This presentation was given at Womm-U in Chicago on May 23, 2013. It covers how to kickstart and maintain your online community using Con Edison's Power of Giving forum as an example.
Kickstarting Online Communities: Con Edison Case Study
1. PROPRIETARY & CONFIDENTIAL
Kick Starting Online Communities:
Best Practices to Engage Audiences Through the
Power of Community
Case Study: Con Edison
May 22, 2013
Sandra Fathi
President, Affect
sfathi@affect.com
@sandrafathi
WOMM-U, Chicago
3. PROPRIETARY & CONFIDENTIAL
OVERVIEW
KICK STARTING COMMUNITIES
1. Is a Community Right for You?
2. Choosing Your Technology
3. Planning & Launch
4. Driving Membership & Participation
5. Maintaining & Measuring Engagement
6. Case Study: Con Edison’s Power of Giving Online Community
4. PROPRIETARY & CONFIDENTIAL
• Is your target audience active online? (e.g. social
networks, forums, blogs etc.)
• Is your brand active online? Do your followers
regularly engage with you?
• Do you have a steady stream of unique content to
communicate?
• Does your brand have customer/employee
advocates that are eager to engage?
• Do you have the internal resources to manage a
community on a daily basis?
IS IT RIGHT FOR YOUR BRAND?
KICK STARTING COMMUNITIES
5. PROPRIETARY & CONFIDENTIAL
Before deciding to launch a new community, remember to :
• Look Before You Leap
• Define Goals & Objectives / Desired Business Impact
• Experiment With Engagement Through Social
• Assign Internal Resources
• Understand Your Technology Options
• Think About the Future (Long-term vs. short-term impact)
IS IT RIGHT FOR YOUR BRAND?
KICK STARTING COMMUNITIES
6. PROPRIETARY & CONFIDENTIAL
CHOOSING YOUR
TECHNOLOGY
KICK STARTING COMMUNITIES
1. Build It
2. Buy It
3. Rent It
4. Hybrid
1. Analytics
2. Cost
3. Time-to-Market
4. Resources
5. CRM
Tech Options Requirements
7. PROPRIETARY & CONFIDENTIAL
EXAMPLE:
NING vs. LITHIUM
KICK STARTING COMMUNITIES
1. Simple Customization
2. No CRM Integration
3. Fast and Easy Launch
4. Standard UI
5. Lower Cost/No Cost
1. High-Level of Customization
2. Integration w/ Salesforce
3. Time Consuming Build
4. Customizable UI
5. Higher Cost (based on
requirements)
Ning Lithium
11. PROPRIETARY & CONFIDENTIAL
LAUNCH TOOLKIT
KICK STARTING COMMUNITIES
1. Community Usage Policy
2. Administrator Workflow Plan
3. Content Strategy
4. Community Response Map/FAQ
5. Technical Recommendations
6. Internal/External Communications Launch Program
12. PROPRIETARY & CONFIDENTIAL
• Utilize a well-designed, easy-to-use interface
• Create a content plan/editorial calendar
• Identify and train internal community admins
• Identify and train customers, partners, influencers
(exclusivity sells)
• Schedule launch promotion – hit users on their preferred
channels (e.g. social media, traditional marketing, PR)
• Pre-populate the community with content
• Determine KPI’s to measure success
PRE-LAUNCH TIPS
KICK STARTING COMMUNITIES
13. PROPRIETARY & CONFIDENTIAL
Once you’ve built it, how do you keep them coming back?
DRIVING MEMBERSHIP &
PARTICIPATION
KICK STARTING COMMUNITIES
15. PROPRIETARY & CONFIDENTIAL
• 6 Month Promotion Plan that includes:
• Weekly communication with current users
• Monthly promotion to non-users
• Ambassador activation strategy
• Employee engagement strategy
• Offline promotion strategy (e.g. marketing collateral)
• Content refresh schedule
• Weekly measurement/KPI’s
ENGAGEMENT TOOLKIT
KICK STARTING COMMUNITIES
16. PROPRIETARY & CONFIDENTIAL
• Be consistent and creative with promotion efforts, don’t
give up!
• Promote new community content externally to drive
traffic
• Ask ambassadors to share expertise on topics of their
choice, use incentives/contests to drive participation
• Include a call-to-action in posted content to drive
conversation and engagement
• Hold back on over-promoting your brand and services –
focus on third-party content (e.g. articles, infographics and
statistics) – use the 80/20 rule
MEMBERSHIP &
PARTICIPATION TIPS
KICK STARTING COMMUNITIES
17. PROPRIETARY & CONFIDENTIAL
You built it, they came. But did it impact your business?
MAINTAINING & MEASURING
ENGAGEMENT
KICK STARTING COMMUNITIES
18. PROPRIETARY & CONFIDENTIAL
MAINTENANCE &
MEASUREMENT TOOLKIT
KICK STARTING COMMUNITIES
1. Community Engagement KPIs
2. Technical Tripwires
3. Formalized Measurement Template
4. Expansion Strategy (to be implemented aer 6 months)
5. Communicate Success to Leadership
6. Big Ideas to Maintain Engagement
19. PROPRIETARY & CONFIDENTIAL
• Keep the community fresh by incorporating multimedia
(e.g. videos, photos, executive insights)
• Consistently identify new prospects to join the
community, ask current members to recruit their network
• Promote the community across all marketing channels,
online and offline (e.g. tradeshows/events, social media)
• Track qualitative and quantitative metrics on a monthly
basis to see community growth and value. Examine
business impact (e.g. web traffic + quality of conversion)
MAINTENANCE &
MEASUREMENT
KICK STARTING COMMUNITIES
20. PROPRIETARY & CONFIDENTIAL
SAMPLE METRICS
KICK STARTING COMMUNITIES
1. # of New Visitors
2. # of Returning Visitors
3. # of Registered Users
4. % of Active Members
5. # of Engagements
6. # of Member Posts
7. # Leads Generated
1. Content Popularity
2. Language & Tone
3. Sense of Community
4. Quality of Engagement
5. Relevancy of Content
6. Speed of Replies
7. Influencers/Ambassadors
Quantitative Qualitative
22. PROPRIETARY & CONFIDENTIAL
Con Edison operates one of the most complex electrical
power systems in the world, serving New York City and
Westchester County.
• 3.3 million customers
• Population of over 9 million people
• 660 square mile service territory
• Hundreds of strategic partners
POWER OF GIVING
ONLINE COMMUNITY
CASE STUDY: CON EDISON
23. PROPRIETARY & CONFIDENTIAL
Con Edison’s Power of Giving Program provides financial or
in-kind support to hundreds of organizations whose activities
advance strong, vibrant and stable communities.
The program extends beyond cash grants and is enhanced by
a strong and loyal corps of employees, a robust board
participation program, partnerships and collaborations and
an education matching gi program.
POWER OF GIVING
ONLINE COMMUNITY
CASE STUDY: CON EDISON
25. PROPRIETARY & CONFIDENTIAL
• Enhance non-profit partners’ access to Con Edison and
strengthen communication
• Build and improve partner support and satisfaction
• Strengthen connections and communication between Con
Edison partners, empower them to share resources to
promote collaboration
• Reputation management during times of crisis (e.g. natural
disaster, power outages etc.)
POG ONLINE COMMUNITY
GOALS & OBJECTIVES
CASE STUDY: CON EDISON
26. PROPRIETARY & CONFIDENTIAL
• 30-day launch
• Simple customization
• Easy-to-use technology, must support Google Analytics
• Ability to manage community with 1-2 team members
• Ability to access community from mobile devices
• Ability to send communications directly to members
• Forums/discussion boards for users
• Ability to upgrade UI/customization as community grows
POG ONLINE COMMUNITY
REQUIREMENTS
CASE STUDY: CON EDISON
27. PROPRIETARY & CONFIDENTIAL
• Customized email invitation to ‘Insiders’ (invited first)
• Customized email invitation to partners by area of interest
(e.g. arts & culture, education etc.)
• Insiders invited to contribute content and receive
administrative permissions
• Official launch at Power of Giving forum event (partners
invited to sign-up onsite)
• Weekly email communication to users from Con Edison
highlighting new posted content
• Con Edison Program Managers trained to invite partner
contacts
POG ONLINE COMMUNITY
LAUNCH STRATEGY
CASE STUDY: CON EDISON
28. PROPRIETARY & CONFIDENTIAL
550
Members
1 Year Post-Launch
New Members Every
Week
145
Blog Posts
Posted by Users
300+ photos and
videos
8-10 Average
Minutes On
Site
POWER OF GIVING
ONLINE COMMUNITY
CASE STUDY: CON EDISON
30. PROPRIETARY & CONFIDENTIAL
POG ONLINE COMMUNITY
EVENT BOARD
CASE STUDY: CON EDISON
The events board is used
weekly by members to
promote events that are
happening within their
organizations.
31. PROPRIETARY & CONFIDENTIAL
• Social Impact Measurement Group: 34 active members
• PR & Media Relations Best Practices Group: 32 active members
• Arts & Culture Group: 28 active members
• Social Media Bootcamp: 22 active members
POG ONLINE COMMUNITY
GROUPS
CASE STUDY: CON EDISON
32. PROPRIETARY & CONFIDENTIAL
POG ONLINE COMMUNITY
ENGAGEMENT SNAPSHOT
CASE STUDY: CON EDISON
Members ask Con
Edison for input and
feedback on hot topics.
34. PROPRIETARY & CONFIDENTIAL
WOMM-U
Kick Starting Online Communities:
Best Practices to Engage Audiences Through the
Power of Community
May 22, 2013
Sandra Fathi
President, Affect
sfathi@affect.com
@sandrafathi