building an online community: strategy, launch, engagement, growth

26
Building an Online Community from Strategy, Planning and Launch to Effective Engagement and Adoption Catherine Shinners

Upload: catherine-shinners

Post on 01-Nov-2014

7.896 views

Category:

Documents


5 download

DESCRIPTION

Building an Online Community: Strategy, Launch, Engagement, Growth. Presented at Enterprise 2.0, Boston, June 19, 2012

TRANSCRIPT

Page 1: Building an Online Community: Strategy, Launch, Engagement, Growth

Building an Online Community –

from Strategy, Planning and Launch to

Effective Engagement and Adoption

Catherine Shinners

Page 2: Building an Online Community: Strategy, Launch, Engagement, Growth

Our Conversation Today• Why communities matter-A macro economic perspective

• Community principles and dynamics

• Four stages of community

Inception

• Strategy and Planning

• Business strategy alignment

• Community business model

• Community architecture

• Critical success factors

Establishment

Growth

Maturity

• Case Study

Page 3: Building an Online Community: Strategy, Launch, Engagement, Growth

Asset value transition

3

Changing asset baseOver two decades, intangible assets became key drive of economy

Page 4: Building an Online Community: Strategy, Launch, Engagement, Growth

Networked Organization

4

Market Share Gains

Operating Margins

Market Leadership

Closer customer relationships

Customer support

Product development

Collaboration with partners

Agile decision-making

Empowered teams

The rise of the networked enterprise: Web 2.0 finds its payday,McKinsey report No. 22, Spring 2011

Page 5: Building an Online Community: Strategy, Launch, Engagement, Growth

Communities – exploiting the long tail

5

The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More, Anderson, C. , 2006

Page 6: Building an Online Community: Strategy, Launch, Engagement, Growth

Community Principles

Communities have a lifecycle

Communities havea unique set of dynamics

Page 7: Building an Online Community: Strategy, Launch, Engagement, Growth

Participation

value is

achieved

through

participation

Community dynamics

Collectivecreated &

expanded from

wide

contributions

Emergence

value emerges

from collective

interactionsPersistence

contributions

captured for

sharing,

viewing

Independent

engagement

anytime,

anyplace, at

will

Transparency participants see

each other’s

contributions

The Social Organization: How to use social media to tap the collective genius of customer and employee, Bradley, A., , McDonald, M., Harvard Business Press, 2011

Page 8: Building an Online Community: Strategy, Launch, Engagement, Growth

Community Lifecycle

Inception Establishment Growth Maturity

•High value content sparks engagement

• Comm. Mgr. direct outreach, initiates discussions, prompts response, relationship building, seeks interaction to content

• Program of online events – forums, expert bloggers, original content

•Growing sense of community

•Regular communications

• Social media channel engagement

•Recruit volunteers

•Survey, poll members

•Recognition programs

•Promote community

•Advanced analytics

• Higher levels of interaction , engagement

• Community sense of shared history, achievements

• Volunteer-led activities

• Advancement in UX, platform, metrics, analytics

• Community more self-sustaining

• Subgroup, affinity group formation

•Reformation of purpose

A life-cycle perspective on online community success, Iriberri, A ., Leroy, G., ACM Computing Surveys, Volume 41 Issue 2, February 2009

Page 9: Building an Online Community: Strategy, Launch, Engagement, Growth

Stage 1: Inception

•Engage and education stakeholders

•Identify strategic business alignment

•Plan for inception & establishment

•Determine critical success factors and KPIs for

early phases

•Lay groundwork & infrastructure for growth and

maturity phases

Page 10: Building an Online Community: Strategy, Launch, Engagement, Growth

Business Strategy Alignment

• Customer engagement and loyalty

– Obtain feedback and information on customer needs & requirements

– Improve customer service

• Visibility and reputation

– Improve or enhance reputation

– Increase access to expert knowledge

– Exchange information with credible sources

• Productivity

– Increase quality of knowledge & advice

– Increase idea creation

– Enhance problem solving

– Accelerate new business and product innovation

– Save time during information seeking and sharing

• Employee communication & trust

– Better understanding & alignment across organizations

– Increase level of trust

10

External Facing Internal Facing

Inception

Page 11: Building an Online Community: Strategy, Launch, Engagement, Growth

Community Business Model

Competitive Strategy

Position in value

network

Revenue Impact

Value Chain

Market Segment

Value PropositionBeing involved in this community is important to me because…

Customers or prospects, partners or employees. Market segment(s), targeted level (CXO, leaders, end users etc)

Expert curation > original content > topical forums > showcase customer leadership > demonstrates commitment to customer

Differentiation, customer loyalty, satisfaction, underserved segment, disruptive potential, product insight

Identify how the community is aligned with business initiatives or strategic engagements or programs

Enhance customer loyalty, accelerate opportunity with partners, give access to expertise, value to product or support.

Inception

Page 12: Building an Online Community: Strategy, Launch, Engagement, Growth

Community Architecture

•Original content

•Expert curation

•Regular, online events

•Targeted discussions

•Promoting trending topics

Community Management

Facilitates, stewards daily interactions Manages volunteers

Face of community, promotes community Monitor, measure, report

Evangelizes , recruits internal , external advocates Define, refine strategy, outcomes

Content & Events

Programming

• Social media

engagement & promotion

• Regular member

communications

• Marketing strategy

(online, partners)

•Compelling, evolving UX

•KPIs, Benchmarks

•Identify, manage tools

•Educating stakeholders

• Metrics reports for

humans

Governance

Terms & Conditions Company PoliciesExecutive Sponsor Legal, IT, HR

Social Media,

Marketing,

Communications

Platform, UX

Analytics ,

Operations

Inception

Page 13: Building an Online Community: Strategy, Launch, Engagement, Growth

Critical Success Factors

• Effective education of stakeholders

• Identify executive sponsor

• Resourced for lifecycle and business strategy success

– Community manager, social media manager, content specialists, analytics talent

– Content and programs: Plans and budgets for events, content development, content curation, recognition programs

– Communications and marketing plan in place

– Metrics: tools, services to analyze effective performance

• Governance model alignment with larger organization

• Technology and user experience attuned to targeted community

13

Inception

Page 14: Building an Online Community: Strategy, Launch, Engagement, Growth

Stage 2:

14

Establishment

• Cultivate, facilitate along spectrum of engagement

• Identify leaders, influencers

• Recognition, volunteer programs

• Regular cadence of events, programs, communications

• Refine resource requirements for growth

• Internal and external advocacy

• Partnerships in place

• Active cycle of engagement

• Analytics, metrics aligned with purpose, relevant to

management

• Benchmarking, active listening

Page 15: Building an Online Community: Strategy, Launch, Engagement, Growth

Cycle of Engagement

Custom content research = Unique

news & resource discovery

Ongoing content refresh = Increased site traffic + Newsworthy SM activities

Social media interactivity = Additional content discovery + credible voice

Featured leadership voices + topics of

the day = people like me

New interactive technologies = modeling collaboration & SM use

Promotions, SM communications,= stimulated community engagement + new members

Community Management, Content, UX , Original Programming

Social Media, Communications

Establishment

Page 16: Building an Online Community: Strategy, Launch, Engagement, Growth

Stage 3:

• Shared sense of history, ownership in community

• Community management, content and events program still strong

• Varied, tiered volunteer program – empowered leaders

• Affinity group formation

• UX and analytic evolves with sophistication of community engagement

16

Growth

Page 17: Building an Online Community: Strategy, Launch, Engagement, Growth

Stage 4:

• Robust level of subgroup, affinity group formation

• Increasingly self-sustaining interaction

• Evaluate purpose-mission –tune or repurpose

17

Maturity

Page 18: Building an Online Community: Strategy, Launch, Engagement, Growth

Case Study• Business benefit - visibility and

reputation

• Segment – education leaders and innovators

• Purpose – foster peer-to-peer leadership dialogue – education innovation

• Expert curation, original content, events, featured luminaries

• Recognition program

• Customer UX oriented at education leader segment

Public Service of Cisco

Inception

Page 19: Building an Online Community: Strategy, Launch, Engagement, Growth

Know Your Leaders Inception

Page 20: Building an Online Community: Strategy, Launch, Engagement, Growth

Using Social Media for

Public Service of Cisco

Establishment

Page 21: Building an Online Community: Strategy, Launch, Engagement, Growth

A Focus on Community Building

Awareness and global reach – new members

Engage with and facilitate leader conversations

Drive participation and community engagement

Advance sense of connection for leaders

Better understand community needs – active listening

Establishment

Page 22: Building an Online Community: Strategy, Launch, Engagement, Growth

Awareness, Reach Recruitment

Awareness

Global Reach

Engage new members

• LinkedIn Group

– Promoting events, content

– Bring content to relevant discussion groups

– Email through LI - campaigns to bring in your

members

• Twitter

– Targeted, focused outreach to influencers,

leaders, innovators

– Meet and greet – call to action to join

• Facebook

– Targeted ads to leaders with geo expansion

– Global content, commentary

Establishment

Page 23: Building an Online Community: Strategy, Launch, Engagement, Growth

Community Connection

Engagement

Participation

Active listening

Authentic voice

• LinkedIn

– Listen & participate in relevant domain groups

– Monitor expert discussions

– Calls to action to community events

programming

• Twitter

– Monitor domain #hashtags for trending topics

– Participate in #hashtag live chats

– Promotion of community events, content

• YouTube

– Great, original content featuring peer leaders

Establishment

Page 24: Building an Online Community: Strategy, Launch, Engagement, Growth

Community Engagement

Be an

authentic,

active

participant in

the

conversation

You have to

be engaged

to get

engagement

• Focus, target outreach at members level,

quality engagement peer-to-peer

• Actively participate in conversations, bring

great content, cultivate authentic stance

• Bring new experiences – help them

become more adept

• Innovate, experiment, display leadership

Establishment

Page 25: Building an Online Community: Strategy, Launch, Engagement, Growth

Value Metrics for Community

A New

Framework for

Measuring

Results in

Social Media

Jeremiah Owyang &

John Lovett, The

Altimeter Group, 2010

• KPIs

– Audience Engagement

– Share of Voice

– Advocate Influence

– Idea Impact

– Sentiment Ratio

• Benchmarking

• Test-experiment with tools, frameworks

Growth

Page 26: Building an Online Community: Strategy, Launch, Engagement, Growth

Catherine Shinners

PresidentMerced Group

Palo Alto, CA and Cambridge, MA

[email protected]

blog: www.collaboration-incontext.com

www.mercedgroup.com

www.linkedin.com/catherineshinners

@catshinners

Skype: CatherinePaloAlto

Social Business Strategic Consultingand Enterprise 2.0 Services