses the role of
online communities.
• Define the community(ies) that support business
goals.
• Determine the framework to manage the
communities.
• Plan and launch engaging communities.
• Design processes to extract & deliver content that
supports strategy, goals and the users.
• Actively evolve the community.

13. Examples we’ll use
• Verizon
• Etsy
• Constant Contact
• Fastly
• Net Suite
• Cisco

14. Create content that informs, stirs up strong emotions, and most
importantly, establishes a connection with your audience.
Gary Ciotti, SparringMind.com
Photo credit: Ferran Pestana on flickr.com

15. Build the content strategy to
address online communities
• Community lifecycle
• Audiences and their needs
• Alignment to brand and marketing strategies
• Balance of content generation and content
consumption

16. Brain Traffic’s Content Quad

17. Prospects = Peripherals?
Advocates = Veterans?
Drive product
roadmaps with the
help of insiders?

18. [O]nline community planning usually begins with looking for ways to solve problems –
problems of your customers and problems facing your organization.
Joshua Paul, Socious.co
Photo credit Peter Grima on flickr.com

19. Define your communities
Business goals
• Build brand awareness
• Increase revenue
• Increase customer base
• Extend existing markets
• Develop new products /
enhance existing products
Groups to engage
• Employees
• Prospective users
• Typical users
• Power users
• Testers
• Experts (industry/product)
• Developers / Engineers /
Tech Support

22. See this community at
https://community.constantcontact.com/

23. Make sure the site works, test it often, eat your own dogfood and
design it to move folks through workflows naturally.
Layla Sabourian, Chef Koochooloo
Photo credit: Lance Cheung/USDA

24. Build a community management
framework
• Brand objectives
• User experience
• Technology
• Management / operations
• Engagement channels

25. Look familiar?
• Identify
• Strategize
• Model/
conceptualize
• Plan
• Implement
• Manage and
improve

26. Some platform requirements to
consider
• Role-based access
• Moderation and user management
• Multiple access points
• Upload/download content capability
• Security management (anti spam, identity management,
etc)
• Feedback and rating functionality
• Recognition/gamification
• Threading
• Responsive design
• Data analytics

27. Community management
considerations
• Employee staffing
• Volunteer roles
• Terms of Service
• Content ownership and usage rights
• Engagement tools

30. It is the members who own the content that they share on your community.
-Patrick O’Keefe, managingcommunities.com
Photo credit: Bekhian on flickr.com

31. Content extraction & delivery
• Integrated content
• Linking content to current discussions
• Repurposing content arising from forum discussions

36. The secret is to spend most of your time and creative energy building
assets that you control.
Sonia Simone, CMO of Copyblogger Media
Photo credit: Peter Grima on flickr.com

37. Evolve the online user community
• Refresh the look and feel
• Analyze topic trends and adjust categories and sub-
groups accordingly
• Assimilate appropriate social media and
collaboration technologies and trends
• Create a succession plan
• Archive the contents of defunct communities

41. Those involved in TechWhirl understand that it is and always has been a
community, one at the core of social media.
Me 
Photo credit: Connie Ma on flickr.com

42. A quick analysis of TechWhirl
• Longevity
• Engagement
• Technology
• Evolution

47. When you give people an opportunity to be part of something, they’re going
to be proud of (and eager to share) something that they’ve helped create.
Steve Kamb, founder of NerdFitness
Photo credit: Clarice Barbato-Dunn on flickr.com

48. Q&A & Wrap up
• Know the business goals.
• Link your community strategy to business goals, brand
strategy, and content strategy.
• Define your communities.
• Choose the right platform and technologies to manage
the community and extract and deliver content.
• Build management policies that protect and extend the
community.
• Be ready for the long haul—enterprise buy-in is critical.

49. Your feedback wanted!
• Integrate social media and online community
content?
• How to build a usable online community?
• Online communities and the buyer journey?
• Areas of concern: security, privacy and IP. Others?
• Success stories for engaging online communities?
• Other questions or ideas for future exploration on
TechWhirl?

50. Create something people want to share.
John Jantsch, author of Duct Tape Marketing
Photo credit: Sonja Langford on unsplash.com

51. Resources worth checking out
• Bone, S., et al. How Customer Participation in B2B Peer-to-Peer Problem-
Solving Communities Influences the Need for Traditional Customer Service.
Journal of Service Research February 2015 vol. 18 no. 1 23-38.
• Capterra.com. Top Community Software Products.
http://www.capterra.com/community-software/
• Giordano, C. TECHWR-L at 18: An Early Social Media Tool Grows Up. Intercom,
June 2011. Society for Technical Communication.
• Hinchcliffe, D. Ten leading platforms for creating online communities.
ZDnet.com 9/4/2008 http://www.zdnet.com/article/ten-leading-platforms-
for-creating-online-communities/. Downloaded 10/20/2016
• Kraut, Robert E.; Resnick, Paul, et al. Building Successful Online Communities:
Evidence-Based Social Design (MIT Press). The MIT Press. Kindle Edition.

52. Resources worth checking out (cont.)
• Malinen, S. Understanding user participation in online communities: A
systematic literature review of empirical studies. Computers in Human
Behavior 46:228-238 · May 2015
• Millington, R. Buzzing Communities: Proven Science for Community Managers.
Amazon Digital Services, 2012.
• Topo, The Online Community Playbook.
http://www.dnnsoftware.com/Portals/0/Whitepapers/Online_Community_Pl
aybook.pdf
• York, Alex. The Ultimate User-Generated Content Guide. SproutSocial.com,
10/5/2016. http://sproutsocial.com/insights/user-generated-content-guide/.
Downloaded 10/20/2016
• Communities and blogs for community management
http://CMXHub.com
http://ManagingCommunities.com
http://TheCommunityManager.com

53. Thank you for your time and engagement!
Connie Giordano, Editor/Moderator, TechWhirl
Photo credit: Trev Grant on flickr.com
LavaCon 2016