Cisco Communities Playbook

Cisco
Community
Playbook
Your Guide to Creating and
Managing Online Communities

Contents

Chapter 1: The Big Picture
1.1 How to Use the Playbook..................................................................................................... 2

1.2 Why Community Matters...................................................................................................... 3

1.3 How Communities Fit Into the Social Ecosystem.................................................................. 4

1.4 Is a Community Right for You?.............................................................................................. 5

1.5 Where Do You Fit In?............................................................................................................ 6

1.6 Representing the Cisco Brand.............................................................................................. 7

Chapter 2: Planning a Community
2.1 How to Plan Your Community............................................................................................... 8

2.2 Defining Your Audience and Their Content Needs................................................................ 9

2.3 Defining Community Purpose ............................................................................................ 10

2.4 Creating a Content Strategy............................................................................................... 11

2.5 A Robust and Relevant Content Calendar........................................................................... 12

2.6 Leveraging Content and Other Assets................................................................................ 13

Chapter 3: Building a Community
3.1 Components of a Community Page.................................................................................... 14

3.2 Registration and Permissions.............................................................................................. 15

3.3 Keep the Experience S.O.C.I.A.L. ...................................................................................... 16

3.4 Workflows to Ensure Success............................................................................................ 17

3.5 Campaign Integration and Product Launches..................................................................... 18

3.6 Promoting Communities via Social Media........................................................................... 19

Chapter 4: Engagement
4.1 How to Nurture a Healthy Community................................................................................. 20

4.2 Increasing Engagement Levels........................................................................................... 21

4.3 Metrics and Engagement ................................................................................................... 22

4.4 How to Manage the Troublemakers.................................................................................... 23

4.5 When to Retire a Community.............................................................................................. 24

Chapter 5: Ready to Start? Let’s Go
5.1 What Do I Do Now?............................................................................................................ 25

5.2 Community Approval Request Form .................................................................................. 26

5.3 Launch Planner .................................................................................................................. 27

1 © 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

Cisco Community Playbook - Chapter 1: The Big Picture

Chapter 1: The Big Picture

1.1 How to Use the Playbook
This playbook is designed to give you the tools to start and
run a successful community. Cisco’s Global Social Media Policy: a Prior to engaging
in social media on behalf of Cisco, you need to read the
It covers why communities—when structured and managed Social Media Policy Handbook. It is a company-wide
properly—can help your team engage with interested handbook available to all employees and contractors and
stakeholders to support the buying cycle and drive contains guidelines for engaging with people over social
measurable results for Cisco. channels. For Cisco representatives working on social
media channels, reading, reviewing and agreeing to the
You will be taught how to:
terms outlined in this policy is mandatory. Please visit the
✔✔ Define your audience Global Social Media IWE site a for further details.
✔✔ Organize your strategy
✔✔ Develop a content plan

When ready, we ask you to fill out the Community Approval Subject
Request Form located at the end of the playbook. Matter Expert
Look for the SME Icon throughout the
Although tempting to jump ahead, we highly recommend you
playbook for material specific to the SME role.
work through the playbook to ensure you can communicate
your community’s value to the user base and for Cisco as a
whole.

Take
A Moment
Look for the Take A Moment Icon throughout the
playbook for additional thought provoking ideas.



1.2 Why Community Matters

In the same way that consumers utilize user-generated
reviews and independent research to consider a purchase,
business buyers demonstrate the same behavior in the social
What Buyers Want

✔✔ Buyers are looking for organizations similar to theirs
sphere, such as communities. But now the stakes are much
that use the same technology that they are looking
higher.
to buy.
IT buyers are usually tasked with investigating multiple ✔✔ Buyers are looking for the long-term view of how
providers prior to starting the RFP or purchase cycle. Cisco will support their organization.
Communities provide IT buyers with a quick overview of ✔✔ Buyers want to understand what other companies
product information, customer satisfaction and company think of the technology BEFORE THEY ENGAGE
engagement with their customers. This is important because WITH CISCO.
IT buyers need to feel secure that they are selecting the best
product from the best company at the best price.

“Active members using our community
to interact and engage with us controlled
“Fifty-five percent of Business Technology
hundreds of millions of dollars in sales
buyers consider “on-domain” (i.e., vendor)
revenue over a 6 month period. Active
support forums and discussion forums as
partners of NetApp engaging in the
influential information sources during their
community delivered over half a billion
technology adoption journeys.”1
dollars in partner owned sales revenue
over the same time period.”2

_______________________

1. “How to Interact with Tech Community Members” Forrester Research, December 2011
,
2. Navneet Grewal, Director Digital Marketing, NetApp, Impact Interactions Research, April 2011



1.3 How Communities Fit Into the Social Ecosystem

W ith the explosive growth in social media, you may be
asking, “Why have a branded community when I can
While the traffic on social sites, such as Facebook and
YouTube, is growing, these sites have a few drawbacks for
use Social Media instead?” Good question. marketers.

Drawbacks for Marketers

✔✔ Measurement of in-depth engagement analytics is difficult.
✔✔ Buyers are looking for the long-term view of how Cisco will support their organization.
✔✔ In Business-to-Business (B2B), there are still a large number of people who want to deal with the
company on a website owned and operated by the company due to privacy and trust concerns.
✔✔ Social sites fall in and out of popularity; therefore, it is important to balance the content on the
social sites while keeping the corporate presence stable and up-to-date.

del.icio.us
Blogs
The Social Ecosystem
The Cisco social ecosystem consists of three
main areas: Home Base, Outposts, Passports1

Cisco
Forums
Blogs

Home Base
Home Base are the channels owned and managed
Cisco by the company. These channels are a top priority
Blogs for Cisco and the primary area that creates and
Cisco.com houses content. This is where Cisco partners and
customers come to discuss and collaborate on Cisco
products. Allocate 50% of time and budget here.

Cisco Outposts
Communities These are core third-party social channels such as
Facebook and Twitter that provide the most efficient
way to listen and respond to the community’s needs
Blogs as well as drive traffic to Cisco-owned properties.
Allocate 40% of time and budget here.

Passports
These channels represent Cisco’s most outer ring of
social networks. They are important, but not mission
critical for success. Allocate 10% of time and
budget here.
_______________________

1. Based on framework by Chris Brogan



1.4 Is A Community Right for You?

W hen an online community is well thought out, managed and measured, the results can be significant. Success requires
hard work, robust content and a dedication to your members. But, it is not right for every situation or every team.

Key Questions Before Starting a Community

1. Do my community goals align with Cisco’s corporate priorities?

2. Is my target audience large enough to consume and generate content?

3. Does my team understand the endurance necessary to run a successful community?

4. Is my team resourced to work and collaborate with members?

5. Do I have a strong content pipeline for the next 90 days?

6. Have I identified KPIs that align to my business goals?

If your answer to these questions is YES, then a community is right for you and you are ready to proceed. If the answer to any of
these questions is no, you should rethink your plans.

A community thrives only when both sides are engaging over content that meets both their needs. Initially, there will be more
consumers than creators of content. This means that your team must be ready to over-contribute until the members begin to
contribute on a regular basis.


Cisco Community Playbook - Chapter 1: The Big Picture Subject
Matter Expert

1.5 Where Do You Fit In?

A
well-managed community provides significant benefits Let’s take a moment to review these roles. Each community
to both the company and the members. As a manager, is required to have a designated “community manager” and a
future manager or SME of a community, it is important that Subject Matter Expert (SME) assigned to it.
you understand your role in the inception, management and
measurement of your new community.

The Community Manager The Community SME

✔✔ Ensures timeliness and quality of community content ✔✔ Answers technical questions that arise from the
✔✔ Updates content at an absolute minimum of once group
a week ✔✔ Adds value by sharing real world stories, case
✔✔ Ensures all discussion posts, blog posts and studies, best practices, tips and/or “tricks-of-the
comments are responded to within two business trade” to improve knowledge exchange
days, even if the response simply thanks the
contributor for their contribution



1.6 Representing the Cisco Brand

W ith stakeholders around the globe, communities play
a large role in helping to build Cisco’s brand and
reputation.
Confidentiality
When you engage with your audience, you should not
disclose specific types of information such as financial and
As a leader, manager or SME of a Cisco Community, you internal-only news and events.
are responsible for representing Cisco, its products and
its priorities. Because you lead the community, members
Align With Corporate Priorities
look to you to establish the behavioral protocols within the In deciding if a community is right for your customer, you
community. need to ask yourself if your community supports the five
foundational priorities of Cisco’s corporate strategy.
Governance
It is imperative that you read and adhere to the Global
Social Media Handbook a that outlines protocols including Take
information on spam prohibition, violation of third-party A Moment
guidelines and improper material usage.
Before you post, think ‘Would the CEO approve of
this?’ or ‘Would this be appropriate in the Annual
Report’?

Key Drivers of Future Intelligent Networks:
Cisco’s Five Foundational Priorities

1 Leadership in the Core
Routing/Switching/Services

2 Collaboration

3 Data Center/Virtualization Cloud

4 Video

5 Architectures


Cisco Community Playbook - Chapter 2: Planning a Community

Chapter 2: Planning a Community

2.1 How to Plan Your Community
Your community strategy starts with defining your ultimate objective. That objective must be clear, concise and measurable. To
start, you must identify:

Who What Why

Target Audience Robust, Current and Relevant Content Goals and Metrics
Understanding your audience, their needs Content is the main driver of social media. One of the most important objectives is to
and how they consume content are the first Strong, timely and relevant content delivers define your goals. Simply indicating that
steps in planning your community. Take the high engagement. If your content is not you want a certain number of members
time to research your target audiences’ ti- consistent or audience appropriate, visitors in a community is not enough. Consider
tles and responsibilities. will not come back. Before starting a com- the amount of content that will be created,
munity, create a content strategy to ensure the key performance indicators and other
Committed Resources the community stays current, fresh and pieces of data that will be benchmarked
Your strategy will help determine the num- welcoming to members. for success. If there are not measurable
ber of team members required to create, benchmarks, or the benchmarks seem
maintain and discuss the respective con- Strong Engagement Tools unreasonable and cannot be reached, then
tent. Too often people believe that a small Engagement results when members in- a community may not be the best solution.
team can manage a community because teract with relevant and topical content.
the members outside of the company will By providing content that members like,
create most of the content and engage share and comment on, your community
with each other. This is never the case in will grow organically. Communities with low
B2B communities, especially at the start engagement have a tendency to die off
of their offering. Team members must be quickly.
committed to contributing content until the
community members make contributions of
their own.



2.2 Defining Your Audience and Their Content Needs

Y our audience is the single most important variable in the
equation for community success. Understand who your
audience is and what their needs are, and you are on your
Segmentation: Are your communities for anyone in the
networked world? Or are you looking for the managers of IT
who are considering using cloud networks? The size of these
way to creating a successful community. Misunderstand who two audiences varies greatly.
your audience is and your community will never achieve the
results you project. Audience Role: What is the role of the audience? There are
three distinct audiences (see chart below) to focus upon
Too often, community teams define their audience too when segmenting the B2B technology audience from a
broadly. But is this adequate? Probably not. These individuals marketing perspective which will then help you understand
are already targeted heavily by other marketing teams, not to their content needs.
mention the sales teams who call on them.
If your audience is global, be cognizant of cultural differences
When thinking of a potential community audience, community which may come into play in your planning efforts.
teams should think in two aspects:

Audience Titles Needs Specifically Wants

Technical IT Managers, Network Content around solutions l Technical specifications
Administrators and features l User focused, detailed content related to
running the product
l Information on integration and maintenance

issues
l Invitations for beta tests and early adopter

programs

Business IT Directors, Line of Content around business l Statistics about growth and efficiency
Business Executives results l Case Studies of similar companies or industry
examples

Learning IT Managers, Network Collaboration with and learnings l Updates on Cisco certifications to broaden
Administrators, Individual from other users and experts career opportunities
Contributors l Wants to contribute to others’ learning

Take
A Moment
Take a moment to define the ideal member for your community:
✔✔ What is their role at their company?
✔✔ What information would be most helpful to help them do their job well?
✔✔ How frequently are they currently interacting with your brand?
✔✔ What content would aid them in a buying decision?


Cisco Community Playbook - Chapter 2: Planning a Community Subject
Matter Expert

2.3 Defining Community Purpose

O nce you have established your audience, you are ready to begin defining your community’s purpose. Understanding what
your audience is looking for, such as information to help with a business issue (purchase, support, research, etc.), is critical
in determining your community’s purpose and content. Review the chart below to help you determine what community type best
fits the needs of your audience.

Category Sample Notes on
Category Objectives Engagement Example
Definition
User Primary focus is driving 1. Build audience through High. Daily moderation Public Collaboration a
Engagement customers, partners and planned content and is expected to keep
Community Cisco SMEs to share interactive features conversations relevant.
issues, best practices 2. Utilize internal SMEs to Asking questions of au-
and experiences related engage and promote dience is key.
to product and solutions, category products
implementation, and 3. Recruit external mem-
management. bers to help engage
and build vibrancy in
responses

Document Primary focus is storing 1. Develop a consistent Low. Little conversation Partner: Design Zone
Repository documents and driving and trusted repository takes places in these and CVD a
audience to upload and of current documents communities.
read documents such on specific product
as white papers or col- information
lateral. 2. Update frequently

Primary focus is driving
Training 1. Instruct on various new High. Some training Partner: Borderless
audience to review
Community technologies communities function as Networks a
training materials and
2. Assess skills merely repositories for
provide Q/A that elimi-
3. Certification programs training documents even
nates need for travel.
though the Q/A is an
important piece of the
puzzle.

Event-Focused Primary focus is Announce and invite High during event time. March 2012 Cisco
Community expanding attendance target audience to attend Event-focused commu- Collaboration Virtual
at offline events an event or drive views nities will see a spike in Experience a
(mostly product-launch of presentations engagement during the
focused) by providing event. An archive date
relatively low-cost online should be set prior to
attendance. launch so the community
is not allowed to become
stagnant.



2.4 Creating a Content Strategy

C ommunities run on content. Whether the content is
company-created or user-generated, without strong
content, most communities fail. When planning your
Here are the must haves for any new community:

✔✔ Starter content for the first six weeks. This can include:
community, you must build a content strategy that meets the a. Starter discussion topics (seed posts from SMEs or the
needs of your audience, yet is able to be modified over time community manager)
to drive the desired behaviors within your community and
b. Blog posts
attract engaged users who create additional content. Content
that is valuable, exclusive and compelling will help your c. Videos
community become a daily destination. d. Documents for downloading

When building your content strategy, take into account your ✔✔ Content that is strongly focused on members’ roles
audience segmentation and size. The needs of your audience (business, IT, admin)
will guide your content. There are many styles of content
available to deliver your message and with a little creativity,
you can help your community stand out from the competition.

Preferred Types of Content by Audience

Business Audiences Technical Audiences

Customer Thought
Success Stories Leadership Network Design

Industry Research Events
Product Analysis

Product
Launches
Case Studies Training



2.5 A Robust and Relevant Content Calendar

P erhaps the two most important terms when creating a
content strategy are endurance and flexibility.
manager. Content has a shelf life and despite the fact that
some new members will seek out older content, most
members will seek out new content over old. That is why
Endurance many members do not search the discussion forums prior to
You should have a content calendar to organize your asking their questions.
information flows by topic, date, feature and supporting
As a community manager, your content strategy must evolve
outreach used to convey the content. This calendar should
to gauge how long your content is valued by the community.
be at a minimum 90 days into the future and be continuously
You learn this by tracking page views and engagement for
updated. The endurance level needed to launch a community
each asset over time. After a couple of months, you’ll notice
is very high and needs consistent updating from the
the average length of time an asset remains fresh and when
sponsoring organization until the community begins to mature
it goes stale. More importantly, you’ll also see which types
and members begin to contribute information on a regular
of content are of interest to your community members. This
basis.
allows you to tailor the content strategy to further meet their
Flexibility needs.

You may need to alter your initial content strategy once you Using an organized, flexible approach to your content—based
see how the members are interacting with the content. This is upon the members’ needs as much as the organization’s
why measurement becomes so important to the community needs—will help your community succeed.

The 50-40-10 Rule
Your content should be 50% Cisco specific, 40% industry
related, and 10% brand personality and humanity.

Industry (40%)
Sample post:
“Fifty percent of CIOs expect
to operate applications via
Cisco (50%) the cloud by 2015.”
Sample post:
“Clients are seeing results
from our Cloud Enablement
Services. Download the
case study now.”

Personal (10%)
Sample post:
“My head is in the cloud today,
happy Friday everyone. Doing
anything fun?”



2.6 Leveraging Content and Other Assets

A n area where many community managers struggle is content creation. With a mantra of keeping content fresh,
interesting and engaging, a constant flow of great content can seem difficult to produce. Here are a few of ideas that
can help the savvy community team in their content strategies and tactical approaches.

Engage Members
Once you identify your top members in the community, ask
them if they would like to guest blog for a week or two. Utilize
the more knowledgeable external members in an “Ask the
Expert” event in the community.

Engage

Embed Social Content Va
t

Link to Valuable Content
ed Conten

Bring social content into the community by luab Add keynote presentations, industry
embedding videos from YouTube, adding le Cont
reports by analysts (excerpt only with a
excerpts from third party blogs (with link to the actual site and full attribution to
attribution), use a screenshot of a good the company and analyst) and Cisco-
Tweet to start a conversation, embed or created documentation or solution briefs.
mb

link to an industry presentation on
et

SlideShare, etc.
E

Old t
er Contne

Leverage Older Content
Bring content back to the front of the community and add commen-
tary to update the content with either new information or a different
perspective. In communities, older content that is still useful
sometimes gets buried.


Cisco Community Playbook - Chapter 3: Building a Community

Chapter 3: Building a Community

3.1 Components of a Community Page
Cisco Communities offer a variety of customizable layouts and widgets to community administrators.

To access the customizable widgets, navigate to the Cisco Communities home page and login. Once logged in, visit a
community where you have administrator permissions. Next to the Overview tab, click “customize.” You will then see the
following options:

On the left-hand side are the layouts available to community
managers. To keep the layouts consistent across all Cisco
Communities, it is recommended you use the two sided and
one major column layout (highlighted in screenshot).

To the right of the layouts is a section dedicated to widgets.
Widgets are page components that can be added to
the community page. Widgets are broken down into
four categories focusing on content, places, people and
miscellaneous other widgets. Each of these widgets can be
dragged from the category area and dropped anywhere onto
the community page.

For a more comprehensive list of widgets and their features,
visit the community manager’s help resource center on
communities.cisco.com a.

Quick Tips
Decide on the Widgets You Need Building Up HTML

When you first login to your new community, you will notice Some of the widgets that you run into will be HTML-based.
that you have many choices on how to design your community. If you’re not familiar with HTML, check out the code snippet
Just because you have a treasure of resources however, does library a to get started. This is found in the community
not mean that you need to go overboard. Choose only the manager’s help resource center a on communities.cisco.com.
widgets you need and start designing your community. From the basic paragraph tags to the more advanced table
code, the library has everything you need to get started and
create great content.


Cisco Community Playbook - Chapter 3: Building a Community Subject
Matter Expert

3.2 Registration and Permissions

C isco Communities are open to both guests and registered users.

Registered Users Guest Users
Registration and login leverages Cisco’s Single Sign On Guest users have limited access to the communities and
process. Users who have a Cisco.com ID will be able to login depending on the particular community, may be unable to
to the communities without having to create a new account. view, post or comment within the community. To take full
advantage of the communities, it is encouraged that all users
Registered users are categorized into one of four register.
designations:

✔✔ Cisco employees and contractors have access to most
public and private communities. SMEs and community
managers typically fall into this category.

✔✔ Partners are Cisco partners. Partners have access to the Custom Permissions
public and partner communities.
Custom permissions can be set for communities. This is
✔✔ SMARTnet Users are customers who have registered for common for private communities such as user groups and
the SMARTnet support service. They have access to the early adopter programs.
public communities.

✔✔ Registered End Users are users who have registered but
do not have one of the above three designations. They
have access to the public communities.



3.3 Keep the Experience S.O.C.I.A.L.

W hen creating the user experience for your community, it’s important to keep in mind that the experience
needs to be S.O.C.I.A.L.

In a community setting, it’s im-
A community must be able to portant to have a brand presence
grow with the needs and the size that is both open and transparent.
of the audience. If you do not Be friendly with your audience.
have the resources, a community Friendliness can be the difference
cannot be maintained. between returning or idle users.

lab
le Ope
ca n
S

Consistent
Limitless

Communities need to give people Community management re-
the power to do what they can to quires commitment and con-
get work done. Rules are okay, sistency. From editorial calen-
but it is also important to give
Ac v
dars to regular check-ins with
e

ti
people the power to do what they the community, it’s important
ti v e
t ui
do best. to create a consistent social

In ecosystem.

Make sure your community members Communities can be difficult to navigate. Ensure
can engage with your community by your community is intuitive to use and makes
creating opportunities for users to be sense from a design perspective. Overloading
active. Active members are more willing your community with widgets, for example, is not
to come back and engage. a good way to design your community. Members
will not want to return to a difficult to use com-
munity.


Cisco Community Playbook - Chapter 3: Building a Community Subject
Matter Expert

3.4 Workflows to Ensure Success

C ommunities require a team effort to succeed. With a focus on meeting member needs while also promoting Cisco’s content,
the team must be ready to respond to member-generated content in a quick and professional manner. Workflows have
been developed to make the process as efficient as possible.

Pre-Launch
Recruit SMEs Set Expectations Develop Escalation Matrix

For each main topic within the community, For the community manager, the pre-launch To make the workflow efficient, the
one or more internal SMEs should be workflow includes setting expectations for community manager should build an
recruited to help with the community’s both the SMEs and members upon launch. escalation matrix of their SMEs with all
engagement. These SMEs should be In B2B communities, members expect their contact information prior to launch. SMEs
prepared to answer the tougher questions questions to be answered. A general rule need to understand their role, but also that
about Cisco products and services that are of thumb for the workflow is to allow two the community manager will handle many
generated by the members. They should business days for community members to of the basic discussions by pointing the
also consider being the featured expert for answer a question. Then, if there is no reply, member to content on Cisco.com, freeing
their area and for “Ask the Expert” events a Cisco employee MUST answer or reply. the SMEs to handle only the more rigorous
on their topic of expertise. discussions.

Launch
Leverage External SMEs Subscribe to Feeds

The community manager should consider adding external Additionally, all SMEs and the community manager should utilize the
community members who have demonstrated expertise within “Subscribe” feature for any discussions in which they participated to
the community to the escalation matrix. In many cases, a private maintain the discussion if members continue to engage.
message from the community manager will spur the external SME
to step in and provide support for the team. (As a benefit, these
external SMEs from the community should be recognized for their
efforts.)

By setting up clear workflows, the community manager not only demonstrates to the SMEs that the burden of support will not
fall only on their shoulders, but that he/she will also handle the workload and recruit community members to help. This helps
alleviate the main concern of internal SMEs: that they are required to handle all the content within a community.



3.5 Campaign Integration and Product Launches

D ue to their interactive nature, communities are an
excellent complementary asset to utilize in both
Seeding Content
Seed content related to the campaign or product launch to
campaigns and product launches. There are relatively easy
spur conversations for the audience who click through to your
tactics to encourage your campaign or launch audiences to
community from non-community assets.
interact using your online community. Tactics include:

Open Q&A Environment Ask the Expert
Create an “Ask the Expert” event around your campaign or
Develop your plans with your community to allow interested
product launch featuring a senior level executive to attract the
parties to learn more details, ask questions, attend online
target audience to your community.
events, etc.

Landing Page Cross Promote
Feature links to the community landing page in all campaign
Build a landing page that focuses on discussions,
materials (both online digital and offline print).
documentation and video assets. It may be temporary, but you
should save some of the content by moving it into the main
community after the campaign or the product launch ends.

Consistent Look and Feel
Incorporate the look and feel, such as color palettes, tone and
graphics of your campaign into the community to provide a
common theme.



3.6 Promoting Communities via Social Media

I t is important to promote your community using multiple
platforms. Using social media is an excellent way to reach a
broad audience.
on topic with links that guide the follower/group member/
friend back to the community where they can read or
contribute.

Match the Content to the Channel Highlight Announcements
The rise of social media sites like Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, One of the benefits of community membership can be access
Facebook and Pinterest gives community managers another to announcements and events before they are public. Use
new way to reach new members, engage with existing these opportunities to recruit new partners or members.
members and drive engagement overall. The key is to use
those sites where your audience (or potential audience) is Casual Users versus Invested Users
active. For the B2B community, that means LinkedIn, Twitter, Research1 has shown that:
YouTube and Facebook primarily. But each of these sites
✔✔ Casual users spend their time on third party sites such as
has different uses for community and you should not simply
Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter
syndicate your community content on each channel; rather,
create content unique for each site. ✔✔ Invested users spend their time on branded company
websites and communities
Drive Back to the Community IT buyers begin their purchase journey reading commentary
The objective in using social media with communities is to on social media sites. When they are ready to move forward
increase the reach of your message to new audiences with in the purchase process, they will engage on your site. Smart
the goal of driving them back to register and engage in the community managers understand and prepare for this.
community. To do this, feature content that is interesting and

The User Journey

Users visit corporate Facebook pages
for information, posts and dialogue with
other followers; allows product users to
collaborate globally.

$

$ Home Base
$
Cisco.com
User can see what products Users follow Cisco and other
and programs colleagues are industry leaders for updates,
working on. links, and stories.

_______________________

1. Business to Business Social Marketing: Community and Social Media Influence on Revenue, Impact Interactions, September 12, 2011.


Cisco Community Playbook - Chapter 4: Engagement Subject
Matter Expert

Chapter 4: Engagement

4.1 How to Nurture a Healthy Community
Defining Engagement Track Active Members
For many teams, engagement is defined as robust comments Best practices for nurturing the engagement level within
or discussion posts by members of the community. For a community fall back on metrics. Community managers
others, it is the number of downloads of content. The key should look at the behavior metrics with a specific focus on
to understanding engagement is to relate the activities or defining active members, then tracking these members as
behaviors of members to the objectives of the community. a percentage of total visitors to the community. Depending
upon the focus of the community and the definition of active
Aligning Community Behavior members, the percentage should be approximately 10–12%.1
Once the team understands what activities and behaviors they Support communities are much higher due to the Q&A
want to drive, there are tactics the team can use to meet their functionality of the community versus the longer discussions
objectives. of a marketing or learning community.

For example, in communities focused on discussions, the If the engagement level is lower than 12%, consider the
community tactics would involve driving members to read following:
or watch content on the site and then discuss it with other ✔✔ Are the Cisco community manager and SME actively
members. This is the traditional message board or article participating in discussions?
commenting model of community. The content spurs
✔✔ Are follow-up questions and polls being used to
members to create additional content.
stimulate the conversation?
Community managers must have the support of SMEs to build ✔✔ Are community members looking for more technical
upon existing conversations either by contributing content in support? If so, refer them to Cisco Support Communities.
the discussions or by creating original content to start new ✔✔ Is the content stale or not inspiring conversations?
conversations. It’s a fine line, however, between nurturing
and creating. Dominate the conversations and the community
becomes a Q&A site rather than a place where ideas are
exchanged and discussed. Ignore Cisco’s role in building
the correct behaviors, activities and conversations and the
community becomes stale and uninhabited.

_______________________

1. Business to Business Social Marketing: Community and Social Media Influence on Revenue, Impact Interactions, September 12, 2011.


Cisco Community Playbook - Chapter 4: Engagement

4.2 Increasing Engagement Levels

A focus on engagement is critical for the successful
management of communities. At the beginning of
But for marketing communities, we want user-generated
content, not issue resolution. That requires asking for and
the community, engagement is more reliant on the host responding to feedback instead of relying upon the platform’s
company than on members. This is especially true with B2B rating features.
communities. Over time as the community matures, members
will begin to demonstrate more control over engagement Membership Recognition
activities such as posting, commenting, helping each other Recognizing members for their activities in a public manner
and acting as a resource for the community manager. But often results in them engaging at higher levels. Just as
this doesn’t happen overnight and can often take years to importantly, there is a carry-over effect on other members.
develop, so be patient. Membership recognition demonstrates that the voice and
activities of members are very important to Cisco.
To continue to elevate your engagement levels, the following
tactics are recommended: Direct Contact
Thought Leadership A community manager’s behind-the-scenes contacts with top
members is an efficient way to drive additional engagement.
In discussion-based communities, content that presents ideas
By identifying and building relationships with top members
and has an opinion provides members with an opportunity to
over time, the community manager has a cadre of members
engage whether they agree or disagree.
to reach out to for additional content or to answer questions.
This reduces the burden of work on internal SMEs while
Writing Style
demonstrating to the community at large that members have a
Writing for community should be short, to the point and strong role to play in the community’s success.
easy to understand. The more jargon that is used, the less
members will engage. Sample Objectives
There are other tactics as well, including seed posts, surveys
Feedback
on member interests, time sensitive events and polls. The
Ask the user for feedback. In support communities, the use of ability to create conversation about specific member interests
the checkbox to demonstrate the successful resolution of an will solidify the community dynamic.
issue is a powerful feedback mechanism.



4.3 Metrics and Engagement

E
ngagement is the result of matching your audience’s interests to relevant content. As such, it fluctuates during the life cycle
of the community. To maintain an active community, it’s important to have a firm, agreed upon measurement strategy and run
metrics on your community in order to make adjustments to enhance the community for your members.

Metrics are accessed through your custom reports dashboard, which you receive as part of your community onboarding.

Auditing a community means using both qualitative and quantitative metrics to understand how members are using the
community and what they desire from the community.

Qualitative Quantitative

This data helps the community team understand the needs of Measuring behavior involves ratios. The five most popular
the members in order to increase the value of the community: ratios for engagement in communities are:
l Type of content that is consumed the most l Page views per member
l Topics that are most popular l Active member ratio
l Information that members are seeking l Contributor by feature
l Preferred format for the information l Depth of Thread
l Customer satisfaction with the community l Sharability


Cisco Community Playbook - Chapter 4: Engagement Subject
Matter Expert

4.4 How to Manage the Troublemakers

N ot all user engagement is positive. Effective community
management teams understand this and are prepared to
Pricing: The community team must set up guidelines
for pricing. For example, is it okay to say that a product
deal with criticism, negative user comments and other issues and installation costs “tens of thousands of dollars,” but
that run afoul of community guidelines. The key is to have an not “$45,000”? There have been times in Cisco Support
agreed upon plan for dealing with these situations congruent Community when a member quoted the price they were
with how Cisco communicates with its members. given by a reseller for used equipment. However, the bigger
question is whether or not you want pricing discussions
The good news is that in B2B communities, the community to take place in your community. This is an area for the
is generally positive. We don’t see the flame wars and community team to agree upon in advance, then enforce as
personal attacks which happen regularly in consumer-based needed. (Note—this is different than advertising for selling
communities. In the event that a situation like that breaks out, products. Advertising is not allowed and the post should be
the best course of action is to remove the content and send deleted with a private message to the member.)
a private message to the member requesting that they refrain
from such behavior and tone in the community.

The majority of issues arise around: Take
A Moment
Competitor product: The community team should not let
Remember that people come to the community to
the comment go unchecked. If the comparison is an apples
seek information. Negative or critical content is a
to oranges comparison, state it publicly. The best way to do
part of the information that members seek. Do not
so is to have an external community member comment, with
simply remove critical commentary. Instead, treat it
the second best option being an internal SME commenting.
as an opportunity to correct falsehoods and present
In most cases, members of the community will support this
Cisco’s view as a counter to the criticism or negative
exchange of ideas and comments as transparency in action.
comments. This provides a necessary balance to
The key for the community team is to not take the comments
the community which is generally welcomed by
as a personal attack.
members.



4.5 When to Retire a Community

D espite best efforts, sometimes communities fail. Whether
the members find more value on other social outlets or
community prior to sending your members. Discuss with the
community manager their philosophies, registration process
if it was as simple as bad timing, it is not uncommon for a and any other factors that may impact your current user
community to close. Warning signs include: base such as international members. If you sense this new
community may be at any risk for closure, do not refer your
✔✔ An anemic community members.
✔✔ Slow to non-existent participation over several months
If the new community proves viable, provide clear steps to
✔✔ Dwindling membership your user base on how to register or re-register, what they
If your community is stagnant for 90 days, you will be can expect to find in the community and other relevant data.
encouraged to close your community. To ensure a smooth Make the transition for them as smooth as possible.
closure consider the following:
Blogs and Newsletters
Timing If there are blogs associated with your community, they can
Give your members a two month warning prior to shutting help you communicate the transition plan. They can be an
the community down. This gives members ample time to alternate destination for your members to continue to discuss
migrate any data they feel is relevant and to retrieve any social relevant topics. You should also provide the members links
connections. to relevant newsletters they can sign up for that cover similar
topics.
Communication
User Content
If possible, directly reach out to the power users or those
members who will be directly impacted. Explain your Be precise about the migration plan for your community’s
reasoning and provide a clear communication plan of where content. Give exact dates and URLs if it is to be migrated.
relevant data will be migrated and how they can reach the old
Third-Party Sites
community manager if they have any questions.
Reach out to site owners who are currently linked to your
For all other users, post your communication plan on the community and ask them to remove or redirect their links.
community home page and provide direction on where
content will now be located, how to access it and, if Closing a community is not the end of the world. It does not
appropriate, direct them to a relevant community where they mean that you shouldn’t try again in the future. In fact, you’ve
can receive updated communications. probably learned some valuable lessons about your customer
base and your community that will be beneficial to future
New Community marketing and sales programs.
In some instances you can migrate your members into
another appropriate community. Properly vet this new


Cisco Community Playbook - Chapter 5: Ready to Start? Let’s Go

Chapter 5: Ready to Start? Let’s Go

5.1 What Do I Do Now?
Once you have determined a Cisco Community is right for your customer base, we have a defined process to start your
community.

1. You will need to complete the Community Approval Request Form a.

Once your request has been approved a confirmation email will be sent to you and the approving director to confirm the
acceptance of the community request and begin the process.

You will be required to complete a one-hour training session with a community manager and a technical project manager who
will facilitate the community creation process. You will be invited to a bi-weekly call that covers community management best
practices as well as technical issues of concern.

2. Review the Launch Planner. It will provide you a week to week breakdown of needed action items prior to launch.

Congratulations on your decision to start a Cisco community.



5.2 Community Approval Request Form

Sample Questions

Fill out this form online at: http://cs.co/requestcommunity a. Be prepared to answer the questions below.

1. Indicate the Director/Sponsor.

2. Identify the business goals of the community.

3. Identify what metrics you will use to measure your success in reaching those goals.

4. Who is your target audience?

5. How large is your potential audience for this community?

6. Indicate community manager(s) name(s), job title and contact information.
Note: A Community Manager is required—that person is responsible for organizing a content schedule, ensuring that contributions receive responses, etc. We recommend a team of
3–5 people who are responsible for drafting and posting content with an identified Community Owner. We also recommend at least three SMEs responsible for fielding comments/
questions for each theme/issue related to the Community Topic.

7. Identify the Community Topic and list 3–5 sample themes/issues that relate to the topic.

8. Is this related to a current topic on the Cisco Communities Platform? If so, why do you believe it should have its own discrete area (or
sub-community)?

9. Include any information you have on existing topic communities (competitive/rivalry communities, related communities, etc.).

10. Why is the community important/relevant to Cisco, Cisco’s customers and other external audiences?



5.3 Launch Planner

When What Who

Week 1 Establish your community objectives: Who is your audience, Discuss plans with your manager and team.
what is your content strategy and calendar, what resources
will you appoint to team. Identify SME. Read Cisco
Communities Playbook. Read, review and agree to Cisco’s
Global Social Media Policy.

Week 2 Fill out Community Approval Request Form. Submit to Cisco Communities team

Week 3 Design your community and decide on widgets. Consult with the Cisco Communities team if widgets need
to be customized to team’s needs.
Develop content calendar.
Review with manager and team.

Week 4 Once the Community is set up on the platform, use a two Ask your manager, team and SME to participate.
week closed beta or soft launch to test the functionality and
Consult with social leads as well as Cisco Communities lead
train your SMEs in the use of the community.
if communications require management from their end.
1. Review the SME role and content requirements with your
expert team
2. Ensure your team uses the beta to load content, check
links and review all text for spelling and grammatical errors

Week 4 Begin your outreach efforts by socializing the coming launch. Consult with social leads as well as Cisco Communities lead
if communications require management from their end.
1. Add content to newsletters to the targeted audience
announcing the new community and launch date
2. Post launch and teaser content on relevant Facebook,
Twitter and Linked in pages

Week Prior Email the internal team with project updates every two to Email the Cisco Communities team.
to Launch three days prior to launch. A WebEx meeting updating the
team and answering questions is an excellent way to keep
everyone aligned and on track for delivery of their content.

Week Prior Create spreadsheet for tracking metrics, top members and Consult with the Cisco Communities Team and request
to Launch charting trends. access to Adobe SiteCatalyst, take SiteCatalyst training.

Two-Days Seed content of interest into the forums two days prior to Work with social leads and team members to collaborate on
Prior to launch to spur conversations for audience members. the appropriate content.
Launch
1. Ensure that there is progress in new content development
and that your content is on schedule
2. Review all content that will be on the site at launch

Two-Days Reach out to your top potential members with a description Work with your main SMEs who will drive content as well as
Prior to of the content that is available and let them visit early. (The the Cisco Communities Team.
Launch idea is to allow these top potential members to get a head
start and add content.)

Week 6 Launch Use all your external social channels, blogs and internal
communications to let organizations know about your
community.


© 2012 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco and the Cisco logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Cisco and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries. To view a list
of Cisco trademarks, go to this URL: www.cisco.com/go/trademarks. Third-party trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners. The use of the word partner does not imply a
partnership relationship between Cisco and any other company.

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