Where is Everyone? Community-Building Online

WHERE IS EVERYONE?

Jen Riehle, NC State University

Community-Building Online

Who am I?Jen RiehleTechnology Outreach SpecialistNC State UniversityRaleigh, NC

What am I doing here?

Community. Who are they? How do you find them? How do you get them to follow you and keep following you?

Def: Communitynoun, plural: -ties

1. a social group of any size whose members reside in a specific locality, share government, and often

have a common cultural or historical heritage; 2. a social, religious, occupational, or other group

sharing common characteristics or interests or perceiving itself as distinct in some respect from the

larger society within which it exists.

Def: Communitynoun, plural: -ties

1. a social group of any size whose members reside in a specific locality, share government, and often

have a common cultural or historical heritage; 2. a social, religious, occupational, or other group

sharing common characteristics or interests or perceiving itself as distinct in some respect from the

larger society within which it exists.

Key ways to find and engage your community - mutual interests and goals

Who is in the community?

According to 2011 Pew Internet Project Report: pewinternet.org/Reports/2011/Social-Networking-Sites.aspx

2005: 8% of adults had EVER used

a social networking sitepewinternet.org/Reports/2011/Social-Networking-Sites.aspx

2011:65% of adults online use social networking sites

pewinternet.org/Reports/2011/Social-Networking-Sites.aspx

% of users stable across races, education levels, income levelsSome old stats hold true: still more younger users than older but you’d be surprised...

51% of adults aged 50-64 use social networking sites

pewinternet.org/Reports/2011/Social-Networking-Sites.aspx

33% of those over 65; up 150% in 2 years

What about your community?

Governing bodies

National and international organizations relating to your work

Local (city, state) organizations and media outlets

Volunteers

Anyone who’s following you

Who should you be engaging with? Where should you look for followers?

Look at some of those “anyone’s”. What’s bring them to you? Go engage them.

How Communities Work

Community Interactions

3 kinds...

production

promotion

support

ProductionSuccessful communities share in the production of content, ideas, attitudes and goals. Look for other groups you would consider part of the community- groups you work with, have things in common with and have similar goals, those who exist above you or below you in the organizational structure of your communityWriter - big producers of content and people are ALWAYS publishing on the web

Promotion

Share the ideas and information from your community. Communicate the goals, advice, and resources of others in your community. Share opinions and influence attitudes

Support

crowdsourcing- provides quality solutions w/ real world focus- drives participant involvement- provides positive PREX: Lonerider beer name contestTools: (Google Moderator an example)

How do we successfully participate in production, promotion and support online?

Choosing Your Tools

Make some goals

increase brand awareness

collaborate with stakeholders; gain insight

optimize website; better search results and more traffic

establish yourself as a thought leader; educate stakeholders

increase donations

Make some goals

increase brand awareness

collaborate with stakeholders; gain insight

optimize website; better search results and more traffic

establish yourself as a thought leader; educate stakeholders

increase donations

Then pick one or two that REALLY matter to you the most

Use your goals to determine your tools

Goal: Higher traffic

Recruit publiclyLinkedIn is the new Yellow Pages

LI has grown by 60% in the last year (windmillnetworking.com/2011/08/08)Post you job hunts online and make sure your organization is well-represented on LI. And so are you.

Goal:Brand loyalty

Repurpose your contentAllState on YouTube

Dell makes presentations available on a variety of topics on Slideshare. People can use these for help or repurpose them - makes Dell a go-to source for help and advice.

Goal:Thought-leader

Share your knowledge via podcastsWineLibrary.tv

winelibrary has just hit 1000 video podcastsStarted in 2006 to educate people on all aspects of wine he now has a book, a company that distributes wine samplers and has appeared on tv, radio and in dozens of newspapers and magazines

Goal:Increased

AwarenessBecome a subject-matter expertDell on Slideshare

Spend lots of time and money on those ads? Make them available online! People wander around and find them - if they enjoy them they may share them.

Choosing the Tools

Listen

Learn

Launch

LISTEN to your audience. Find out what they use and what they want to use.LEARN about how best to take advantage of these tools; know what your investments will be (time, money, content)LAUNCH. Be ready to hit the ground running

Choosing the Tools

Listen

Learn

Launch

LISTEN to your audience. Find out what they use and what they want to use.

Choosing the Tools

Listen

Learn

Launch

LEARN about how best to take advantage of these tools; know what your investments will be (time, money, content)

Choosing the Tools

Listen

Learn

Launch

LAUNCH. Be ready to hit the ground running- content plan; write things ahead of time as mush as possible; long list of topics, etc.

Engaging Your Community

Grand gestures are memorable

Morton’s Steakhouse; July, writer Peter Shankman landing in Newark had a steak waitingBarbie and Ken shippers online- Matel launched campaign using Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare for Ken wooing Barbie back

Get away from the

computer

Go out and meet people face-to-face. They’re much more likely to participate and engage with you online if they’ve met you in person.

Use Community Resources

Coordinate local groups. Find or recruit people interested in your area and get them involved. Get bloggers to write about you and share your messages - then repurpose that content!

Feed the birds

Provide useful information. Doesn’t hurt to go back to the basics from time-to-time. Why are you here? What knowledge do you have to share? What’s the latest news in your area of interest and how is it affecting your followers? - Raleigh Food Trucks

Set clear goals

Call to action should be clear. Make it easy and fun to contribute (when possible)

Engage your followers

Be sure to recognize comments and answer questions. Reward contributions. Use graphics and videos to draw the eye and stories to engage people.

There’s no place like

home...

Drive your users back to a HOME BASE. Information, donations, everything should run through one point so you can do intense analytics on what sites are driving your users to your information.Should be updated regularly- when you do a SM campaign that should be reflected somewhere at HOME.

Measuring Your Success

Check on Goals

Using tools to monitor success:

Google analytics

URL shorteners that track usage (bit.ly, goo.gl)

Facebook pages monitor usage

Many new tools for monitoring social media usage

Many metrics are the same metrics we’ve always had for marketing purposes - now framed differentlyTools: Omniture, ViralHeat (built with SAS analytics), Argyle Social

SuccessYou may have all kinds of data but what does “success” mean? Did you meet your goals?Measure success with correlation's, not always hard data1. positive interactions and feedback; 2. building of new relationships; 3. in cost savings (fewer HD calls); 4. in increased donations

FailureNot meeting your goals:Why not? Did you pick the wrong goal?Have you given it enough time?Not following through with the requirements of the tool?Very common that we let the work we need to do get away from us. How do we get OUT of social media?

The goal isn’t to be good at social media.

The goal is to be good at communication because of social

media.

Remember...

What to do next...

Just because you haven’t posted in while doesn’t mean you should quit

Does mean you should re-evaluate and fix things.

Bailing

Inform your followers of your plans

Point people to alternate resources

Keep your accounts

Continue to follow your online community

People are following you for a reason; given them other helpKeep your accounts alive so no one else can grab them - might need them later or might confuse followersContinue to communicate and participate; monitor what’s being said about you

Steps for Community Success

1. Find the community

2. Find out what the community wants and provide it

3. Support and contribute

4. Monitor

5. Repeat

Good Luck!

Photo Credit

STÉFAN

Questions?Thank you!

Jen Riehle, NC State Universityjen_riehle@ncsu.edu

@ncsumarit