Download - Building branded communities.2
Building Branded Communities
Lisa Barnett, Senior Community Manager
All About Me
First, Some Definitions
What is Community?
How Do You Feel About Online Communities?
• A dangerous place full of weirdos• A scary place full of teens who speak in a language I
don’t understand
• A useful place to go for specific information (e.g. support forums)
• A wonderful way of connecting with people all around the world who are on my wavelength
• A place which enables me to interact with my customers
Why have a Community?
Market Researc
h
R&D
Collaboration
EvangelismCustomer Service
Community
Community Management
Growing Building Nurturing
Facilitation
Negotiation
Strategy
Collaboration
Conflict Management
Why Community Management?
Main challenge faced in building a community?
People don’t behave the way you expect or want them to
Tools Allow for free and easy communication
Leadership Encourage the behaviour you want to see in the community
Culture Ideas and egos are fragile, so create a safe haven
Community Management is the Answer
Community Management allows the shaping of all of the above
Enter the Community Manager
A Jack of All Trades
Inside the Mind
Traits of the Community Manager
The Community Manager Diet
Community Management Best Practise
Your Audience
• Understand your members
• Build trust
• It’s not about you
• Foster belonging
Make It Valuable
• Demonstrate the value of community membership
• Look beyond the obvious
• Communities create a stickiness
• Think long term
• Let Your Members Promote
Build the Right Community
• Look after your garden
• Protect membership from sales
• Promote thought leadership
• Encourage positive outcomes
Build the Right Community
• Size Matters
• Men & Women Participate Differently
• Social media & community are not the same
Be Realistic
• Building communities takes time
• Win small victories
• Build guidebooks or playbooks
Support Community Managers
Your community manager needs authority
Acknowledge the often overwhelming nature of the community manager role
Setting Expectations
• Have moderation staff available 24/7 in shifts where possible if the community is active around the clock
• Try not to post in the forum on off hours
• Implement automation where possible
• Encourage forum members to help others
When building a new community, it is critically important to set the availability expectations with customers upfront
10 steps for building a great branded community
1. Set your objectives
• But be prepared to be flexible
2. Make your tools easy to use
3. Don’t try and be everywhere
4. Keep it clean and safe
5. Set expectations
6. Have engaging content
But not full of marketing messages
7. Be consistent
8. Incentivise your audience
What’s in it for me?
9. Empower your champions
• Publicly recognised as your power users• Can act as your eyes and ears• Get moderator status• In return, you share
freebies/discounts/special offers with them
10. Don’t be afraid to ask
Thank you
Lisa BarnettSenior Community Manager [email protected]/in/lisabarnettwww.twitter.com/lisab88