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TRANSCRIPT
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