12. Why Participate?
Know your Audience
(as people and not markets)
Collaborate
(feedback helps inform)
It’s Strategic
(proactive vs. reactive)
13. A Strategic Approach
Interest?
Commitment (staff &
management)?
Time?
What will we do if we hear
things we don’t like?
Do our customers need it
(or want it)?
24/7 or 8/5
Organizational Readiness
Tracy was
Here
14. IF YES
• What goals can be tactically supported online?
• How can we measure success?
• What type of collaboration do we desire?
(i.e. customer support, marketing or market research,
awareness for funding, content contributors, partners)
•Member exclusive or open to all?
IF NO… #FAIL @organization
15. Competitive Analysis
• What are similar organizations up to ?
• Do they have groupies?
Audience Research
• Who should we collaborate with and where?
• Influencers?
• Friends?
• What Incentives?
16. Tactical Planning
• What’s our objective(s)?
• Which tools & tone?
• How will we promote this on and offline?
• Incentives? (i.e. fame, fun or access)
• Integration
• Contingencies (plan for moderator absences)
17. Outreach Considerations
• Current audiences
• Existing online audiences through existing
channels
• Find key influencers and rally support
• Offline audiences (media, trade shows, kiosk, PR
stunts, paid ads, etc.)
18. Deploy & Participate
• Make it easy for people to play with you
• Encourage engagement (sometimes
requires offline ads)
• Recruit and solicit participation
• Rally support
• Acknowledge participants
• Respond positively and with transparency
• Collaborate and connect
YOU!
19. Retention
• Discover and leverage patterns
• Understand what drives people
• Keep barriers of use low
• Optimize what is working
• Be transparent and demonstrate that you
are listening
• Leave no @ behind
Test & Refine
• If something fails, admit it, fix it and move
on!
LOVE
YOUR
VIPS
20. A few ideas
VIP OFFER
SUBMIT
YOUR
PHOTO TO
WIN!
Online
Communities
21. Measuring Success
• Analytics (SEO traffic patterns and unique visits)
• Increased membership or number of followers
• Downloads
• Track mention and referrals
Share What you Hear
• Information is key to the entire organization and
can be significant (product development,
customer service, strategic development,
communications, etc.)
22. Play by the (new) rules
• Pervasive vs. Persuasive
• Participate without Control
• Be transparent and collaborative
• All hands on deck
Tim O’Reilly – O’Reilly media coined the phrase.
What is it?
IT = technology and architecture geared for web, iPod, PDA’s & Phones; HTML (Hyper text markup language) vs. XML (Extensible markup language) – Open content management driven content.
DESIGN = cool names & design elements; iconic, user friendly
THOUGHT LEADERS = collaborative mashup of thinkers – state of mind(s)
Centres of influence emerge everywhere – and people often connect across platforms
You may find pockets in all spaces so you need to engage across multiples
4 Technologies that have empowered people: Social Media, Video, Cloud computing and Smart phones
Consumer access to tools empowers them as:
reporters
videographers
bloggers
dj’s
syndicators
To reach a state of homeostatis – that ‘zen like’ state (internally and externally) - you must actively listen and morph as needed to achieve your goal states! Internally, if your goal state changes, so must your structure and process to achieve that goal. Externally, if outside variants are affecting either goal states or structure and process, changes must be made (i.e. improved customer service or improved customer regard) to maintain that organizational ‘zen.’
Organizations today must seek the external feedback so that the early radar system is set off BEFORE tragic results can occur.
Focusing only within your organization is short sighted – because the boundary you presume to protect you from the outside variants will burst if enough force is applied to the boundary – just like a balloon – creating chaos and disorganization. In this state, it becomes difficult to regain control.
One way communication – ‘us to you’ mentality
Sharing mentality – we are all connected – and connected across multiple devices
Advanced device use has increased social media use because the applications are easily consumed and managed using the tools
Televisions are being engineered to browse now – so are DVD players and the like
This is the new view of web content – multi channels
Be there or B-square…they are already talking but are you listening to what they say.
Strategic Communications – can begin to predict things (behaviour, product cycles, product or service improvements, etc)
Ask the hard questions
Claim your space so not to be brand jacked!
PR channel, customer service channel, corporate services channel, R&D – endless possibilities
Measures (if you can tag it, you can track it but also…market research success too)
Phillips chose Linkedin only and have created the largest Linkedin Group providing invaluable information in advance of their brand.
They listen to what is heard and adapt
Fish where the fish are
Your advocates are important – let them know you understand this
Make sure you assess what is working and what is not
You can’t control the message – understand and accept that!
That said, there are nuggets in what you hear (can really help you address issues as they arise and provide more of what people want to hear).
Don’t be afraid to communicate and be creative – take a few chances and create some buzz.
Business process with a little fun is necessary!