Brave New Talent Client Package/Blueprint What is an online community?

An online community is a group of people who have developed relationships around a strong common interest. A community is different from Facebook pages and Twitter because the audience interacts with each other, not just with the author. In a successful community, there is a high level of interaction between members. In addition, there is a level of growth to, at minimum, replenish departing members and there is a highly developed sense of community. Individuals feel they are part of a community together. Good examples of successful communities include: Element14 ConnectingHR TES

Benefits of online communities

Brave New Talents online communities yield many benefits to organizations. These include: Increased customer loyalty iii Accelerate innovation. Knowledge sharing. Recruitment/Training Increased advocacy

Active participation in a community intensifies the interest in that topic. When individuals who are passionate about a particular skill are connected, and interact with each other around that skill, their interest in that skill (and knowledge of that skill) increases.

The Community Lifecycle

Online communities followed an established pattern. They begin small and steadily grow in membership and activity. This lifecycle can be divided into four stages: 1) Inception: From initial outreach to critical mass 2) Establishment: From critical mass to high levels of growth and activity.

3) Maturity: From high levels of growth and activity to a developed sense of community and break up. 4) Mitosis: Where communities split into more diverse and specific interest groups (e.g. HR breaking down into social HR, HR in non-profits etc)

Inception
Slow, direct, growth Limited levels of engagement Low sense of community 0 - 50% activity initiated by members

Establishment
Referral/direct growth Medium levels of engagement Limited sense of community 50 - 90% activity initiated by members

Maturity
Referral growth High levels of engagement Strong sense of community 90 - 99% activity initiated by members

Mitosis
Community splits/grows into more focused groups Repeat from establishment

Basic Principles of Participation

A common mistake made by organizations is to interact with community members in the same manner they would with customers or clients. This usually means the organization speaks in the 3rd person, stays formal and doesnt clearly identify themselves as individuals. This is a significant impediment to developing a community. Have a clearly identifiable community manager. A community should not be managed by an unnamed brand representative. A community needs a clearly identifiable representative with whom members feel a sense of trust and connection. It is therefore important that the community is managed by a specific, named, individual. Speak in the 1st person. Community managers whom interact with members in the second or third person struggle to build relationships with their target audience. Speak informally. As with both points above, it is also important that the community manager speaks informally with members. It is far easier to build relationships with members by speaking informally.

Show a personality. Community managers should not have bland, polite, personalities. They should have personalities reflecting those working on behalf of the community. It is good to have a sense of humour, to interact with members at their level and to Be kind (and unflappable). The community manager should be kind towards members. This will involve helping members where possible, asking about their problems and supporting members to resolve them. The community manager should also be unflappable. S/he should not be sucked into disputes or criticisms of other members. Respond quickly to posts/questions from members. It is important that contributions from members receive a response (ideally within 24 hours). This encourages further contributions and shows the contributor that their input matters to the organization. Give praise for good contributions. A community manager should acknowledge the opinions of members contribute and thank members for contributing those opinions. Dont criticize or complain. The community manager should avoid criticizing members, engaging in disputes/conflicts, or complaining to members about any topic.

Getting Started
This covers the getting the process of getting everything prepared to begin the outbound effort. It covers the checklist, analysis and building contacts Before starting a community for your organization, it is important to identify the first members, their core issues and establish initial contact with these individuals. Identify the Founding Members The founding members are the first individuals to join the community. These members need to be individually recruited to the platform. The community manager must have direct contact with these individuals. These individuals can be found through several channels. These include those on the Brave New Talent platform who have specifically rated themselves as highly interest in that skill, but also those on other channels. These channels include: {list of channels here} At this stage, the community manager wants those most interested in the topic to be the first to join. These will not necessarily be those whom have an existing audience (bloggers, Twitter users etc).

Aim to build a list of between 50 to 100 potential founding members at this stage. These people should have shown an above-average interest in the topic. s Making contact & Audience Analysis Before launching the community, it is important to have a core group of people keen to use it. An empty community will repel newcomers. Therefore, the community manager must begin contacting potential founding members and asking two things: 1) Would they be interested in becoming one of the founding members of the group? (Note, the use of founding member increases the level of participation. People feel a greater sense of ownership and participate more frequently in groups in which they feel they have founded). 2) If the answer is yes, it we then what to know what their hopes, experiences and problems are. This may entail calling prospective members and asking them a few questions. a. What do they hope to achieve within the topic (careers, skills, ambitions etc)? b. What are their biggest problems/difficulties/challenges? c. What have their experiences been so far? These responses form our initial activities. They feed in to the content we develop, the discussions we initiate and the events/activities which may take place within the community.

The Inception Stage

The inception stage of the community lifecycle begins when the organizations initiates its first contact with its target members and ends when the community has achieved a critical mass of activity. Once this research has been undertaken and there is a clearly identifiable list of 25 to 50 individuals keen to participate in a community (build the demand before you launch the platform), we are ready to start the community. Initiate discussions Initiate a few discussions within the community platform. These should be directly related to the information learned during the audience analysis stage above.

As best practice, ensure a question is asked within this discussion subject line. If, for example, for a HR-related community several individuals noted that they struggled to gain internal buy in for using social technology, then this can be posed as a variety of potential discussions topics: What are your top tips for gaining internal buy in to use social technology? How many of you have succeeded in gaining internal buy-in for social recruitment? How many of you are actively using social technology within HR? Is social technology really that important to HR?

Any issue can be developed into a number of potential discussions topics related to someones experiences, opinions, perspectives and attitudes. It is important to vary the types of discussions being initiated. These should allow for people both to give their opinions/advice on an issue, but also reveal their own experiences as well. Asking people about their best/worst/favorite tips/thoughts/experiences usually yields a high level of discussion. Solicit responses to discussions In the early stage, the community manager must directly reach out to the early members and invite them to participate in these discussions. This is a timeconsuming process, however over time members will begin to visit the community out of habit. Once a few discussions have been initiated, its important to get the first active participants in the community. These contributions will come directly from members. Once an individual has made a contribution, they enter the notification cycle (they receive a notification when someone responses, and thus visit to participate again). Note, this is not a one-time activity. This is a cycle which must be repeatedly for the first few weeks, and possibly months, until the activity begins to increase without direct stimulation. The community manager must initiate a discussion, invite people to join, and solicit their response to the discussion. Welcome newcomers It is good practice to welcome newcomers to the community with a personal greeting. This personal greeting should identify the newcomer by name and direct them to a discussion they can immediately participate in within the community.

The purpose is to convert as many newcomers as possible into active participants of the community. It may be necessary in the early stages of the community development process to engage in a considerable level of dialogue with a large number of new members. Content and joint activity The community manager should also write content about what members in the community are doing. If members have made a notable contribution (article, post, learned a new skill, shared a skill), then it is useful for the community manager to acknowledge this. Content acts as the narrative and structure for the community. If there is a key skill which members in the community should acquire, or an important concept members must understand, content can direct attention to it. In addition, content is linked to joint activities. A community with a joint activity/purpose has a unifying reason to interact with each other. This may be to rank a list of resources, identify/invite a popular speaker, Critical mass During this phase of the community lifecycle, the goal is to achieve a critical mass of activity. This is the stage at which the community begins to develop and sustain itself. This is the phase at which more than 50% of growth and activity is generated by the community. Active members Please note, the emphasis is upon growth of active members. It is relatively simple to persuade people to register for any site or platform. The goal is to keep them active (having made a contribution within the past month). Inception-stage activities 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) Inviting members to join and keeping them active/engaged. Initiating discussions and prompting members to participate. Building relationships with members (individual outreach). Writing content about the community. Hosting a regular online event.

The Establishment Stage (boosting growth and increasing activity)

Once critical mass has been achieved, the activities of the community manager will begin to shift from a large number of micro-interactions with individuals, to more macro-level activities. In the establishment phase its important to sustain growth, keep members participating in the community and develop a limited sense of community amongst members. This sense of community is the feeling that members are part of a community that matters. Growing an online community There are several key principles to embrace when attempting to grow a community. These principles are as follows: 1) Slow, steady, growth. A community should grow steadily. A mass rush of members will usually be bad for two reasons. First, it will upset the existing eco-system within the community. Second, it will be difficult for the community manager to work to convert them into regular members. Much potential can be wasted by growing the community too quickly. 2) Promote the activity within the community. When growing the community, the organization should always aim to promote an activity within the community, as opposed to the community itself. Individuals generally are not looking to join a community, but they are more receptive to discussions, events and activities taking place within the community in which they can participate. 4) Increase time for conversion. When the organization attempts to grow the community, it must also set aside a greater amount of time to converting members. This will ideally be in a ratio of 1:3. This is three minutes for every 1 minute spent raising awareness of the community. Attracting visitors without converting them into members is a wasteful activity. 5) Frequent measurement. All sources of growth should be measured with regards to their effectiveness and ability to convert the traffic into active members of the community. Target segments at a time. The best recruitment strategy for a community targets a specific sub-group of people at a time. For example, a community in the field of HR may target those with an interest in non-profit HR, then move on to those who work in HR in the government sector, then those HR professionals in London etc...

It is far more efficient for the organization to focus on converting a group of individuals at a given time than to mass-recruit individuals. The community manager can tailor discussions, content and activities towards this group and invite this audience to participate in these activities. Stagger recruitment efforts over time The outreach of recruitment itself should be staggered over a period of time. This ensures a consistent level of growth and growing momentum. This momentum is important to developing a community. Members want to feel a part of something that is growing and developing. Many organizations are tempted to mass-promote a new community. This is a mistake. It is far more efficient to target segments of the total audience at a time and gradually move on to new segments. Converting existing audiences Many organizations have an existing mailing list comprised of customers, inquiries or clients they can use to grow their community. The temptation for organizations is to announce the launch of this community to their entire list. This is a mistake. The mailing list should be used after the community has been seeded and is near (or has achieved) critical mass. This lets the organization show their prospective members a successful community rather than an empty website. Do not contact the entire mailing list at once. Segment this list into 5 10 segments (by date joined if nothing else is ideal), and contact one segment each week with an invitation to participate in something happening within the community. A major advantage of segmenting is it allows for split a/b testing of different approaches. This means two separate outreach messages can be tried to smaller groups before being sent to a larger percentage of the mailing list. This testing will allow you to identify which approach works best and continually refine and optimize the process. Word-of-mouth (referrals) In addition to direct outreach, a community can also grow via referrals from existing members. Most established communities are sustained entirely by these referrals. A community manager can stimulate these referrals through a variety of tactics. Motivations for a referral

There are four key motivators of WOM in communities; each is underlined by a motivational principle. 1) 2) 3) 4) Helping friends. (Efficacy, reciprocity, affiliation) Impressing friends. (Recognition) Helping the community.. (Efficacy, recognition) Impressing other community members. (Recognition, affiliation)

Within these categories, we can identify a variety of possible tactics as detailed below:

Inside the community

Outside the community impress friends Status related Invitations to the platform Exclusive event/activity Participation in something interesting Awards/interviews/mentions Create content that would help others (e.g. a newcomers guide) Tackle basics problems people have Fundraising possibilities

Increase my status

Ranking Areas of responsibility Poll/debate/challenge which members share with others

Help my friends

Weakest, but most useful Establish clear goal for the community Specific problems/situations Seek specific individuals to help the community

Increase status within the community Individuals have a fundamental need for appreciation and power. We seek out positive opinions of ourselves and we wish to feel influential within our environments. Many referrals to join a community are initiated by the senders need to increase their reputation amongst over members in the community and climb the social ladder. Ranking. If there is a ranking system, current members are likely to invite others to join the community and support them. Areas of responsibility/ownership of ideas. If a community member is given responsibility for a specific area of the community, they are likely to invite others to join to support their efforts. Controversial debate. If the community managers initiate a provocative or controversial debate (which usually splits an audience), and asks members to express their opinion. These members frequently invite others to support their view.

Impress their friends outside of the community In contrast to existing members wishing to increase their status amongst fellow community members, is the motivation for existing members to increase their status amongst their own friends. If members are involved in something highly related to their status, they are likely to tell their friends about it. Give members an exclusive they can share with friends. If the community is exclusive (or there is something exclusive happening within the community), members might invite their friends to join. Featured contribution. It is common for those who make an excellent contribution to the community, or are heavily involved in the creation of something significant in the community, to share this with their friends. eBook/Compilation of member activities. If the community co-writes an eBook sharing their best advice, collaboratively works on a statement for the media or is campaigning on a cause, individuals are likely to invite their friends as it demonstrates their own ability and status. Interviews/awards. If members are interviewed, given awards, mentioned in news posts, they are also far more likely to invite their friends to see.

Help their friends Of the two altruistic motivations for referring people to join the community, helping friends is the most powerful. Most people enjoy the positive feeling of helping others; especially people they know. Community managers can encourage this level of referrals through the following activities: Create a beginners guide to the topic. Developing a beginners guide (with members) is an effective channel of attracting those whom are interested but dont know how to start. Those members involved in helping create the guide can share it with everyone they know whom might have an interest in the topic. Tackle the FAQ/common problems. Many individuals outside of the community might face a specific problem, an item of content which addresses can easily be shared by existing members to these individuals. Open clinics. Another referral tactic is to host a regular introductory clinic, during which newcomers can ask specific questions to established regular community members.

Improve the community

The final motivation is the genuine desire to improve the community by inviting new members to join. This is most common in groups which have the strongest sense of community. There are several channels through which organizations can stimulate these altruistic referrals. These channels include: Establish a clear goal for the community. A community with a clear objective attracts more referrals. Members are more excited and want their friends/colleagues to join to support the community. Identify specific problem to tackle / expertise required. A community manager can identify a specific problem and invite members to find someone with the expertise to solve it.

Converting Newcomers into Regulars

The community manager needs to allocate a lot of time to convert newcomers into regulars. Many community managers focus solely upon persuading an individual to register, at Brave New Talent, we focus on keeping them actively engaged. This means optimizing each stage of the membership lifecycle. Perhaps most importantly, the goal is not to make newcomers appear like a member but to make members feel like a member. Optimizing the initial contribution When a newcomer joins the community they are likely to be seeking to satisfy an immediate need. This need will either be a need for information or entertainment. Organizations need to embrace this need to solicit this initial participation. It is important to convert the registered member into a participant, but to also ensure they participate in a manner likely to receive feedback thus prompting the newcomers return to the community. Soliciting the first contribution After registration, the member needs to participate immediately or they are unlikely to return for a further visit. There are several methods to achieve this outcome. 1) Ensure that the landing page shows the newest, most popular and/or featured discussions. This needs to be kept fresh and updated. Very topical debates should appear immediately upon the community page. 2) In the welcome message, direct users to a discussion they can participate in. This might be a newcomers thread on the forum or a

topical discussion the organization might like the newcomers thoughts/expertise on. One popular substitute for the introduce yourself thread, is the selfdisclosure thread. This is a thread asking a question such as: How did you first become interested in .?. All members can participate in this discussion and the answers will usually be very interesting to all members. They can also later be referenced in newcomer content. Links to these threads can be included in a confirmation e-mail or in the page following the completion of the registration process. 3) Follow up message. In many communities, an initial contribution will need to be followed up by a further message from the community manager. Over time, it is useful to have a supportive cast of members whom can help facilitate this. 4) Content about newcomers. Newcomers who have made a contribution can be persuaded to return to the community when they know that people are talking about them. There are numerous ways to mention newcomers in the community. This may include a feature in the newsletter listing the newly arrived members with a few brief details about each newcomer. This should only include newcomers whom have made their first contribution to the platform. This encourages those who have joined but not participated to make their first contribution. Another option is to include a newcomer of the month award, a list of newcomers who have passed through the communitys initiation ritual and mentions in news posts. 5) Teach the culture of the community. After a member has made more than one contribution to the community, they can be sent a simple document outlining the history of the community, the most influential people in the community, topical issues, running jokes and any likely rituals they might go through to become an accepted member of the community. This can be sent as one single e-mail after they have made a contribution, or staggered over a period of time to match their level of contributions or return visits. All these materials should be positive (not restrictive e.g. rules/guidelines). 6) Create ownership opportunities. Offer newcomers a role within the community. This role might be to create content about a particular subtopic, report any misuse of the platform, suggest ideas on a particular subject matter, post regular discussions, find members with a particular expertise to respond to relevant questions or reach out to members who have vanished from the community.

7) Rituals. It is important to embrace rituals which place newcomers within an accepted member mind-set. In some communities it is also possible to have a weekly/monthly graduation of newcomers into accepted members of the community. This should come with greater access to the platform, an alteration in the members profile and congratulations from existing community members. The graduation itself will either be a news posts or a forum thread listing members who have graduated along with some of their personal details. 8) Plan the first three weeks. If the community is undertaking a significant promotional drive, s/he should plan the first few weeks in the community. This should be a process which will convert a community newcomer into a habitual participant in the community. The journey should cover the initial visit, their first participation, the return visit and contribution and then what processes will be implemented to keep these members engaged to the three week milestone. Events/Activities Communities should have online events scheduled on a weekly and monthly basis. These events may include: 1) Webinars. This is an interactive presentation in which the community manager, a member of the community or an expert on the communitys topic matter delivers a presentation online and answers questions from community members. There is a variety of software which can host such events. The most popular are GoToMeeting and WebEx. 2) Themed discussion. A community may each week join a live chat room to participate in a themed discussion. This discussion will have a set topic. This topic may have been determined in advance by the community manager, voted on by the community or designated by one or more community members responsible for the discussion. It may also be rotational with different members guiding the discussion each day. 3) Weekly interview. Similar to the themed discussion is a weekly interview with a VIP in the communitys sector. This VIP will be someone identified in the initial sector analysis. This will include people of power, fame, expertise and those with unique personalities. This list may include managing directors at relevant companies, skilled experts in the sector (such as those designing products or can do something unique within the community), or those whom have a unique and interesting personality. This can be undertaken using a moderated live-chat or via soliciting questions from members in advance. 4) Competitions/Challenges. The community may host a regular competition or challenge for members to participate in. This can be a quiz, or a skill-based challenge. Some communities, for example, ask members

to submit their favourite community-related stories or photos and nominate a winner each week. It might be possible for some communities to find sponsors to support these events with free products/vouchers for the winners. 5) Newcomer orientation. Once a month, a community may host a day to welcome new arrivals in the community. This can involve regular members introducing themselves, setting up some basics threads for newcomers to participate in and help teach members about the culture of the community. This even can increase the sense of community amongst existing members and help convert newcomers into regular members of the community. 6) Promotional days. Many communities may also use promotional days as a way to provide access to sponsors and opportunities for community members. These promotional days might include price discounts on products/services, promotions from one member to another (by allowing a day a week for this, self-promotion on other days might be alleviated). These are all regular events which can be held at frequent intervals. Different events will be suited to different audiences. Some will be looking for traditional entertainment others will be looking for information and tips leading to selfimprovement within their topic. Regular events also encourage frequent activity within a community and build expectations from members to such regular interactions. This frequent activity builds a consistency of interactions between members which leads to trust, a key component of successful relationships within communities. Irregular Events In addition to small to mid-sized regular events, communities should host irregular events. These events are designed to celebrate communities achievements, bring audiences together for a specific purpose or promote the community to external audiences. 1) Awards. A community may host an annual awards ceremony for members. This may include a live channel announcing who wins each award (as voted by members). 2) Milestones. The community should celebrate significant milestones achieved. This might be the communitys 10 year anniversary, the 10,000th active member, 50,000 posts in a single months or achievements by the milestone, such as changing something significant in the community eco-system. 3) Fundraising days. A community may host a fundraising day/week for a set cause. Fundraising has many benefits to a community. It puts action

and a clear investment in the successful of a community. It creates a common goal that increases the sense of community and provides a sense of achievement or failure which can significantly improve the community. 4) Broader victories/celebrations. A community may celebrate something else of relevance in the eco-system. It might be the success of a VIP within the sector, a legal ruling in the communitys favour, the end of something bad happening within the communitys ecosystem, or the success of something good within the ecosystem. 5) Product-launches. A community might celebrate the launch of a new product or service within that category. This can including building anticipation of the product/service, including a gossips column about possible features of the product/service, introduce a live-blog leading up to the launch and/or initiating threads asking members to submit their views and thoughts on the topic. These threads will be sticky for the day/week. 6) Member achievements. The community may also celebrate the achievements of a member. This might be the release of a book authored by the member, a birth of a child, gotten married, the launch of a new company or anything the regular member takes a significant amount of proud in. 7) Hall of fame induction. Some communities have introduced a hall of fame for individuals within their ecosystem. Have your members done something great recently? Induct them into your communitys hall of fame.

The Maturity Stage

Promotion We have already divided promotion into several categories. These categories are: 1. Publicity: This covers earning attention from media channels, both online and offline, which have a considerable audience. 2. Events/Activities: Hosting events/activities which are likely to attract attention. 3. Advertising: Paying money to appear in channels companies would like to be see. 4. Competitions/Challenges/Incentives. Activities designed to attract people to join and participate.

Publicity The principles of gaining publicity for a community are very similar to gaining publicity for any other organization or product/service. Publicity can be achieved via building relationships with journalists and/or doing things publications consider worthy of news coverage. Building relationships with journalists There are several approaches that organization can take to build a positive relationship with a journalist. The most obvious is to persuade journalists from relevant magazines and websites to join and participate in the community. In practice, this is rare. Few journalists have the time to actively participate in a community. However, it is possible in some sectors to persuade journalists to join. The most common approach is to provoke the journalists ego. This may be to treat the journalist as a VIP in the community or possibly reserve the journalists username, customize the profile and offer an opinion column to contribute to the community. Another approach is to talk about the journalist in the community. Few individuals are able to resist reading what others are saying about them. By openly discussing the journalists articles in a community (and advising the journalist that this is happening), the journalist might participate to respond to questions and comments. In addition, if a journalist has a cause or writes with a purpose which befits the community, it is possible to gain coverage by frequently championing the journalists work in the sector. The community might interview the journalist, or send positive messages and otherwise support the journalist where possible. Journalist ego-trap A common tactic is to launch a journalist ego-trap. This is a tactic by which the community lists their favourite journalists in the sector and asks its members and outsiders to vote whom they like the best. This is common amongst both bloggers and journalists as a channel to achieving positive coverage. Bloggers are known to send their audience to vote for them in the community, journalists may mention it through personal social media accounts. Be a resource for the journalist Many journalists participate and follow online communities to learn about the latest trends, uncover the latest news, find people in the topic to interview and build their own contacts base within that sector. In many communities, it would be a good idea to approach journalists who specialize in a particular field and offer them such resources. An organization could e-mail or call a journalist and offer the community as a resource. This might include sending them a weekly snippet of topical/controversial stories, opportunities to interview members or founders of the community and a summary of the latest trends in the industry.

Many journalists would find such a service very useful for their own work. A community which serves as a useful resource for journalists is very likely to gain positive coverage and attract further members Blogger outreach A popular promotional tactic is to undertake a blogger outreach campaign. This is a process by which the organization identifies relevant bloggers and attempts to influence them to positively write about their community. Some communities have achieved considerable success through this approach, yet these are few in number. In practice, the number of successful blogger outreach campaigns rarely matches the hype surrounding the approach. Only a relatively small number of bloggers have an audience large enough to influence the success of a community. These bloggers are usually overwhelmed with corporate overtures; some of which offer financial gain. Blogger outreach, as a promotional technique, is a tragic victim of survivorship bias. Only successful campaigns receive coverage, the huge number of failed blogger outreach campaigns receive little to no attention. However, many of the same approaches which work for journalists will also work on top bloggers. Bloggers also have egos and reputations they wish to cultivate and maintain, they also like feeling influential and respect within their industry. If the community offers this the blogger is more likely to promote and support the community. Doing newsworthy things The second approach to gaining publicity within a community is to newsworthy things. Newsworthy issues are usually those which are innovative, unexpected, tie into local events/news, reveal new trends or provoke a strong emotional reaction. Before we review each of these tactics, we must understand a key principle with regards to journalists. Journalists prefer to write stories which involve people. A community will be an unattractive story for journalists. A story that features people within the community is likely to prove more popular. Fundamentally, people like to read about people. Therefore, it is important that all newsworthy things are presented through the perspective of individuals as much as the community. Finally, the journalist is unlikely to stumble upon the story by chance. They need to be directly approached and informed about the story. They may be a phone call or e-mail. Innovation

Journalists like to report on organizations or groups which are doing something new. If your community is tackling an old problem in a unique way, then it may be interesting for a journalist to report on the story. Unexpected One possible channel of going coverage in newspapers is to do something unexpected. What do most people do or think about an issue? Can the community do this differently? This can be deliberately undertaken. It is also useful to refer back to the audience analysis to see how most people see or feel about and issue, and approach this issue from the opposite side. Trends Journalists are keen to cover new or latest trends in their sector. A community may undertake regular surveys of its members and send the results to journalists to cover. Many of todays news stories are derived from surveys undertaken by organizations and their PR companies. The community may also use anecdotal evidence to identify current or rising trends and report them in a statement to journalists. Issue press statements Most journalists, especially those at magazines, write to a content calendar which ties in with topical news and events in their industry (Christmas/Easter/Summer/Elections/Sporting events are always big). If the community can offer news or activities which ties in with such events they are significantly more likely to gain positive coverage. One popular approach is to write and publish the community spin on a topical event. If a government announces huge cuts in public spending, a community might host a discussion or issue a statement saying how it is likely to affect their members. This also positions the community as the authoritative source on its topic. While it is generally bad practice to issue press releases at the launch of the community, it may be good practice to publish press releases when the community undertaken something unique, reaches a milestone or begins a new cause/campaign. Most communities shy away from writing press releases, yet it is a relatively simple task to create a press release and send it to journalists. Relevant milestones might include members reached, money raised, activities held etc Create awards Many organizations create awards to gain attention from relevant trade media. A community may also embrace this approach. A community might create its own award or award ceremony (dependent upon the size of the community) to give to a popular figure either within the community or outside of the community. The award may go to a journalist, a campaigning figure, a key individual within the organization etcIt would ideally be named after the community itself: The {CommunityName} Award for {Reason}.

Case Studies It is common in public relations not just to issue press releases detailing what has or will happen, but to issue case studies talking about how individuals are using the product or service. This often requires a considerable level of skill, as flagrant promotion will be frowned upon and dismissed by the recipient. Therefore, the story itself is usually the focus of the case study with the mention or use of the product woven into the story. Such a strategy can also be found in mentions of online communities in a variety of publications. Sometimes, a publication will tell the story of two community members who met online and later got married. It might mention community members who worked together on something important in the sector or a controversial discussion between members that highlighted an issue or a former member who has gone on to great things. These case studies can be very useful to journalists looking for material. Guest columns Many of the smaller publications struggle to fill column inch space and are looking for cost-effective support. It is possible to pitch the community as a source of monthly columns. This might be top members contributing the article or a rotating author from the community. The author must have a unique angle or story which will be of interest to the publication. It should fit one of the categories we have just discussed. Press pack Finally, it is useful to include a press package in the community for journalists who wish to write about the community. This press package should include contact details, the history of the community, topical/prominent news stories and fascinating facts/figures about the community. Events/Activities This topic will be covered in greater depth in the following lessons, as such it will not be extensively reviewed here. Advertising Advertising is an ineffective channel to grow a community. Advertising is usually too expensive and attracts a low quality of traffic. It should not be used for developing online communities. Competitions, Challenges and Incentives It is common for organizations to use competitions, challenges and incentives to grow the community. This typically involves offering rewards for people to join the community or for existing members to recruit other people to join. A competition might offer a prize to people that joined the community within a set period of time or contributed something to the community during the period

of the competition. Competitions are a bad strategy to grow a community. They attract individuals to join the community for a tangible benefit which will not convert newcomers into regular members. These members are unlikely to return and visit the community for a second time. A challenge may be for existing members to refer their friends to join the community. Whomever manages to persuade the most people to join the community may receive a prize or recognition at some level. Again, this goal of achieving mass is to the detriment of quality. Those whom are brought into the group through this channel are unlikely to participate and become regular members. A common example would be to publish a free report or guide to the topic which people can download if they sign up to join the community. This is a mistake. This approach will attract a large number of registrations but very few participants to the community. Sustainable growth. Events/Activities. Purpose/Mission. Sense of community elements. Soliciting volunteers/user contributions.

Part 6) The Mitosis Stage

i

Splitting the community

Koh, J. and Kim, D. (2004) Knowledge sharing in virtual communities: an eBusiness perspective, Expert Systems and Application, Vo. 26. Pp. 155 166. Lichtenburg (2006) Risk free social network marketing, available at: http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/11329.asp
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