Gez Daring - Building Online Communities

Presented by Gez Daring6th July 2010

Digital Marketing In Black and White

Building online communities

Community Memory 1973Community Memory ’73 1st Public BBS – Berkeley San Francisco experiment to understand how people would react to exchanging information via computer

History of Communities online• Usenet ‘79 – organised into topical

categories called newsgroups– Usenet resembled Bulletin Board Systems

(BBS) which were precursors of today’s internet forums

• MUD (Multi-User Dungeons)– multi-user real-time virtual world represented

in text• IRC (Internet Relay Chat)

– a form of real-time Internet text messaging (chat) or synchronous conferencing

History of Communities online• Chat Rooms• BBS

– SysOP home-hosted systems• Today’s Threaded Internet Forums

– www.biofind.com• Community 2.0

– Social web technologies plus a community

Definition• When people carry on public

discussions long enough, with sufficient human feeling, to form webs of personal relationships

Howard Rheingold Author- Virtual Communities (1993)

Other Leading Lights• Mark Granovetter

– American sociologist at Stanford University

– Theories on the spread of information in social networks known as "The Strength of Weak Ties" (1973).

• Malcolm Gladwell– “The Tipping Point” where he talks of

“the moment of critical mass, the threshold, the boiling point.”

What makes up Online Community• An enabling technology

– Ning, wordpress, BB forum, Facebook• A core topic (or other connecting

factor)• Passionate contributors• Background crowd• An unwritten social contract of trust• Moderators (sometimes)

Examples of the purpose of online communities• Activism• Clan (gaming)• Research test bed

– Technology Strategy Board 30,000 representative UK onliners www.innovateuk.org

• Support Groups

Examples of the purpose of online communities• Ethnography• Hobbies

– www.flickr.com - photography– www.redbubble.com - poetry

• Answers– www.blurt-it.com, Yahoo answers ,

• A highly networked individual’s social graph

Biofind

Mercedes forum

Second Life

Make up of a community• Peripheral (i.e. Lurker)

– An outside, unstructured participation• Inbound (i.e. Novice)

– Newcomer is invested in the community and heading towards full participation

• Insider (i.e. Regular)– Full committed community participant

• Leader (i.e. Champion)– A leader, sustains membership participation and brokers

interactions

Make up of a community• Peripheral =1000

• Inbound =100

• Insider =10

• Leader =1

Community participation• Lurkers don’t readily participate because they

don’t believe they need to and in not doing so they are being helpful

• Leaders participate because they believe that their actions will have positive outcomes

• Member participation is not based on hierarchical needs or goals-driven theories but desire planning and they environment

Increasing participation in online communities: A framework for

human–computer interaction:Jonathan Bishop

Dynamics of Communities

Host

Leader 1

Leader 2

Leader 3

InsiderInbound

Lurker

Insider

Insider

Inbound

Inbound

Inbound

Lurker

Lurker

LurkerLurker

LurkerLurker

Lurker

Value of Community

Host

User 1

User 2

User 3

£ ?£

£ ?

£

£

£ ?

Monetisation summary• Good Old fashioned cpc mechanisms• Subscription or freemium models• Relationship commissions

Other value in community• Conversation/dialogue• Sentiment• Influence• Co-learning• Collaboration

Qualitative Signs of success• Signs of ownership within the

community• Self-policing• Rituals• Off-line actions begin

Quantitative success metrics• Number of new members• Number leaving members• Member satisfaction• Number and type of content items created• Number of connections / relationships

created• Time on site• Frequency of visits• Recommendations & Referrals

Building a community• Don’t let technology drive the community• Seed content with known champions in the

topic• Inaugural members act as roll models

– Define code of conduct• Moderate• Keep participation simple

– Initially all content open unless as part of a reward

Building a community• Politely provoke and reward

participation• Track strangers/lurkers and try to

promote them through desire• Be active and part of the community

yourself• Set an example• It takes time!

External Communities• Social Networks• Multi Platform communities• Whereever there is online dialogue

What do we do about all these people talking about us?

DO Listen

• Monitor Your brand– Everyone should do this

• Investigate Trending Topics• Learn the rules• Feedback

– What are you doing right?– Or wrong?

DO Listen

• Listening tools– Market Sentinel– BuzzMonitor

• Also...– Twitter Search– Technorati Search– Google Blog search– Board Reader

DO Listen

Respond and React• Online

– Engage (Good or Bad)– Campaign (New Goals?)– Beware the lonely troll– Steer traditional digital activity

• Offline– Act on feedback– Tackle problems from the source– Use the buzz!

DO

DON’T Broadcastjus

t

DON’T Broadcast• Engage• Encourage• Excite

just

Wipe your damn feet!DO

Wipe your damn feet!• Be aware you are entering a

community• Learn the etiquette• Learn the lingo• Be respectful

DO

DON’T Expect a red carpet

• “Build it and they will come” does not apply

• A presence is not enough• No one likes a pushy salesman• People will tell you what they think...

...whether you like it or not

DON’T Expect a red carpet

Add ValueDO

• Think of way to improve your members’ lives.... even the smallest ways

• Advocates are valuable – let them know

• Make things easy - integrate– Facebook Connect

Add ValueDO

Sega twitter giveaways

@manairport live flight info• We plugged the twitter API into the

Manchester Airport live flight update service.

• User DMs flight number to manairport

• User receives updates by DM

Be DodgyDON’T

Be Dodgy• Spam• Hijack• Game the system• Plagiarise• Fake comments / Diggs

DON’T

Habitat• Hijacked twitter #hashtags to

promote itself– #iphone #mousavi #apple #trueblood

• Backlash on twitter• Picked up by mainstream news

– BBC, Guardian, Sky News• Habitat forced to apologize

– Should have done it MUCH sooner

Habitat

Habitat

Habitat

Habitat

Habitat

Whole Foods• “rahodeb” was an active user for 7 years on

Yahoo finance forums (2000 – 2007) • Revealed good knowledge of wholefoods and

the CEO (in third person)• Criticized Whole Foods rival Wild Oats Market• During a £600mill buyout of OATS a

complaint was lodged• Whole foods CEO, John Mackey IS rahoeb• Accused of attempting to influence share

price.

Whole foods

Whole Foods’ CEO John Mackey

Set your brand free• Encourage and support amateur

brand champions.– If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em

• Develop ideas with crowds• Trust the users to be your ceontent

providers.

DO

Be a BullyDON’T

Be a Bully• If you find users doing something you

find objectionable• DON’T threaten with legal action• DON’T Make demands• Use legal action as a LAST resort

DON’T

Guinness VS FailBlog

Guinness VS Failblog

Guinness VS FailblogDear Sir/Madam,

Thanks for writing us an email regarding the “Record Breaking Fail”. Unfortunately, douchebaggy cyber-bullying emails will only bring upon you more shame on your house. I am also resisting the urge to write this email in ALL CAPS.I believe it is the duty of FAIL Blog(TM) to call out organizations when they encourage the public to do such things as “Break the record” for the “Most Individuals Killed In A Terrorist Act”. We firmly believe that our publication of your fail is protected under the concepts of fair use, commentary and non-trademark use. Please RTFM and we welcome you to teh interwebs.Since we at FAIL Blog(TM) don’t have a legal defense department, we have complied with your request to remove the trademarked term and logo from the original image. We have used the “naughty bits filter” on the image to secure your naughty, naughty, trademark assertions. However, we have posted your email so that our audience can see why we had to remove the name of the failer from the image. I hope that this is the outcome you have expected as now NO ONE WILL EVER KNOW THAT GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS LIMITED HAS FAILED.The full legal response can be read here: icanhaz.com/legalresponseCheers,FAIL Blog

Guinness VS Failblog

External Communities• DO

–Listen–Respond/React–Wipe your feet–Add Value–Set your Brand

free

• DON’T– Just Broadcast–Expect a red

carpet–Be Dodgy–Be a Bully

Summary• Online communities have social

structure just like the real world because they comprise real people!

• Online communities have a voice and an opinion

• Online communities can be valued in many ways

Thank you, any questions?