How to build and maintain online communities.

1. Online Communities

2. Hello! My name is Bart.

3. This is my daughter Merel.

4. I’m passionate about coffee.

5. I live and work in Ghent.
I’m passionate about coffee.

7. @netlash

9. http://slideshare.net/netlash

10. Online communities
Sanoma Mediaparade, 21/6/2012

11. ‣ What is an online community?

12. Definition
Online community
=
A virtual place where people with similar
characteristics meet on a regular basis.

13. Online vs. offline
You can’t create an online community.
(Those days are over.)
Communities already exist.
Create a platform to uncover communities of interest,
and to facilitate them. An online community might
emerge.

14. Mark Zuckerberg:
Elegant Organisation
Communities already exist and the question you should ask
is how you can help them to do what they want to do.
Zuckerberg's prescription is "elegant organisation".

16. Third place
Social surroundings separate from the two usual
environments of home and work.

17. Third place
Social surroundings separate from the two usual
environments of home and work.
“sense of place”

18. Third place
Gathered around common interests.
Internet... not bound by location.

19. Create an online community
By finding common interests that were previously
not connected because of physical limitations.

20. 2 main classes
‣ profile based
‣ object based
(often a mix)

21. Profile based
‣ Facebook
‣ LinkedIn
‣ Netlog
‣ Path
‣ ...

22. Object based
‣ YouTube (video)
‣ Instagram (photo)
‣ Pinterest (visual)
‣ Quora (question)
‣ ...

23. ‣ Why?

24. Why?
‣ strengthen your brand (connection)
‣ CRM
‣ SEO
‣ ads
‣ because it’s hip...

25. ‣ Success?

26. Success of an online community
success
=
number of members
x
content (interaction)

28. Funnels
‣ visit & read
‣ register
‣ react
‣ contribute
‣ share

29. ‣ visit

31. Show up in search results
‣ SEO
‣ technical
‣ structure
‣ content
‣ use SEA if needed (boost)

32. Show up in search results
‣ pains
‣ solutions
‣ questions
‣ products
‣ high in buying cycle
‣ site structure!

34. Show up in social streams
‣ facilitate sharing
‣ built-in triggers
‣ assign status
‣ “frictionless sharing” ?

36. Show up in the inbox
‣ most people organise their online behaviour
around their mailbox
‣ revisit
‣ invitations (status)
‣ don’t spam - add value

37. Hacks
‣ hack e-mail (“invite your mailbox”)
‣ hack e-mail (“you’ve been tagged”)
‣ hack social (“invite your friends”)
‣ hack social (“pay with a tweet”)
‣ don’t spam - add value

39. ‣ register

40. Conversion
‣ benchmark ( 5 % )
‣ measure
‣ A/B testing
‣ usability

41. Register
‣ MVP
‣ use FaceBook
‣ “what’s in it for me”

42. Metcalfe’s Law
The value of a network is proportional to the square
of the number of users connected.

44. Metcalfe’s Law
Use these network effects.
‣ ICQ
‣ FaceBook
‣ Dropbox
‣ Delicious
‣ ...

45. Why build your own site?
Facebook’s already built...

46. Why build your own site?
Play on someone else’s terrain, play by their rules.

48. ‣ react & contribute

49. Small steps.

50. Gradual engagement
‣ use micro-interactions
‣ “consistency”

51. Piramid
1 Creators
10 Reactors & sharers
100 Lurkers
1000 Strangers

52. Piramid
1 Creators
10 Reactors & sharers
100 Lurkers
1000 Strangers

53. Piramid
(Actually: 80% - 15% - 5%)

54. Piramid
Creators: numbers!
Reactors: acknowledgement
Sharers: aggregation tools
Lurkers: activating content
Strangers: search & social

55. Build in engagement
‣ people like to help -> questions
‣ people like to share -> facilitate sharing
‣ people like to belong -> discovery of likeminded
‣ people like to be acknowledged -> status

57. Use micro-interactions to evoke
gradual engagement.

58. Micro-interactions
‣ simple
‣ easy to understand the implications (feedback loop)
‣ safe
‣ revokable

59. Gamification

60. Gamification
‣ reward wanted behaviour
‣ sharing, contributing, commenting
‣ micro-interactions
‣ leaderboards

61. Persuasion techniques
‣ reciprocity
‣ consistency
‣ social validation
‣ authority
‣ scarcity

62. ‘addiction’ techniques
‣ discovery (search & serendipity)
‣ random rewards
‣ short feedback loops
‣ social pressure

65. Shared history & rituals
‣ meme
‣ jargon
‣ choose an enemy

67. ‣ best practices

68. Launch in beta
‣ involve influencers
‣ get user feedback early
‣ prime with content

69. Empty bar syndrome

70. First months are crucial
‣ set the tone of voice
‣ acknowledge wanted behaviour
‣ root out unwanted behaviour
‣ define rituals
‣ create a shared history

72. Ben Silbermann
Pinterest
Silbermann said he personally wrote to the site's first 5,000
users offering his personal phone number and even meeting
with some of its users.

73. Caterina Fake
Flickr
Caterina Fake said the success of Flickr depended on the
premise that “you have to greet the first 10,000 users
personally”.

74. Maintain
‣ ‘safe & sure’: guidelines and policies
‣ own content
‣ provoke
‣ ask questions
‣ promote leaders

75. Watch out!
‣ “build it and they will come”
‣ pre-moderation & censorship
‣ hardcore vs. newbies
‣ bad usability & complexity
‣ neglect

76. ‣ metrics

77. Define the right metrics
‣ quantity, quality, efficiëncy
‣ conversion choke points
‣ inactive members
‣ content & engagement
‣ business metrics

78. Define the right metrics
‣ visits to registration ratio
‣ returning login ratio
‣ login to post/comment ratio
‣ creation to reaction ratio
‣ sharing ratio

79. Business metrics
‣ sales
‣ leads
‣ brand awareness
‣ sentiment
‣ sharing

81. Building & maintaining a community
requires hard work. Measure the
business metrics.

82. Hard work
‣ automate where possible
‣ empower the community where possible
‣ human management is necessary

84. The Soylent Green moment.

86. The web is people

87. Communities are populated by people.

88. Real people, not ‘users’.

89. People with children.

90. People with passions.

91. So, treat them as people.

92. Conversation

93. Questions?

94. Bart De Waele
@netlash
+32 9 335 22 80
bart@wijs.be