building community for insight and wom

November 2009

Building Communities for

Insight and Advocacy

Connect. Engage. Inspire.

© SheSpeaks, Inc. All rights reserved

CONTACT: Josh McKay [email protected] (p)212-830-9883


Contact: Josh McKay [email protected] (p)212-830-9883 2

» SheSpeaks is a community of 125,000 engaged women whose personal networks have a reach of over 12 million

» SheSpeaks works with clients to create branded experiences for our members that engage the brand and the member in a direct conversation

» As we’ve worked with our clients and members, we’ve learned a lot of lessons about communities that build advocacy and insight

» We’re excited to share these lessons with you, and look forward to hear your feedback

BUILDING COMMUNITY FOR INSIGHT & ADVOCACY



Why build a community? Human beings naturally organize into communities. It’s part of who we are. Social media tools provide brands the opportunity to build two-way relationships and communities with their customers.

Research & Insights

Com

mun

ity G

oals

>> Communities provide real-time, unfiltered, ongoing conversations with customers (good and bad) and prospects

Build relationships & advocacy

Conversation creates meaningful and durable relationships that lead to advocacy

Create a new channel

Communities are a new channel to effectively create and deliver communication

>>

>>


Contact: Josh McKay [email protected] (p)212-830-9883

We’re honored to work with leading brands across multiple industries

4

Our Clients



What makes a strong community?

Shared Purpose Connection

Impact Recognition

Successful communities, online and off, share four key values



Imp

act Shared Purpose

Com

munication

Recognition

Community Values

What makes a strong community? Successful communities, online and off, share four key community values



Shared Purpose: What does it mean?

Communities are strongest when members share common interests, backgrounds or hobbies

Within large communities, members will organize into smaller groups

Shared Purposes are not just hobbies or activities or alma maters Passion for a brand can be a Shared Purpose, both positive and negative



Shared Purpose: Ravelry

Ravelry is not a site about knitting

Ravelry is a site about knitters by knitters

Shared Purpose



Shared Purpose at SheSpeaks

We ask our members about their backgrounds and interests, and match those up against our clients

Members use the tools on SheSpeaks.com to create self-forming communities of

When SheSpeaks tested a conception kit, women used the message boards to provide support and advice for those experiencing infertility, and to celebrate successes!

Shared Purpose



Connection: What does it mean?

Communities must provide authentic, free flowing conversation

Connections can occur between a brand and community members, and between the members in a community

Connection is not just about words, it includes pictures, video, and fun

Strong communities allow for fluid movement between online and offline personas



Connection: Zappos Coonnecti

on

Zapp.me link allows easy linking from customer blogs

Widget tools allows easy embedding of product in Myspace or blogs

Customer reviews for every product



»  SheSpeaks programs include member to member, member to brand, brand to member and member to non-member communication, all facilitated by the appropriate tools and content

»  SheSpeaks programs can include offline experiences, including parties, shopping trips, video assignments

Connection at SheSpeaks Connectio

n



Recognition: What does it mean?

Recognition can be granted through rewards, status, personalization, and access

Status recognizes members with badging or other visual recognition

Personalization recognizes users by “treating me like you know me”

Access to information provides unique opportunities to members so they feel special and exclusive



Recognition: ThisNext Recog-nition

Top user recognized as a “Maven” and is given special site status

Ranking users according to activity and quality



»  Invitation to participate in a product test or research from a brand creates “VIP Influencer” status

»  Pass-along coupons are a social currency that allow SheSpeaks members to communicate their VIP status and provide their friends an “Insider Exclusive”

Recognition at SheSpeaks Recog-nition

Subject: Ready to Scream for Ice Cream? "

Dear Fiona , ……you and your friends will be among the first to try this new superpremium ice cream.



Impact: What does it mean?

Communication creates the expectation for response

Action is not always necessary, but a recognition of the value of the communication is

Community members expect the ability to shape the nature of the community itself

Social media creates new ways to show results to communities



Impact: Dell

Significant investment by Dell in community tools, with multiple tools and segments

Ideastorm is a community generated suggestion box

Every two weeks (at least), Dell publishes an update on their blog about Ideastorm ideas that have been implemented and suggestions to improve Ideastorm

IMpact



»  Brands interact directly with members in our community

»  At the end of brand programs, brands send a “Here’s how you influenced” email

»  Members often forward these emails to their friends, so we’ve incorporated a pass-along offer for the product as part of the email

Impact at SheSpeaks IMpact

“You told us you loved the light texture of the product. - bliss is changing the packaging to highlight those qualities. ”



Creating a community

•  Start with the basics: Create an ability for members to connect with one another and with the brand. Don’t over-design at the beginning.

•  Co-create: They will help you solve. Let your customers tell you what’s important to them. Be ready to listen, as your customers will be very vocal!

•  Build on your advantages: The best communities bridge online and offline fluidly. For example, Retailers can design an online community with in-person live store events •  e.g., fashion department wine and cheese, bring a friend, have an

experience, insiders peek into the new Fall collection and a discount

•  Community Product Reviews: allow community members to rate and link their own Retailer’s product reviews

•  Leverage “Community Experts”: Let mavens have special authority to moderate and create content

•  Create community around passion points: hobbies, interests and lifestages



What does it take?

» Commitment: Creating a community is not a one-off effort, but requires ongoing, dedicated resources to engage and sustain the conversation OR a partner who can manage this for you!

» Flexibility: Social media and community tools evolve rapidly

» Bravery: Not all of the messages from the community will be positive. However, by showing that you are listening, you will build goodwill and advocacy.

building community for insight and wom

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josh mckay

shared purpose

strong community

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