building the open enterprise

Community Engagement Foundations

August 16th, 2010 Charlotte North Carolina

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What do we mean by COMMUNITY?

1) membership, 2) influence, 3) integration and fulfillment of needs, and 4) shared emotional connection.

McMillan, D.W., & Chavis, D.M. 1986. "Sense of community: A definition and theory,"

Types of Community

COMMUNITY CASE STUDYThe ThinkFood Cookbook Project

2010

Question:

Can a software company connect with a community in a meaningful way?

Our client, Posit Science, wanted to increase awareness of the topics of “brain fitness” and “brain training” amongst a broader demographic of potential software purchasers.

Strategy

• Co-Create a cookbook with a community that cares about food – food bloggers

• Distribute the recipes in different ways to maximize engagement– A ‘Recipe of the Week’ e-newsletter gives one recipe into subscribers inbox’s

each week– Printed copies of the book can be purchased through the Posit Science

website and given away through bloggers websites

• Problem – define the problem you need to solve

• Hypothesis – develop a hypothesis for solving the problem

• Action – design a set of actions for testing the hypothesis

• Metric – determine which metrics will be used to evaluate

• Experiment – do it!

Research (P.H.A.M.E.)

•First we emailed our idea of a brain-healthy cookbook to a select group of bloggers to validate the idea before our client invested time and money into the project

•We researched over 250 food blogs with a readership ranging from 1,000 - 100,000 readers

•Research Criteria: A food blogger who likes to prepare healthy dishesA blog with a genuine readershipA blogger who updates their blog regularlyA blogger who is excited about the projectA blogger who could contribute a unique recipeHas an interest in online communities like Twitter & Facebook

•We invited 50 of the bloggers to contribute

Research (P.H.A.M.E.)

Key learning

“We’re reluctant to give away the fruits of our labor without some sort of compensation. Surely, you do not work for free? -800 monthly readers

“This sounds interesting and like something I’d definitely want to be apart of” -15,000 monthly readers

The higher the monthly readership, the more interested the bloggers were The higher the monthly readership, the more interested the bloggers were

The lower the monthly readership, the less interested the bloggers wereThe lower the monthly readership, the less interested the bloggers were

“Thanks for contacting me. I like the idea of ThinkFood, fun! Send the the info for it, sounds very interesting!” -22,000 monthly readers

“You want us to provide you with free content in exchange for exposure? Do *you* work for free? No thanks.” -Readership not available (blog too small)

“Thank you for your invitation to participate. I reviewed the information and unfortunately, I can't participate. It's not for a lack of interest but rather a lack of time. Aargh!” -30,000 monthly readers

Engagement• 50 top food bloggers created recipes for our cookbook – developing these

recipes from a selected list of brain healthy ingredients

• Bloggers wrote about their involvement with the cookbook, thereby promoting our cookbook and ultimately our client

• We included the food bloggers in the various press materials and press opportunities

• We used tools like Facebook and Twitter to cross promote the project with the bloggers, foodies, families, and other online communities

‘Recipe of the Week’ e-newsletter

Personalized recipe tip

Featured name, bio, and links to their blog and various social pages like Twitter and Facebook

•Each week one recipe would be distributedto the Posit Science subscribers

•The featured recipe would have links to thebloggers Twitter handle, Facebook page, and blog

Unique Recipe

Results• Over 3,500 people signed up for the ‘Recipe of the Week’ e-newsletter on

the first day

• Over 10,000 unique visitors came to their website the first day

• Multiple pre-orders for the book (Officially available this month)

• Tremendous support from the contributing bloggers who wrote about their involvement with the project and included links for their readers to sign up for the ‘Recipe of the Week’ program

• Ongoing involvement – over the 50 weeks the bloggers again get attention and write about their involvement

• An unconnected food blogger has decided to prepare, test, and talk about each recipe for the next 50 weeks!

This worked because…• The company connected with a community in a genuine way

• Created something of value for the community• Involved the community in defining how it would work and what the

content would be• Trusted that the community would participate in a professional and

positive way

Client Coaching• Draft emails for the client to maintain the flow of communication with the

bloggers throughout the project

• Subscribe to the contributing blogs

• Educate them on a no pressure approach for blogger coverage

• Engage with the contributing bloggers on a personal and professional level• Read their blog• Comment on their blog• Follow them on Twitter and Facebook• Follow Friday (#FF) them on Twitter• Congratulate them on professional milestones

• Draft various tweets for ThinkFood• Delicious Banana Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies from @carrotsncake -

http://bit.ly/ThinkFood• ThinkFood: 50 weeks of healthy & delicious recipes for FREE http://bit.ly/ThinkFood

Other examples…

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