gez daring - building online communities
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Presented by Gez Daring6th July 2010
Digital Marketing In Black and White
Building online communities
Community Memory 1973Community Memory ’73 1st Public BBS – Berkeley San Francisco experiment to understand how people would react to exchanging information via computer
History of Communities online• Usenet ‘79 – organised into topical
categories called newsgroups– Usenet resembled Bulletin Board Systems
(BBS) which were precursors of today’s internet forums
• MUD (Multi-User Dungeons)– multi-user real-time virtual world represented
in text• IRC (Internet Relay Chat)
– a form of real-time Internet text messaging (chat) or synchronous conferencing
History of Communities online• Chat Rooms• BBS
– SysOP home-hosted systems• Today’s Threaded Internet Forums
– www.biofind.com• Community 2.0
– Social web technologies plus a community
Definition• When people carry on public
discussions long enough, with sufficient human feeling, to form webs of personal relationships
Howard Rheingold Author- Virtual Communities (1993)
Other Leading Lights• Mark Granovetter
– American sociologist at Stanford University
– Theories on the spread of information in social networks known as "The Strength of Weak Ties" (1973).
• Malcolm Gladwell– “The Tipping Point” where he talks of
“the moment of critical mass, the threshold, the boiling point.”
What makes up Online Community• An enabling technology
– Ning, wordpress, BB forum, Facebook• A core topic (or other connecting
factor)• Passionate contributors• Background crowd• An unwritten social contract of trust• Moderators (sometimes)
Examples of the purpose of online communities• Activism• Clan (gaming)• Research test bed
– Technology Strategy Board 30,000 representative UK onliners www.innovateuk.org
• Support Groups
Examples of the purpose of online communities• Ethnography• Hobbies
– www.flickr.com - photography– www.redbubble.com - poetry
• Answers– www.blurt-it.com, Yahoo answers ,
• A highly networked individual’s social graph
Biofind
Mercedes forum
Second Life
Make up of a community• Peripheral (i.e. Lurker)
– An outside, unstructured participation• Inbound (i.e. Novice)
– Newcomer is invested in the community and heading towards full participation
• Insider (i.e. Regular)– Full committed community participant
• Leader (i.e. Champion)– A leader, sustains membership participation and brokers
interactions
Make up of a community• Peripheral =1000
• Inbound =100
• Insider =10
• Leader =1
Community participation• Lurkers don’t readily participate because they
don’t believe they need to and in not doing so they are being helpful
• Leaders participate because they believe that their actions will have positive outcomes
• Member participation is not based on hierarchical needs or goals-driven theories but desire planning and they environment
Increasing participation in online communities: A framework for
human–computer interaction:Jonathan Bishop
Dynamics of Communities
Host
Leader 1
Leader 2
Leader 3
InsiderInbound
Lurker
Insider
Insider
Inbound
Inbound
Inbound
Lurker
Lurker
LurkerLurker
LurkerLurker
Lurker
Value of Community
Host
User 1
User 2
User 3
£ ?£
£ ?
£
£
£ ?
Monetisation summary• Good Old fashioned cpc mechanisms• Subscription or freemium models• Relationship commissions
Other value in community• Conversation/dialogue• Sentiment• Influence• Co-learning• Collaboration
Qualitative Signs of success• Signs of ownership within the
community• Self-policing• Rituals• Off-line actions begin
Quantitative success metrics• Number of new members• Number leaving members• Member satisfaction• Number and type of content items created• Number of connections / relationships
created• Time on site• Frequency of visits• Recommendations & Referrals
Building a community• Don’t let technology drive the community• Seed content with known champions in the
topic• Inaugural members act as roll models
– Define code of conduct• Moderate• Keep participation simple
– Initially all content open unless as part of a reward
Building a community• Politely provoke and reward
participation• Track strangers/lurkers and try to
promote them through desire• Be active and part of the community
yourself• Set an example• It takes time!
External Communities• Social Networks• Multi Platform communities• Whereever there is online dialogue
What do we do about all these people talking about us?
DO Listen
• Monitor Your brand– Everyone should do this
• Investigate Trending Topics• Learn the rules• Feedback
– What are you doing right?– Or wrong?
DO Listen
• Listening tools– Market Sentinel– BuzzMonitor
• Also...– Twitter Search– Technorati Search– Google Blog search– Board Reader
DO Listen
Respond and React• Online
– Engage (Good or Bad)– Campaign (New Goals?)– Beware the lonely troll– Steer traditional digital activity
• Offline– Act on feedback– Tackle problems from the source– Use the buzz!
DO
DON’T Broadcastjus
t
DON’T Broadcast• Engage• Encourage• Excite
just
Wipe your damn feet!DO
Wipe your damn feet!• Be aware you are entering a
community• Learn the etiquette• Learn the lingo• Be respectful
DO
DON’T Expect a red carpet
• “Build it and they will come” does not apply
• A presence is not enough• No one likes a pushy salesman• People will tell you what they think...
...whether you like it or not
DON’T Expect a red carpet
Add ValueDO
• Think of way to improve your members’ lives.... even the smallest ways
• Advocates are valuable – let them know
• Make things easy - integrate– Facebook Connect
Add ValueDO
Sega twitter giveaways
@manairport live flight info• We plugged the twitter API into the
Manchester Airport live flight update service.
• User DMs flight number to manairport
• User receives updates by DM
Be DodgyDON’T
Be Dodgy• Spam• Hijack• Game the system• Plagiarise• Fake comments / Diggs
DON’T
Habitat• Hijacked twitter #hashtags to
promote itself– #iphone #mousavi #apple #trueblood
• Backlash on twitter• Picked up by mainstream news
– BBC, Guardian, Sky News• Habitat forced to apologize
– Should have done it MUCH sooner
Habitat
Habitat
Habitat
Habitat
Habitat
Whole Foods• “rahodeb” was an active user for 7 years on
Yahoo finance forums (2000 – 2007) • Revealed good knowledge of wholefoods and
the CEO (in third person)• Criticized Whole Foods rival Wild Oats Market• During a £600mill buyout of OATS a
complaint was lodged• Whole foods CEO, John Mackey IS rahoeb• Accused of attempting to influence share
price.
Whole foods
Whole Foods’ CEO John Mackey
Set your brand free• Encourage and support amateur
brand champions.– If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em
• Develop ideas with crowds• Trust the users to be your ceontent
providers.
DO
Be a BullyDON’T
Be a Bully• If you find users doing something you
find objectionable• DON’T threaten with legal action• DON’T Make demands• Use legal action as a LAST resort
DON’T
Guinness VS FailBlog
Guinness VS Failblog
Guinness VS FailblogDear Sir/Madam,
Thanks for writing us an email regarding the “Record Breaking Fail”. Unfortunately, douchebaggy cyber-bullying emails will only bring upon you more shame on your house. I am also resisting the urge to write this email in ALL CAPS.I believe it is the duty of FAIL Blog(TM) to call out organizations when they encourage the public to do such things as “Break the record” for the “Most Individuals Killed In A Terrorist Act”. We firmly believe that our publication of your fail is protected under the concepts of fair use, commentary and non-trademark use. Please RTFM and we welcome you to teh interwebs.Since we at FAIL Blog(TM) don’t have a legal defense department, we have complied with your request to remove the trademarked term and logo from the original image. We have used the “naughty bits filter” on the image to secure your naughty, naughty, trademark assertions. However, we have posted your email so that our audience can see why we had to remove the name of the failer from the image. I hope that this is the outcome you have expected as now NO ONE WILL EVER KNOW THAT GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS LIMITED HAS FAILED.The full legal response can be read here: icanhaz.com/legalresponseCheers,FAIL Blog
Guinness VS Failblog
External Communities• DO
–Listen–Respond/React–Wipe your feet–Add Value–Set your Brand
free
• DON’T– Just Broadcast–Expect a red
carpet–Be Dodgy–Be a Bully
Summary• Online communities have social
structure just like the real world because they comprise real people!
• Online communities have a voice and an opinion
• Online communities can be valued in many ways
Thank you, any questions?