Building CommunitiesTechniques, Technologies & Best Practices

Connie BensenOnline Marketing Summit

June 8, 2011

Introduction

• Educator• Creative Marketer• Change Agent

• Definitions– Community– Social Business

• Challenges– Culture shift– Industry Dependencies

• Executive Buy-inExecutive SupportBudget

Every Company Needs a Digital Footprint

Get to know your People1. Listen

Choose Listening Tools

• Basic– Google Alerts– Twitter – Hootsuite, Seismic, Tweetdeck

• Premium– Trackur– Alterian SM2– Radian6– Sysomos– Visible Technologies

What to listen for

• Brand Name• Products• Key Executives• Competitors

If no conversations…• Industry terms

* Identify patterns & trends

Get to Know Them

Identify where consumers are at• Which social networks • The influencers (beyond top tier)• Topics of interest & context

* Create consumer profiles and understand what motivates them

Online Preferences• Time of day• Social Networks• Formats – chat, video, forums, games, etc

Planning

Create a Strategy & Metrics2. Planning

Plan Based on Objective(s) Choose One that Meets Your Business Goals• % Reduced spend on PR, Marketing & Advertising• % Increase in Sales• % Reduction in Customer Service Costs • % Reduction Product Development Costs • % Increased SEO Presence• % Increase in Leads from Campaign• % Increase in Brand Visibility

* Note: the objectives drive the metrics which need to be measureable.

Platforms

• Build• Hosted• Social network (Facebook, Ning, LinkedIn)

Items to consider:Do you own your data?Is the platform scalable?How difficult will it be to migrate it?

Content is King & SEO is Queen3. Digital Marketing

Company-centric (old) Buyer-centric (new)

Search & find info, links

Visit website

Download a resource

Request a call

Describe a project

Give spec’s & budget

Request a proposal

Participate in a demo

Identify buyer

Send an Email

Call prospect

Assess the need

Determine budget

Submit proposal

Give a demo

Outbound Inbound

Social Media has radically changed Marketing

One Event/Piece of Content Assets in Many Formats

• Repurpose content – Make it conversational– Create for variety of formats

• Data sheets• Sales guides• Previous campaigns

– Whitepapers– Webinars

• Place in existing social channels• Map content & create a content Library

Encourage User Generated Content

Build Word of Mouth

• Use Shareable sites• Encourage sharing of content in emails• Send newsletters with links

Build an Inbound Strategy

• Share Your Story– Create Interesting Content – Add Value & Provide Resources

• Syndicate your content – help it grow legs– Widgets (Slideshare.net)– LinkedIn, Facebook– SocialMediaToday.com, MyVenturePad.com

* Set information free

Create a Party4. Engagement

Kicking it off

• Seed the community • Provide guidelines that suit the community• Start with a simple profile• Add additional fields over time• Set expectations

Connect with them early on • Evangelists • Advocates• Influencers

Advocates

• Reward them • Give them more privileges• Encourage them to moderate• Provide a private place for discussions

* Identify what motivates them

Dealing with Trolls

Measuring Success4. Reporting

Measure what meets the Objective

• % Reduced spend on PR, Marketing & Advertising• % Increase in Brand Visibility

– Amount of increased conversation• % Increase in Sales

– Overlay sales performance on volume of conversation• % Reduction in Customer Service Costs

– Number of uses of online content– Number of issues resolved online by peers– Increased customer satisfaction - qualitative

• % Reduction Product Development Costs – Number of ideas gathered/implemented– Compare previous cycle cost to present– Reduced cost due to beta

• % Increased SEO Presence– Google your brand/product!

• % Increase in Leads from Campaign

Calculating ROI

1. Decide on the objective (it needs to be measurable).

2. What is the % increase or decrease change in behavior that is wanted. (Need to know the value of increment)

3. Measure the baseline.

4. After a given period (or campaign time) take the measurement

5. Calculate the ROI based on the cost

* Remember! It’s about building relationships.

Possible quantitative data

• Number of active members• Percent with complete profile• Number of new members• Number of new threads started• Number of mentions• Number of comments• Number of views (YouTube, Slideshare, Flickr)• Number of embeds • Number of downloads• Number of followers (*careful!)• Rank (Google, Twitter, Technorati, Klout, etc)

Possible qualitative data

• Sentiment and/or tone• Quote from advocate• Issues (frequency)• Topics frequently discussed• Recommendations (velocity)• Brand differentiators

Monthly Reporting

• Report on Objectives– Established from goals of the position

• Qualitative– Trends in members, topics, discovery of new communities

• Quantitative– Benchmark based on previous report

• Web Analytics – unless someone else is tracking them

• Recommendations – Based on interactions with customers

Growing Your Community

• Provide thought leadership• Comment on related posts• Guest blog• Participate in related communities• Organize industry related events online &

offline

• Fail Fast• Learn from Mistakes• Build on What Worked • Grow the Engagement• Get More Teams Involved• Train Willing Teams

TEAM EXERCISE

Connie BensenCommunity Strategist

ConnieBensen@gmail.com@cbensen

www.communitystrategist.comwww.slideshare.net/conniebensen