Engaging Online:Best Practices For PR and Marketing

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LIVING LARGE: Creating Online Communities for

Collaboration & Commerce

Vanessa DiMauroCEO

Leader Networkswww.leadernetworks.com

Vdimauro@leadernetworks.com

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The New Communications Challenge

Social media is not well understood – new demands are being placed on communications…

• Why is no one blogging about my company? Can you promote my company to these 500 bloggers?

• OH NO! someone is blogging about my company! – I need online crisis management

• A client asked me to “get him one of those online communities.”• “We need a myspace/facebook account”• Wikipedia has wrong/bad/no info about my company – can you fix it?• Can you do some Web 2.0 marketing because we have no budget?

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The Puzzle of Now

PR [and Marketing] professionals face the challenge of regaining credibility for themselves and for their clients. The old, reliable media processes no longer are effective. At the very least, they are not enough. You don’t see a lot of people reading press releases on YouTube. …Two challenges are particularly severe. First, what’s the role for intermediaries in the disintermediated world of the Web? Second, who’s going to believe paid partisans when we can now talk with other customers like us?

-- David Weinberger 2007

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There is a Need For Understanding

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These Were the Best of Times, These Were the Worst of Times

Good intentions gone bad Loctite & the ballpoint pen

Bad intentions got caught WholeFoods vs. Wild Oats

Hurray for the longtail + social media! Microbrews, specialty products, travel sites, consumer health

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Online Communities are The Centerfold of Social Media

Online communities are the centerfold of social media because they bring together all social media efforts into a thriving organic ecosystem of collaboration

Processes: Digital Marketing, Online Customer Care, E-Marketplace, Net Promoter (NP score)

Tools: Blogs, WiKis, Polls, Ranking, Social Networks, Podcasting and Webcasting, Mashups, forums

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What are Online Communities?

• What is an online community?– Any group of people who purposefully use telecommunications to

discussion issues, questions, solve problems, share information, develop trust and communicate with a degree of frequency. (DiMauro and Gal, 1992)

– FAST FACT: Online community can take place in a discussion forum, a wiki, a social network, through a blog, and over e-mail

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Three General Models of Online Community

Small gated Public Hybrid

Select, narrow target audience

Acceptance criteria

Protected dialog

Managed topical agenda

Sponsor supported

Open call, all interested

Member directed

Public forum

Big bang

Ad generated support

Tiered membership

Consensus/Trend driven

Public forum w/ private area

Thought leadership (responsive)

Hybrid Revenues

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© LeaderNetworks 2008

Typical Community Programs

Member-Generated Content• Profiles / home pages• Product ratings• Product reviews• Interviews and high-value content

creation

Member-To-Member Interaction• Discussion Forums• Blogs, Wikis and social media entries• Member created podcasts• Phone calls

Events• Guest events• Expert Seminars• Virtual meetings / Trade Shows

Outreach • Newsletters• Volunteer / Leader programs• Polls / surveys

Driving Participation: Discussion group management and facilitation. (Only 10% of membership will participate in discussion groups)

Driving Conversion: All other site interaction. IE: polls / surveys, answering specific questions, rating content, participating in events…etc

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Online Communities are Good Business

Attract new and different audience/clients/prospects/users Shorten product development cycles Get the message right the first time! Build trust relationships with clients Yield two-sided competitive analysis Learn what your customers are talking about

When was the last time you were able to talk to 2,000 of your clients?

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Community Business Model in Action

1. Member has an idea

2. Member seeks advice

3. Member evaluates options

4. Member builds plan & budget

5. Member makes purchase

Goes to discussions or content

Buys research or advisory service

Joins buying pack

Leverages discounts

Orders from partners

Create valueget benefit

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What is different about social media engagement?… (*Not* everything)

• Ownership and power– Freelance journalists, bloggers, consumers, Citizen Journalism

• Costs– Monitoring and outreach mainly manual and expensive

• Demographics– Traditionally overlooked constituents now have a voice

• New rules of engagements– New ethics and codes of conduct– O’Reily Blogger Rules

• Changing roles for PR and Marketing– New responsibility & need to innovate

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A Key Question

• Do you want to start the conversation with a formalized community plan or join the conversation of ongoing efforts?– Too often companies think they need to build or create in order to

participate– There are many ways to leverage social media– The social media model must fit the goals, resources, and needs

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Build: Community Creation Cycle

• Create Vision• Target & Segment Audience• Query Potential Members• Build Value Proposition• Architect Business Value Justification & Measurements• Benchmark Competition & Best of Breed• Determine Brand Positioning• Design Features & Functionality

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Participate: Practical Examples

Quarterly blogger cadre program

Find relevant online communities and be a participatory sponsor◦ Not just banner ads but join the conversation long-term

Use interactive media on website to create a community

Launch a customer care forum online/extend in-person events to 24X7

Enter new market segments through interactive media◦ BigCo does SMB

WOMM program to serve sponsors and users

Use More UGC

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© LeaderNetworks 2008Confidential

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Managing (client/company) Expectations

Online Community takes time◦ Roadmaps and process exposure is key

Online Community takes planning◦ Clients need to know where they want to go

Online Community takes effort◦ Executives and key spokespeople need to be more involved than with traditional

PR and Marketing

Online Community is less structured ◦ Embrace serendipity

Online Community outcomes CAN be measured◦ Buzzmetrics, ROI, customer retention, revenue generation, cross-sell/up sell,

competitive information value, new client acquisition

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Top 10 Rules of Online Community Engagement

1) No gaming, no scheming, no fake people 2) No one-night stands (cultivate relationships) 3) Observe, enculturate then act4) Be responsive and brave5) Be trustworthy and aware6) No tools for the sake of tools7) No blog litter8) Thought leadership over marketing9) Return what you learn10) Match plans with metrics

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Guiding Principals for Community Programs

• It is important to integrate interactivity into the traditional PR and Marcomm model– Companies need to examine how to bring interactivity into their

business models in ways that serve the business and the customer goals alike.

– People’s expectations are changing.. They no longer want to be passive recipients of information and experiences.

• The human process & trust factor can not be overlooked– What works in the face world will work in an online environment– Need clear definition about what are the behaviors the business

wants to support before launching a tool to support it.

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© LeaderNetworks 2008Confidential

THANK YOU!

Vanessa DiMauro

President, Leader Networks

617-484-0778

Vdimauro@leadernetworks.com