Scaling Community

@meghanpgill

•  Why  invest  in  leaders?    

– Pragma3c  Reasons  – Psychological  Reasons  – Economic  Reasons  – Sustainability  Reasons  

•  So  how  do  you  do  it?  Prac3cal  lessons  from  10gen.  

– MongoDB  User  Groups  – MongoDB  Masters  – Finding  leaders  

Agenda  

About  me,  MongoDB,  and  10gen  

Hello!

•  Director,  Community  Marke3ng  at  10gen,  the  MongoDB  Company  

•  1st  marke3ng  hire  at  10gen  •  Grew  the  MongoDB  community  from  10,000  downloads  per  

month  à  150,000  downloads  per  month  

Who  am  I?  

•  NoSQL  database  •  Document-­‐oriented  •  Flexible  and  scalable  •  More  MongoDB  talks!  

– Hybrid  Applica3ons  with  MongoDB  and  RDBMS  @  4:10  

– MongoDB  Geospa3al  and  Android  @  4:10  

About  MongoDB  

•  Fostering  community  is  one  of  the  core  things  we  do  at  10gen!  

About  10gen  

Set  the  direc3on  &  contribute  code  to  MongoDB  

Foster  community  &  ecosystem  

Provide  MongoDB  management  services  

Provide  commercial  services  

Why  should  we  invest  in  leaders?  

Pragmatic Reasons

•  Geography  •  Spoken  language  •  Cultural  •  Technological  

One  person/en3ty  can’t  reach  everyone  

Broadcast  vs.  Mul3plier  

•  Go-­‐to  group  of  community  leaders  •  Early  feedback  on  features,  news,  and  other  developments  •  Amplify  news  across  their  social  networks  •  Ambassadors  to  communi3es  we  couldn’t  reach  otherwise  

Example:  MongoDB  Masters  

Why  invest  in  leaders?  

Psychological Reasons

•  Always  more  powerful  coming  from  other  community  members  

•  Allows  you  to  reach  those  communi3es  that  you  can’t  reach  

Develop  ambassadors  

•  Spend  3me  empowering  and  encouraging  users  to  share  their  experiences  

•  Present  on  their  use  case  at  a  meetup  or  conference  (and  record  it!)  

•  Organize  blogging  contests  to  encourage  people  to  share  stories  

– Submission  deadline  mo3vates  people  •  Interview  users  on  the  10gen/MongoDB  blogs  

– Q&A  format  gives  people  a  framework  for  sharing  their  story  

Example:  Highligh3ng  user  stories  

Why  invest  in  leaders?  

Economic Reasons

•  Inves3ng  in  community  can  be  less  expensive  than  tradi3onal  marke3ng  methods  

•  …but  there  is  no  playbook  for  execu3ng  a  community  strategy  

Return  on  Community  Investment  

User  Groups  Item Cost Meetup.com fees $150 T-shirts $1,000 Stickers $375 Pizza 1x/quarter $1,000 Speaker Travel $1,000

Total Cost $3,575

Trade  Shows  Item Cost Sponsorship fee $5,000 T-shirts $1,000 Stickers $375 Bag insert $350 Staff travel $2,000 Booth labor $1,000 Total Cost $9,725

Example:  Comparing  investment  on  user  groups  vs.  trade  shows  

Return: engaged user group with several hundred members talking about your technology every month

Return: a few hundred unqualified leads

Why  invest  in  leaders?  

Sustainability Reasons

•  Investment  in  community  con3nues  to  provide  dividends  

– Trade  shows,  SEM,  and  other  tradi3onal  forms  of  marke3ng  tend  to  be  “one  3me  only”  investments  

Community  is  a  long-­‐term  strategy  

•  Upfront  investment  is  big  •  Over  3me,  the  group  becomes  self-­‐sustaining  •  Invest  in  forming  new  groups  •  Or,  let  the  establish  leaders  who  can  show  new  MUG  

organizers  how  to  do  it  successfully  

Example:  MongoDB  User  Groups  

So  how  do  you  do  it?  

Some practical examples

•  MongoDB  User  Groups  •  MongoDB  Masters  

10gen  key  programs  

How  do  we  educate  users  in  regions  where  we  don’t  have  a  physical  presence?  

MongoDB User Groups

10gen  organizes  lots  of  conferences  

•  Started  first  MongoDB  User  Groups  in  NYC  and  Bay  Area  two  years  ago  

•  10gen-­‐coordinated  experiment  

How  can  we  con3nue  the  conversa3on  ader  the  conference?  

•  Started  approaching  speakers  and  enthusiasts  ader  10gen  conferences  

– Momentum  high  – Cap3ve  audience  – Leverage  social  media  conversa3ons  

Can  we  scale  this  through  the  community?  

•  Financial  – Meetup.com  fees  – Food  on  an  annual  basis  – Swag  

•  Logis3cal  – Finding  venues  – Connec3ng  with  speakers  – Best  prac3ces  

10gen  supports  the  groups  

•  Leader  TLC  – Anyone  can  request  to  start  a  MUG  – Kick  off  Skype  with  organizer  – Regional  community  managers  

•  Docs  – Guides  for  running  groups  – MUG  leader  blog  posts  

Establishing  best  prac3ces  

•  Meetup.com  global  account  •  Mailing  list  for  organizers  •  Swag  kits    •  Docs:  hhp://www.mongodb.org/display/DOCS/Your+Go-­‐to

+Resource+for+Running+a+MongoDB+User+Group  

Tools  

Results:  50  MUGs  and  8,000  members  

London

Seoul

Denver NYC

How  do  we  scale  in  other  areas?  

MongoDB Masters

•  Inspired  by  Microsod  MVP  Program  

Organizing  the  Leaders  

•  30  people  •  Mailing  list  •  Discussion  of  new  releases  and  features  •  Feedback  •  Community  of  organizers  

Started  Small  

•  Let’s  meet  face  to  face  

– MongoSV  (Silicon  Valley)  is  our  largest  event  and  many  Masters  were  coming  anyway  

•  Inspired  by  Community  Leadership  Summit  

– One  day  unconference  

Masters  Summit  

•  Lots  of  enthusiasm  ader  the  summit  •  …but  was  hard  to  ride  that  momentum  for  the  rest  of  the  year  •  Oops!  We  hired  5  of  the  Masters  

Results  

•  Constantly  invite  new  members  to  keep  ideas  fresh  •  Organizing  sub  groups  over  Google  Hangout  and  other  tools  •  Regional  events  and  mee3ngs  of  leaders  

Lessons  learned  

How  do  you  find  community  leaders?  

Where to start

•  Code  •  Docs  •  Transla3on  of  docs  •  Blog  posts  •  Speaking  •  Organizing  an  UG  •  Support  forums  

Contribu3on  is  a  broad  term  

•  Empower  •  Encourage  

– Give  specific  sugges3ons  (“please  test  the  development  release”  vs.  “please  test  x,  y,  and  z”)  

•  Appreciate  

Turn  Followers  into  Leaders  

•  Say  thank  you!  •  Send  swag  if  you’ve  got  it  •  Public  recogni3on  

– On  their  blog  or  your  blog  – Twiher  – Mailing  list  or  forum  

Appreciate  Your  Contributors  

Thank  you  for  your  3me!    

@meghanpgill  

meghangill.com  My  blog  on  community  management  

meghan  @10gen.com