10 commandments of community management (2011)

of Community Management

The Ten Commandments

Friday, March 4, 2011

What is community?

-shared interest-shared ownership-shared value.

Meaningful Communities have three things in common:

1Know your special purpose

COMMANDMENT ONE

What does it meeeannn??We mean that you have a core set of values or even just one core value or mission that your whole company is bought in on and that you embody so fully it emanates out to your customers. It's the thing that makes you not just another widget creator or bag seller or software company or service provider. It's your reason for existence beyond just making money.

It's from companies like this that communities emerge or are at least more easily created.

Now you know and knowing is half the battle...

EmbodyIf knowing is half the battle, If knowing is half the battle, then the other half is embodying your special purpose. It starts at the very top, the CEO embodies the companies special purpose and every employee is empowered to do their jobs in a way that supports this.

Breeding trust

2Establish a Social Contract

COMMANDMENT TWO

http://www.ccpact.com

Define your social norms in writing - or just edit ours >>>

http://getsatisfaction.com/community_guidelines

This is where you are explicit about your social contract. On Get Satisfaction we have provided an explicit social contract for you. However, you are welcome to add to it for your own customer community so that it meets your specific community's needs.

Define your social norms in writing

Enforce your rules

Lead By Example

3Set clear expectations

COMMANDMENT THREE

What’s the purpose of the community? What should customers expect? For some companies, Community is a core support channel; for others, it may be peripheral. Whatever the case, be sure you set your expectations clearly for both your customers and your internal team.

Define your relationship with your community.

Mogo explicitly states that they want to hear from their customers. In fact, their tagline is “Ask Us Anything!”

“Need help trouble shooting....”

Zero Ambiguity

Establish an internal policy for responseEstablish an internal policy for response

Evolve your policy as the community grows

One Caveat

Co-Creation

Resolution

Brand Equity / Loyalty: Advocate identification

Broad Participation: More than just Ideation

Service and Support / Consumer Relations

It’s really hard to start here

Levels of Community Value

4Cast a wide net

COMMANDMENT FOUR

Weave Community Throughout the User Experience

Bonnaroo puts Community (“Ask Gary Chardonnay”) on their homepage, on a dedicated community page, and inside their Facebook fan page.

Procter & Gamble’s eStore provides a Community Widget on every page of the site. Not just the home page.

Don’t go it alone.

Avoid the echo chamber by fostering diversity

5Create productive outcomes

COMMANDMENT FIVE

They don’t like loose ends. They need resolution. Make sure your community is structured in a way that doesn’t leave customers “hanging.”

People need closure.

These all “resolve”- Questions get Answered- Ideas get accepted / rejected- Problems get solved- Praise gets Acknowledged

Tide does a great job of acknowledging a customer idea; then other customers pitch in to help create an alternative solution.

Sorry shouldn’t be the hardest

word Friday, March 4, 2011

Let your customers know they had an impact

6Make it personal

COMMANDMENT SIX

Discourage Anonymity

Use your real name and

People hate JarGon.

http://getsatisfaction.com/jargon

7Be a bridge

COMMANDMENT SEVEN

Community Managers are on the front lines of the Company/Customer relationship. Your job is to be the bridge between both parties to ensure that each is receiving value. Don’t forget, for a Community to be effective, there must be shared value.To each side, you represent the other. This represents challenges and opportunities. It's often a contradiction and you must learn to embrace the contradiction.

Ombudsman(noun) An appointed official whose duty is to investigate complaints, generally on behalf of individuals such as consumers or taxpayers, against institutions such as companies and government departments.

We liken your role to that of an Ombudsman, except that you’re representing both sides simultaneously.

Sometimes Bridge = Mediator

Other times referee

or many other things.

Publicize Your Successes

8Don’t feed the animals

COMMANDMENT EIGHT

What’s a Troll, you ask?"An Internet troll, or simply troll in Internet slang, is someone who posts controversial, inflammatory, irrelevant or off-topic messages in an online community, such as an online discussion forum or chat room, with the primary intent of provoking other users into an emotional response[1] or to generally disrupt normal on-topic discussion." (wikipedia)

Almost every successful community will attract trolls. Like Gremlins, it’s how you handle them that matters.

Respond slowly when “that guy” is being an ass

Learn to identify trolls.

The black hole of debate

9Measure the right things

COMMANDMENT NINE

What you measure changes depending on what stage you're

at as well as what kind of company you are.

Don’t put the cart before the horse

Qualitative metrics are important too.

But let’s face it, at some point your boss wants to see numbers.

Support Numbers

Traffic & Engagement

Numbers

Return on Investment

See these case studies and many more at:

www.getsatisfaction.com/success-stories

1Assemble your Justice League

COMMANDMENT TEN

0Friday, March 4, 2011

Customer Question

First response is from a Customer

Know your archetypesand be good at identifying them

Define the right balance for your community

Empower your champions

Developing customer champions is not about hiring an army of free labor to do your work for you.

It’s about empowering your most passionate customers, and recognizing their contribution. Best of all, it works.

Read - http://blog.getsatisfaction.com/2011/02/02/torching-a-straw-man/

About UsGet Satisfaction powers the world’s best brands to solve problems, give a voice to champions, bring out the best ideas and drive better business.Learn more>>>

10 commandments of community management (2011)

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