Online Community Best
Practices
Jeremiah Owyang
Senior Analyst
Forrester Research
March, 2008
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Theme
Community Are Powerful
Tools, As Long As You Put
Members’ Needs First.
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Agenda
• Start with an Objective
• Developing a Plan
• Getting Your Company Ready
• Staff you will need
• How to pick a Vendor
• Kick-Starting
• Growing And Maintaining
• Widgets and OpenSocial
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An Online Community
► An online community is an interactive
group of people joined together by a
common interest.
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Examples
•A discussion forum where conversations develop
•A custom application with profiles and connections
•A group within an existing social networking site or
email service.
•A network of blogs.
•Comments on a rating site.
•Anywhere conversations and people connect and
share.
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Usage of Social Networks are High
• 2/3 of Teens
use Social
Networking
sites at least
monthly
• 1/5 of teens
use social
networks daily
• 1/3 of Adults
use at least
monthly
Source: North American Technographics Retail and Marketing Online Youth Survey, Q4 2007
North American Social Technographics Online Survey, Q2, 2007
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Communication and Self-Expression important
Activity Frequency
See what my friends are up to: 86%
Sent a message to someone: 79%
Posted/updated my profile: 70%
Looked at profiles of people I didn’t know: 65%
Searched for someone that I used to know: 59%
Send a friend/connection request: 53%
Listened to music: 47%
Read a blog or journal: 51%
Wrote on someone’s profile page (e.g., wrote on a wall, posted a
55%
testimonial):
Watched a video: 40%
Sources: North American Technographics Retail And Marketing Online Youth Survey, Q4 2007
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…but who’s in charge?
• Control is in the hands of the participants, often
yielding seemingly unpredictable results.
• Marketers must relinquish control or risk ending up
with an empty community or — worse yet — brand
backlash.
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Not sure where to start?
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The four step approach to the groundswell
P People
Assess your customers’ Social Technographics profile
O Objectives
Decide what you want to accomplish
S Strategy
Plan for how relationships with customers will change
T Technology
Decide which social technologies to use
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Agenda
• Start with an Objective
• Developing a Plan
• Getting Your Company Ready
• Staff you will need
• How to pick a Vendor
• Kick-Starting
• Growing And Maintaining
• Widgets and OpenSocial
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Objectives: Define deployment
Goal Contribution Example
Direct customer insight •Insight Communities
Listening New product ideas •Scan and monitor existing
communities
Beta testing
Create an emotional
•Marketing campaigns
attachment.
(interactive)
Speaking
Advertising based on
•Advertisements
network
•Applications, Widgets
Excite your biggest fans.
Energizing
•Media
Word of mouth
•Customer-created groups
Supporting Peer-to-peer support
Members become
•Ideastorm, SalesForce
Embracing
contributors
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Anatomy of an Effective Plan
• Flexibility
• One Objective
• Needs of Members are put first –not marketers
• Policy Creation
• Prepare for costs and benefits
• Select Success metrics
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Flexibility
• Adidas created an online community on
MySpace.com, the brand developed a six- to 12-
month road map that included a design refresh for
every three months.
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Remember the needs of the community and prepare
to participate
• Success depends on interests of members first
• Valuable Content is defined by what’s valuable to the
community — which means most traditional
advertising and marketing materials don’t count.
» Help docs
» Behind-the-scenes videos
» Sneak previews
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Figure 2: A Taxonomy Of Detractors
Why they What you
Type of detractor make trouble should do
How to recognize
Legitimate complainer Needs help with Raises legitimate issue; Solve problems or explain
products or may use strong language policies, publicly if
services or but seems open to reason possible
wants to warn
others
Competitor Want to promote Continues to mention Engage rationally and
competing products other brands; parrots their respectfully with your
marketing messages company’s perspective
Engaged critic Think they can make Makes suggestions, not Create forum to
things better just complaints; responds encourage discussion;
intelligently to others’ recognize good ideas
criticisms publicly
Flamer Like to argue with other Tend to participate in Refocus discussion on
members “flame wars” and may higher goals of community
have specific other
members they target
Troublemaker Have a grudge against Complains continuously Address individually and
company; hope to create and cannot be satisfied; privately, if complaints
problems uses incendiary language continue in face of
attempts to resolve,
remove from community
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Create a community policy, focusing on the desired
behavior
• Set the tone by
developing community
guidelines that outline the
expected behavior of the
community.
• Prominently publish
desired guidelines “Be Fun, Friendly, and
focusing on the positive, Informational.”
rather than create a long
list of prohibited actions.
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Prepare for costs and benefits.
• Don’t run out of steam, prepare for all costs:
• Hidden costs
» Kick-Start Labor
» Internal Education
» Ongoing Management
• Develop a ROI and total cost model
• (see online community best practices report)
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Agenda
• Start with an Objective
• Developing a Plan
• Getting Your Company Ready
• Staff you will need
• How to pick a Vendor
• Kick-Starting
• Growing And Maintaining
• Widgets and OpenSocial
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Build the internal teams first
• Part educator, part evangelist,
and all customer advocate.
• Focus on tangible benefits to
company.
• Create internal training
sessions, call in experts.
• Start by connecting with
important decision-makers one
at a time.
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Get an Executive Champion
• They often say the word “Customers.”
• Your advocate — and defender — as you initiate
discussions with other internal stakeholders.
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Establish clear lines of responsibility and ongoing
processes
• Nearly every department is impacted:
» Marketing
» Product teams
» Account teams
» Support
» Client teams
• Setup mock simulations using internal versions of the
tools
• Develop internal guidelines
• Create a rapid response team
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Agenda
• Start with an Objective
• Developing a Plan
• Getting Your Company Ready
• Staff you will need
• How to pick a Vendor
• Kick-Starting
• Growing And Maintaining
• Widgets and OpenSocial
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Social Media Strategist: Internal Leader
• The community strategist who organizes
internal resources and supports the
program.
• This experienced business manager:
» Is able to maneuver within the organization
» Leans on relationships with many business
teams
» Manages the business program
Ed Terpening
» Leads the internal charge VP, Social Media,
Wells Fargo
» Develops the objectives and obtain resources
» Creates policy, deals with internal
stakeholders, and provides ongoing reports to
management
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Community Manager: Member Champion
• The community manager or moderator who
interacts with members.
• As a primary advocate of the community, the
community manager:
» Balances the needs of the community with
corporate objectives
» Is a customer advocate
» Is a brand evangelist Lionel Menchca
» May create editorial content Digital Media Manager
Dell Computers
» Harvests customer needs for market intelligence
• Skills.
» possess strong online communication skills, is
approachable and conversational, and has the
ability to relate to members online and offline
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Agenda
• Start with an Objective
• Developing a Plan
• Getting Your Company Ready
• Staff you will need
• How to pick a Vendor
• Kick-Starting
• Growing And Maintaining
• Widgets and OpenSocial
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When selecting a vendor
• Lead With Needs, Not Technology.
• Based upon your objectives, determine the right technologies
• First, develop your feature requirements.
• There are many segments of social networks.
» Organic (like Facebook, MySpace.com)
» White Label
– Insight
– Collaboration
– Widget
– Media
– Vertical
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Services
• Rely on services and support from experienced vendors.
» Consultation
» Moderation/Listening
» Moderating
» Setup
» Rebranding
» Launching
» Reporting
• Caution: Stay engaged, don’t outsource your business
strategy.
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Agenda
• Start with an Objective
• Developing a Plan
• Getting Your Company Ready
• Staff you will need
• How to pick a Vendor
• Kick-Starting
• Growing And Maintaining
• Widgets and OpenSocial
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How to Kick-Start
• First, find a creators and influencers
• Consider creating an “embassy.”
• Choose just a few features to launch with, and then
add more as needed.
• Integrate with other marketing activities.
• Reward helpful members with recognition –not
money
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Growing and Maintaining: Microsoft MVP
• Microsoft rewarded members through public recognition.
• Ambassadors.
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Agenda
• Start with an Objective
• Developing a Plan
• Getting Your Company Ready
• Staff you will need
• How to pick a Vendor
• Kick-Starting
• Growing And Maintaining
• Widgets and OpenSocial
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Growing and Maintaining
• Stay engaged with your community by monitoring and
quickly responding.
• Integrate your community with real-world events.
• Extend the reach of your community by cross-pollinating on
existing social networks.
» Obama for America while also maintaining a presence on
Facebook. Videos on YouTube, Facebook, and Obama’s own
network
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Obama, primary blog
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Obama on Facebook
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Obama on MySpace
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Obama on Twitter
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Obama on MySpace
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Agenda
• Start with an Objective
• Developing a Plan
• Getting Your Company Ready
• Staff you will need
• How to pick a Vendor
• Kick-Starting
• Widgets and Open Social
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Widgets and opportunity for marketers
• Growth.
» 13,083 applications on the
platform
» Top 10 apps have over 10
million installs
• What works: User
» Applications that have
Direct friends
robust functionality
» Social features that Indirect friends
connect users
» Yet many are never Interested parties
successful
Source: Rodney Rumford, CEO Gravitational Media: FaceReviews.com
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Widgets and Applications
• Mini Applications.
• Successful Attributes.
» Interactive
» Offer value, not just “Disposable”
» Utilize social aspect
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Widgets and Applications
• Recommended Deployment:
» Sponsor or rebrand existing widget
» Integrate brand as part of experience
» Create own
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Case study: “Vampires” and movie “skins”
Sources: Facebook Screenshots
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OpenSocial
• Google partnership.
• Allows widgets to write once, run many.
• Challenges.
» Demographics are different in each community
» Many APIs available
» Still in Beta
» Privacy issues with open data
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Recommendations
• Act more like a host at a party, rather than a cop.
• The power is in the hands of the community.
• Traditional marketing tactics do not apply.
• Develop your POST methodology.
» People, Objectives, Strategy, Tools
• Understand Objectives.
» Listening
» Talking
» Energizing
» Supporting
» Embracing
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Thank you
Jeremiah Owyang
Blog: web-strategist.com
Email: jowyang@forrester.com
Twitter: twitter.com/jowyang
www.forrester.com
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Related Research
•Based off the report: Online Community Best Practices
•Companies Interviewed:
» ACDSee » Dogster
» AirTran Airways » Intuit
» Ant’s Eye View » Leverage Software
» Avenue A | Razorfish » Microsoft
» Carnival Cruise Lines » MySpace.com
» Charles and Helen Schwab » Organic
Foundation
» Reuters AdvicePoint
» Cnet TechRepublic
» SATMetrics
» Constant Contact
» Telligent Systems
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