Your Community Intent – Building an online community

April 22, 2014 by Mark Sylvester

Have you looked at your existing Community or the one you are considering and asked the question, “What is the INTENT of this effort?” Chances are you have, maybe you haven’t. We have some ideas of how you might think about the WHY of your effort and will try to convince you that if you are not thinking about how it contributes to creating value for your organization, then, maybe you should be rethinking your efforts. Often people are distracted by the bright shiny new feature on a social platform. They lose track of what outcomes a community needs to bring them and instead they are only thinking about the ‘new thing’ that caught their attention. Capturing attention is important. More important is making sure that everything you do in efforts to better communicate and collaborate are intentional and driven by an informed plan. When you have a purpose and intent, you will be successful. We think about Community Intent with something that’s easy to remember, called the Four I’s – Interaction – Information – Insight – Initiative. These concepts are interrelated and each one contributes to creating value for your organization. In fact, they are in a circle on purpose. As each step leads to the other and continues as long as you have a Community. [Read more…]

Is your Community connected to compelling content?

February 11, 2014 by Mark Sylvester

Are your posts random notices slapped on a community kiosk hoping someone will pay attention to them?

How do you make your content compelling, so your community will engage with it and by extension, with you? Here’s a simple way to think about how to frame online conversations and make them relevant.

Clever marketers use snappy headlines to grab the attention of our inbox. They have learned how to influence our behavior, even though most Community Managers are not trained in human psychology and clever marketing strategies. Considering that we all suffer from partial attention span disorder, it’s interesting that when something catches our eye and keeps our interest, we will continue to pay attention even if there are other things demanding that same level of attention. So the question we ask ourselves when looking at low audience participation tends to focus on the content; How applicable is it, How interesting is it, How relevant is it, even, How graphically compelling is it? These are areas to consider when sorting out what you are going to post or start discussions about. [Read more…]

What? So What? Now What? What’s the purpose of your private Community?

February 3, 2014 by Mark Sylvester

I was recently at a conference of writers, speakers and consultants one of the attendees spoke up during a Q & A and said, “It’s really easy to remember. You have a What? a So What? And a Now What?” Which got me thinking. I thought that there was a distinct parallel between this easy to remember tip and how you might use it to communicate the purpose of a private network that would be powerful and memorable.

Ironically, most private, purpose driven communities assume that their members know why the network exists. Bad assumption. When asked, they typically give the wrong answer.

I talked to David Nour, a friend who was at the same conference, so I asked him to define his What, So What and Now What as he runs an introNetwork community – his answer is below, I then suggested he write to his members. He did. [Read more…]

Fire the Gardener! Why Nurturing Your Online Community is Critical to Greener Relationships

January 23, 2014 by Mark Sylvester

Let me guess – you launched a private community and it was a dismal failure. Or you’re too stubborn to admit that it’s dying a slow death. Here is what happened – you hired me to build you a beautiful garden. I come back in 3 months and everything is dead. I tell you to fire the gardener and you ask – what gardener! So in 3 months you haven’t watered, fertilized, pruned, or otherwise taken care of the garden and you were magically expecting a beautiful basket of fruits and vegetables? That’s exactly what happens with many private communities. Regardless of the provider – not really but I’ll get to that in a minute – it’s NOT just about a cool tool…. I am often asked about the ongoing care and feeding of an online community and I have found that making the analogy to tending a garden resonates with everyone. We all have had the experience of trying to grow a tomato or keep a house plant alive. It’s not easy. There are tricks, there are a ton of tips, but until you have actually done it successfully, it can be really frustrating. Plant it and it will grow, is similar to build it and they will come. Neither are true. Right? You have to do more than just build it or plant it. You have to nurture, cajole, seduce and dedicate precious time to assuring success. That tomato doesn’t grow itself, it needs help. Your community will not grow itself either. [Read more…]

How To Ensure a Vibrant Online Community

October 16, 2013 by Mark Sylvester

I just finished rereading this important deck by Rachel Happe of The Community Roundtable, originally posted in 2011 and am reminded how much every single concept in the deck is as true today as it was then. Frankly, I am disappointed that, with so much quality information out there, people are still making major mistakes and setting unrealistic expectations of what an online Community will do for them and their organizations. There are hundreds of examples of people doing it right and when you look at Rachel’s well presented points, you may wonder, why are people still flailing, and failing?

Community is a group of people with unique shared values, behaviors and artifacts

My experience is in talking to people interesting in adding a Community, they fail to understand how to optimize for shared values and behaviors, in fact many times, they think that the Community is all about pushing content and getting people to talk, rather than helping them discover, uncover and celebrate the unique shared values and the diversity of behaviors and experiences that make up the collection of people involved. Whether it is 50 or 50,000 – considering these basic fundamentals gets lost.

Things that define Community: a common interest or context, a sense of shared purpose or fate and common set of needs.

I would argue that in the beginning of an online community design, these concepts are discussed, yet soon fall to the wayside as the tactical deployment, design and launch of the community takes center stage. When a community is floundering, I look to see if the common interest or context is still clear, is it clear to new members, how is the sense of shared purpose communicated and is it still relevant six months or a year later – and has it been reviewed, probably not. The solution is simple. Look at the slides from The Community Roundtable, see how easy it seems to do it right – yet, why are so many communities having an identity crisis when, at one point, they actually discussed these critical design decisions, yet somehow have failed to realize any benefit from those decisions. You may not think about community all the time like we do, however, when you do, please make sure you consider that there really are only a few secrets to building a vibrant community according to The Community Roundtable, then ask yourself are you doing all of them to the best of your ability?

Observe Your Audience
Keep a Regular Schedule
Be Welcoming
Provide a Guide
Be Valuable
Be a Connector
Bring Catnip
Have Rules
Lead from the Back
Encourage Your Cheeseheads
Ride The Waves
Don’t Ignore
Be Multi-model
Protect the Fish

I could easily write a paragraph about each of the above. Look at the slides and see the images she chose to illustrate each concept and use your imagination. How do you relate to each concept? Could you be doing better? If you don’t have a community now, how would you address each of these ideas in your own organization. Even if you think you are doing a great job now, review the slides to see if you could be doing even better. The Community Roundtable is an amazing resource for those of us who provide platforms and for those that take care of the thousands of people that populate them. We thank them for their generosity in publishing these materials, then frequently reminding us that something published two years ago is relevant, timely and a perfect thing to share with our readers. Thank you.

5 Devastating Mistakes That Lead To Online Community Failure

August 8, 2013 by Mark Sylvester

Is this you? Your team is getting ready to invest in a Business Social Network. You realize that this platform has the potential to become a major asset for your enterprise, and you want to set your Network apart from competitors’. You know all of the buzzwords. You know that you’re going to have to:

Engage Employees
Engage Partners
Engage Vendors
Engage Customers

You know that you’re going to have to provide an environment that holds consistent value for your community; one that keeps them coming back in, and you know that you’re going to need to continue feeding new and relevant content into your Business Social Network. It’s a lot to think about, and it seems like a lot to manage. In fact, building a Business Social Network can seem very overwhelming at first. That’s okay though, don’t worry so much about that.

We’ve been there. We know what you’re facing and we know how to help.

As we’ve built, launched and grown almost 400 online communities to date and observed the industry of online communities grow over the last ten years, we’ve learned a thing or two along the way. We’ve seen what works, what doesn’t and what the consistent trends are that spell success, and what the consistent trends are that spell failure. We have collated some of our learning and here, we’ll present to you the pitfalls we’ve observed over the years in order to save you from doing the same. Whether you become a client of ours some day or not, we care about you and don’t want you to make these mistakes! Simply fill out the form below to download our resource guide, entitled: 5 Devastating Mistakes That Can Lead To Online Community Failure.