Online Community Management :October 2010

Susan Tenby, Online Community Director: TechSoup

Online Community and Social Media Team

@suzboop on Twitter

TechSoup Global: The technology place for nonprofits. TechSoup is a popular, comprehensive online content and community

destination for nonprofits that provides unbiased information and technical know-how to ensure that nonprofits make the best possible use of technology.

Aggregated Knowledge

TechSoup Provides ICT Resources, Knowledge and Community to Nonprofits and Libraries . . .

Where is TechSoup Global Today? Australia

Belgium Botswana Brazil Bulgaria Canada Chile Croatia Egypt France Germany Hong Kong Hungary India Ireland Italy Japan Kenya Luxembourg Macau Mexico Netherlands New Zealand Poland Romania Russia Slovakia Slovenia South Africa Spain Sweden Taiwan United Kingdom United States

TechSoup’s network of Partner NGOs is leveraging TechSoup to establish localized versions of the product donation platform in other countries like…

UK

Poland

Belgium

global network

TechSoup Community

• 17 Forums• Events Calendar• Member Spotlight• Community Blog• Meetups• Second Life• Surveys• Webinars• Soup Recipes• Managed by two Community Managers, a project

manager, two part time contractors and volunteer hosts and star users

• http://www.flavors.me/techsoup

Community Map

Online Facilitation: Forms of Facilitation:

Real-time/Synchronous/live chatAsynchronousOnline Social NetworksWebinars/live eventsComments on Image-based Communities

Community doesn’t just happen: Just because you launch it, doesn’t mean they’ll come

Social Media is the technology.

It doesn’t make a community!

Trust and interaction over time make communities.

Role of the Community Manager

• Public Face, adding human trust element• Metrics and sentiment, listening for the

org• Conversation facilitator• Networker, connector• Cheerleader/spotlighting stars• Volunteer Manager• Represent the community to the org• Content Editor/curator• Party Host

Why Facilitate Online• Benefits of creating Community Online• Cost and geo-location• Starting and archiving of thoughtful conversations• Giving your members a reason to think about you btw conferences• Encouraging affiliate or sub-group membership• Encouraging a members-only tone to community– rules and lexicon• Great to get user input and to achieve greater transparency• A way to procure relevant dynamic, current content• Easy way to get volunteers, b/c low-impact time commitment

How to Facilitate Online• Consider purpose of the community closely• Write up and Stick to a Terms of Service• Don’t feed the trolls• Highlight your star members, give them permissions• Welcome your newbies and direct them• Profile personalization and multiple points of contact• Have Frequent and Regular Events• Have management meetings outside of community w/stars• Highlighting popular discussions, cross reference content• Cross-platform recruitment is good- not redundancy• Make sure questions are promptly answered, from all

virtual locations• Go outside your platform to connect multiple points of entry

Holding the space• Own your authority• Don’t be afraid to interrupt/publicly shame• Allowing your users to be uncensored• Sticking to the Standards and TOS• Self-policing members• Moderating & closing off-topic conversation• Common understanding of moderation w/members• Repetition of procedures and organization• Redirect and focus as needed• Cross reference appropriate outside resources• With Video/web-streaming, make sure camera is focused

appropriately

Tools to get the job done:TechSoup community’s menu…

• Webinars• Forums• Twitter• Facebook• Second Life• LinkedIn• YouTube • Meetup• Flickr• Google Groups/Email lists• Blog Comment monitoring

Why Webinars?

• Online or “virtual” seminar • Combines audio and visual aspect• Live broadcast - one to many/several to

many • Allows you to reach people all over the

world, without the need for travel• We expand the listener-base to Second

Life• Enhances Engagement, listening together

Keeping the Momentum Going: After-life• Archive and make easily accessible• Follow-up email of participants• Giving them alternate points of membership in community• Clear calls to action , i.e. signing up • Highlighting star participants • Circling back with opt-in email addys, inviting to future events• Request feedback and suggestions for future events• Report back on the actions you took based on that feedback• Stats/Metrics recap in follow up email• Email helpful individuals and invite to plan future events• Resurface event threads periodically• Expanding the message beyond the room

Nonprofit Commons in Second Life

• Through this community, we provide free office space to qualifying groups, hold meetings, create a cooperative supportive learning environment and foster outreach, education, fundraising, all in a virtual space.

• Our goal is to create a learning community of practice for nonprofits to explore and learn about the virtual world, and to investigate the many ways in which nonprofits can utilize this unique environment.

Community through images/tags

Video: The Nonprofit Commons in Second Life

• Insert video here

Leadership and assistance through virtual community organizing strategies

• In-world Meetings• Wiki• Website/community blog• NPSL tag –multiple cross-platform entry points• Management steering committee group –creating arsenal of

support• Directory of Nonprofits in Second Life –making them easily

findable• Branding as NPO experts and advisors- Rewarding the Rockstars

Impact

• 625+ Total Members of the TechSoup groupin Second Life

• Over 92 Countries represented amongNPC participants

• 3,453 unique avatars spent 4,254 hours in world

• 86 NPC Tenant Organizations• 4843 unique visitors to the NPC Blog• 174,208 visits to the TechSoup Forums

in the first quarter of Fiscal Year 2011• 394 members of the Nonprofit Commons

Google Group

Every member wants to be a ROCKSTAR

Reward The Contributions• If they tweet about you, RT to your network• Get them on video• Feature the video on your site• Spotlight them in an interview• Comment on their public profiles• Friend them in other social networks• Mention them in a recommended list• #FF on twitter and friendly tweeter lists• Ask them to present in online event/webinar• Write them privately, encourage participation

Online vs Offline, engaging the extended communities

• Live Meetups– Meetup.com– NetTuesday events– Online Community Meetups

• Virtual Meetups– Weekly NPSL– Weekly Webinars

• Connecting the two via Twitter, Flickr, live stream and chat

Contact info

• Susan Tenby• Online Community Director, TechSoup Network

susan@techsoup.org• SL avatar: Glitteractica Cookie• Follow on twitter• @suzboop @npsl @techsoup

http://www.techsoup.org/http://www.netsquared.orghttp://npsl.wikispaces.com/http://www.nonprofitcommons.orghttp://flavors.me/techsoup

Resources:http://delicious.com/suzboop/OnlineCommunity

Find this presentation online @:http://www.slideshare.net/suzboop