How to Build and Maintain Vibrant Social Networks and Online Communities Laurel Papworth Social Networks Strategist world.com.au

How to Build and MaintainVibrant Social Networks and

Online Communities

Laurel PapworthSocial Networks Strategist

world.com.au

Laurel Papworth http://world.com.au

Slides03. Why am I here?

10. Where do I go?

17. Who am I?

30. Can you help me?

37. What are you doing?

44. How do I behave?

54. What’s going on?

60. What’s the celebration?

67. All together now?

Social NetworkWhy am I here?

Are our reasons aligned?

Laurel Papworth


Types of Social Networks

• Family

• Work

• Play

• Spirituality

• Politics

• Geographic

• Demographic

• Topical

• Activity


Mazlow’s Hierarchy of Needsadapted by Amy Jo Kim

Physiological Food clothing Shelter, health,

System access, retain management of system identity

Security and Safety Protection from crimes and war, living in a just society

Protection from hacking and trolling, privacy, level playing field

Social Ability to give and receive love, belonging to a group

Belonging to a community as a whole, and swarms (subgroups)

Self-esteem Ability to earn self respect, respect of others and ability to contribute

Ability to contribute and be recognised for those contributions

Self Actualisation Develop skills Take on new roles and new opportunities


The “Why” of social networking

• Name – helps if it’s meaningful

• Slogan – funky one liner

• Why – ‘public’ company reasons

• Interface – colours are important !

• Human story – evil or good?

• Content, tools, links – what’s inside?


Name and Motto

• Fark.com• Mother&Baby• Facebook• iYoMu• Flickr • MySpace• YouTube

• …it’s Not News it’s Fark.com• ?• ? (how many friends have you got)• …Social Networking for Grownups• …Loves You• …a Place for Friends (just not MINE)

• …Broadcast Yourself




Where should I visit?

Laurel Papworth

Social Network BytesWhere do I go?


Where to go?

• Areas to meet

• Tools to communicate – blogs, forums

• News to read

• Tools to use – hosted, white label, or self

• Useability, sociability, navigation, taxonomy, site maps

• (plus the “Why’s”)


How to you like to communicate?

• Instant (synchronous), real time support- instant messenger, broadcast, chat channels, SMS, virtual worlds, ventrilo

• Delayed (asynchronous)- email, listserv, blogs, forums, wiki,

• Either?- Twitter, RSS, APIs


Who-to-who(m)?

• One to One - email, personal messages, chat

• One to Many- blogs,

• Many to Many- forums

• Few to Few (gated)- follow me services



Tools to Use

• HostedFacebook, MySpace,

• White LabelNing,

• DIYDrupal,


Summary

• Meeting places (role based) - Newcomer- Off Topic- Elders

• Meeting places (tool based)- forums- blogs- wikis

• Tools• News

What is my identity?

Laurel Papworth

Social Network BytesWho am I?


Who am I?

• Sign me up!

• Establish identity

• Establish reputation

• Establish trust

• Context: - system, personal, public (old)- as many profiles as needed (new)


Sign Me Up!

• Decide on Barrier to Entry and stick to it!

• Sign up procedure - CAPTCHA, email confirmation

• Welcome emailUsername, password

• Importing friends list


75th on Google Search



Don’t want to check contacts now?

Don’t want to check contacts now?


Looking to meet?

Description?

Starsign?


Uh.Oh.It’s a dating site



Establish Identity

• What is Public and how Public? • What is Gated?• What information is Private?• What is hidden in the System Profile?• Static information• Semi Static • Dynamic status• Evolve the profiles – adds interest


Personality

• Avatars

• Multiple identities

• Explain Profile questions

• Tagline (.sig)

• Free vs category answers

• Fun titles and non-sequitors


Establish Reputation

• Who are the top contributors?

• Most popular articles?

• Newest members?

• Newest comments?

• Latest uploaded media?

• Featured blog, featured profile

• Titles – guild, moderator (see status later)


How do I get involved?

Laurel Papworth

Social Network BytesCan you help me?


Who am I?

• Visitor, Anonymous, no Profile

• Registered, novice

• Regular, normal

• Leaders, contributors (see more later)

• Elders

• Employees

• Owner


Clearly define…

• visitor vs registered

• Premium visitors

• Appropriate areas for newcomers

• Regulars

• Leaders (see more later)

• Elders


Visitors Centre

• About Us• FAQ• Media/Press Releases• Tour, Video, Podcast, Interactive• Letter from Host (now: blog)• Membership requirements (age, location)• Site Map• Background, whitepapers• Mission statement, backstory, history• Overview of features (quick grab)• Policies, guidelines, code of conduct


Regular Centre

• Read/write not read only

• Access to karma points

• Show number of posts, length of membership

• Premium services


Social Graph

Not a People Graph


WoW site 291 incl.Forums

WoW Virtual World

WoW economy

Thottbot.com 391

allakhazam.com 798

WowWiki1,299

blog

blog

blog

blog

blog

blog

blog

blog

blog

How do I get involved?

Laurel Papworth

Social Network BytesWhat are you doing?


New & Small

• Leader, owner/founder, developer, customer service, staff, moderator – you

• A bunch of interested people – them• Accept offers of help, monitor and encorage

these (founders) as they will become (elders). • Staff – (unpaid) Volunteers or Contractors (part-

time) - Enthusiasts


Mix up social and disciplinary?

• Welcome greeter: usually called Angel• Host: main leaders who unite with purpose• Moderator/editor: evaluate content• Moderator/police: warn, ban, remove• Teacher: answer newbies, recruit• Events/party-er: co-ordinate• Admin: leads moderators, writers, team• Developer/owner: “god”, bottom line,

Any of these can be volunteer. Or paid.


Volunteer vs Paid

• Status

• Giving to the community

• Learn new skills

• Make networking contacts(career change)


Choose your leaders

• … or your community will choose for you.

• Or choose together.

• Encourage behaviour by showcasing it

• “Spotlights”

• Rewards…

• Tools – special chat channels, controlling access, locking down content


Type of Community Rewards

• Competition community? Then Ratings/Rankings e.g. high scores

• Task based community? Then “spotlight” tasks e.g. blog entries

• Profit based community? Share the love: auctions, classifieds, storefronts, affiliates

• Knowledge based? Then reward with feedback


Critique User Generated Content

• … or consumer generated media or ‘members creating stuff’.

• Quantitative: Check page hits, posting activity or hours logged in.

• CrowdSourced – rated and ranked media• Editor sourced – manually collect and

exhibit media from members.• Find Usability/SEO consultants who

understand Sociability

It’s War: Rules of Engagement

Laurel Papworth

Social Network BytesHow do I behave?


Documentation & Tools

• Who can join?

• Technical decisions

• Behavioural rules

• Behavioural advice

• Privacy policy

• Terms of Use, Terms of Service

• Tools for leaders


Yes Moderators are st00p1d

We can’t work out that fcuk really means a naughty word. Oh and “Click here for pr0n”. What does a$$h0le mean?

However we ignore OMFG.

Do you take offence at Newbie? How about Nubby? Nublet? N00b or n00bie?



Technical decisions

• Images, video, media• What constitutes porn, shock sites• Civility• Spam• Privacy• Liability• Censorship• Ownership of content


Documents

• Member agreement.

• Legal

• Community or Social Guidelines

• Support IssuesHelp: FAQ, Knowledgebase



Official ADMIN????

…there are 650 Admins. And I'm pretty sure the one with Fuck You in the headline and the other one with My Willys Is Bigger than Yours are not real admins…



Tools for Leaders

• Moderators are a community too!• Own titles, own forums, own areas/places• Evidence Locker – remove content to an

evidence locker. Do not delete.• Rap Sheet – keep a database of details of

Watched, Warned, Banned membersIncludes, all IP addresses, signup and all email addresses, links to evidence locker, copy of Personal Messages.

Where’s the party?

Laurel Papworth

Social Network BytesWhat’s going on?


Events

• Personal Calendar• Community calendar• Contests• Meetings• Performances• Event co-ordinators (support them)• Transitory forum• Tools *An important moment/highlight in the week. Even

an update achieve that…


Event Management

• Online or Offline? Both?

• Plan: Strategy, Location, Infrastructure, ‘staff’ needs, documents, time and place,

• Marketing: display information, launch details, staff, troublemakers

• Follow up: continue the discussion, distribute the results, plan next one


Contests

• Create debate

• Quizzes – polls, debates, hot or not

• Foto of the day - “interesting” Flickr

• Causes

• Vampires, Werewolves on Facebook

• Board games


Meetings

• Book club

• Support physical meeting (not replace)

• Instant (IRC) with developers

• Monthly roundup of issues (forum)

• Create regularity and loyalty


Performances

• Interviews with developers

• Podcast interviews

• Technical training, webinars, webcasts

• I might put these slideshows up, once a week!

• Who’s on stage this week? Spotlight leaders, elders and owners

Recognising & rejoicing with others

Laurel Papworth

Social Network BytesWhat’s the celebration?


Ritual and Holidays

• Power of belonging

• Acknowledgement of communication context

• Community Holidays (Founders day)

• Passages and Transitions (Funerals)


Hello and Goodbye

• … and everything in between

• Welcome newcomer, one year ‘avatar’ birthday, reaching 1000 posts, finding 5000th friend, most popular leader, farewell

• Birthdays, engagements, weddings, pregnancy, birth, divorce, death – particularly death


Birthdays

Gifts

Co-incidence? I think not…


Sophie Delezio: 16,000 entries in basic guestbook online community



Control some rituals

• Thankyou, Thankyou Thankyou Thankyou Thankyou Thankyou Thankyou Thankyou

Thankyou Thankyou Thankyou Thankyou Thankyou Thankyou Thankyou

Thankyou Thankyou Thankyou Thankyou

Me and my buddies

Laurel Papworth

Social Network BytesAll together now?


Intimacy vs Growth

• Critical masses at tipping point will ‘fork’

• Subdivisions can happen naturally

• Subdivisions can be planned

• Each subdivision follows the previous presentations today – who, what, why, when and so on.


Joomla Mambo




More Information?

• Contact Laurel [email protected]

• Blog http://silkcharm.blogspot.com (or on Facebook, or LinkedIn or…

• Ask on the forumshttp://world.com.au/forum

• Based on work by Amy Jo Kim and Jenny Preece and … (on the shoulders of giants).