Content Potluck: Bringing Everyone to the Community Table

Laurel Nicholes - Director, Tech Comms Services, F5 Networks Niki Vecsei Harrold - Director, Community Strategy, TransAmerica

Agenda 1.Intro to Content Potluck2.Find your Champions3.Gains for you and your

audience4.Success Stories

A little history...

Internet

• 1960 inception

BBS

• 1960 – 1990• Bulletin

board systems

• Pinning important information to a digital board

UseNet

• 1980s to today

• Email list based on topical preferences

• Content is stored on peer servers

IRC

• 1988 Internet Relay Chat

• Chat room and data transfer

Forums

• 1994 Message boards

• Highly topical• Much bigger

than BBS

Blogs

• 1994 Blogs and Online Journals

Social and Communities

• 2002 - LinkedIn

• 2004 – Facebook

• 2006 – Twitter

• Community = branded forum+

Problem to solve...

51% of companies surveyed do not have a formal process for ensuring content is consistent across channels.

Why?•Lack of a unified content strategy (42%)

•Tool chains that don’t talk to one another (41%)

•71% of all companies surveyed reported a lack of a terminology management system or strategy

Cont

ent

Potl

uck

● Interlock between silod teams● Gathering of content ideas from across the

enterprise

● Collaboration, content discussion, tracking in a centralized location

● No one can hide!

The benefit from this approach is that your audience can access a rich assortment of content that supports different information foraging styles. It is easier to offer a wealth of information (content) when your team and strategy is unified, but your content format is diverse.

Find your Champions● Take internal inventory of content owners

● Think laterally and identify groups that have rich insights but don’t create content

● Identify barriers to entry for part-time content creators, such as complicated tools.

Here is a list to get you started:

Professional Services, Customer Support, Digital & Product Marketing, Product Management, Information Development, Training, Technical Evangelists, Engineers....

How the potluck works

● Offer a meal with your meeting.

● No slides!● Discuss content

projects in flight.● Map projects to an

editorial calendar.● Discuss gaps and

solutions.

Interlock Agenda

● Set goals

● Track attendance

● Share and engage

● Assign action items

Editorial Calendar

● Color coded by content type

● Assigned to owners

● Hard delivery date with reminders

Champion Engagement

MBO’d & RecognitionBadgesUser MeetupsSuper User programsAMA sessionsTweet Chat Facebook LiveBlogs

Gains for the customer:

● Real-world content. Know how their peers, and their competitors, are using your product.

● Rich variety of content but consistent experience in one spot on a self-serve basis.

● Community is a safe place to ask questions and share hands-on experiences. (good and bad)

● Caveat: clearly mark corporate content to give it authority with the community

Gains for you

● Your thumb on the pulse of the market.

● Direct feedback on your day to day work

○ Positive impacts

○ Need more adjustment of depth

○ What is missing from the content portfolio?

● Validation of your $$ invested in content publishing technology.

● Save time and work by preventing work duplication.

What to Measure?

Content metrics:

Unique views, time on page, video views

Most liked (Kudoed) content or author

Traffic referral source (google search, email link, social media, bookmarks etc)

Community metrics:

Change in returning vs. new visitors to site

Traffic pattern within the community

Depth of conversation threads

Questions resolved by peers or SME’s

Time to resolution

Success Metrics

Uptime Bulletin (pdf) to HTML: 111 views to 8,901 views

Marketing video: 50 views vs. SME blog post: 10,005 views

Social Media Sharing: 250% growth in engagement (raising 5.3x per post)

AMA thread on average 4,053 views vs. regular pages ~2256 views (~80% growth)

Best Practices for a Potluck

- Keep Champions engaged

- Keep the meeting periodical

- Share feedback on success and failure with the Interlock Group

- Identify rewards for participating

Thank you for your attention!

Nikoletta Vecsei HarroldDirector Communities Strategy,

Transamerica@Nikschen

https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikolettavecsei

Laurel NicholesDirector, Tech Comms Services,

F5 Networks@LaurelNicholes

https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurelnicholes