Connie Bensen

Every Community Manager knows how much effort it takes to grow a young Community and encourage engagement in an established one. Most Communities also include social outposts on channels such as Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and possibly LinkedIn depending where customers are at. Participating in and growing this multi-channel presence is more than a full time job. The irony is that we all know that Community building takes at least three to six months before one can start to realize business objectives. We are all in agreement that Community is not a campaign that can be accomplished in a quarter.

How many of you wish that you could have more headcount to grow your social presence? Have you recently mentioned you wish that you could clone yourself?

A couple of months ago I faced this exact dilemma. My community strategy included a long list of ideas, but I did not have the luxury of a dedicated team to get it all done.  This is the challenge that I was struggling with before the holidays. I launched the Social Business Community less than five months ago and I wanted to fast track my vision.

One day it dawned on me that I had the perfect test grounds for an experiment! And the solution became clear. The concept of advocacy programs in customer facing communities is not a new concept. One of my first projects at Dell was to implement the Rockstar program and re-engage the loyal brand advocates in the forums. But what if one created a similar program for staff members?

I am presently training in five Dell team members. They come from various business units and have their own reasons for wanting to volunteer in the @DellSocialBiz Community. Two are from HR, one is from Sales, another is business analyst and the fifth works in social media every day. It’s an exciting next step for the community, for the volunteers and for me to evolve a different framework for advocacy.

They will be using our enterprise tools to grow the social channels, contributing ideas to our editorial board, and assisting with community related tasks and helping organize virtual events. I am segmenting the responsibilities so that each has a focus (and doesn’t get overwhelmed).

You may ask, ‘Why would anyone want to add extra work to their day job?’ What’s in it for them?

I have offered that they will receive the following:

• mentorship to learn social best practices that will augment their career growth and future
• ability to grow their personal presence by representing Dell in the Community and on social channels
• an understanding of the behind the scenes for content marketing, content calendering, SEO best practices, reporting, inbound marketing, etc

I am excited to start this journey with them! Their energy is contagious and I appreciate their willingness to go the extra mile.

Many people are interested in learning to use social for their roles. Have you considered recruiting staff at your company to help with your Community and social channels? What challenges would you have in doing this at your company?

Photograph credit: Woo-Suk Hwang

It seems ages ago now, but in January 2007 my sister & I created a simple community consisting of forums, a blog & a file cabinet. That experience has evolved into a study of social networking, brand building and community building.

Here’s a summary of the basic premises every community manager should keep in mind. And companies that are creating communities should also realize their importance.

• How can you ensure that your community will be successful?
• Identify a need and provide resources to fulfill it.
• Build a community around that concept.
• There needs to be a lifestyle affinit
• How do you make others aware of the community?
• partner with related sites
• provide meaningful information
• How do you identify those that need your product/service?
• by listening to online conversations & utilizing tools
• I’ve been using Google alerts since Oct 06 & acting on them
• My day job is with Techrigy SM2 and we have a free version
• Monitoring social networks as well as web analytics is imperative
• Why will people return?
• to learn more about the product
• to get their questions answered & discuss niche related items
• How do you get people to link to your site?
• it’s human nature to want to help each other, so they do it to be helpful
• if you have resources that others find helpful then they will link others
• How do you build interest around new product releases?
• know your customer segment(s)
• what interests them? what types of activities do they thrive on?
• we held events such as chats (our ladies loved real time chats), offered prizes, celebrated niche specific events

And probably the most important realization that I had:

• Why will people want to buy at your site?
• if people find value in the information and resources they will want to support you
• time is of great value to many & if your site demonstrates extensive knowledge then people will want to purchase the product or resources

In the community that my sister & I created at DigiScrapInfo.com we started with no expectation of a business model. We later added the affiliate program because our community appreciated the resources so much that they asked how they could support us. People sincerely wanted to make sure that we were compensated if they  purchased.

My blog and site are another example. After less than one year people were offering me work opportunities. When I started this blog I never had any intentions of monetizing it, but it happened in a subtle way. Even though I have a full time job now people still assume that I do contracting work. With the recession I can connect those seeking positions with employers who read my blog. The job sourcing and mentorship is free as time permits because that’s how I can give back to my community.

My focus is on helping you create opportunities for yourself no matter the size of your community whether it be a blog, forums, small business, or a company.

If you are a company that is creating a community you should have a business case. But it will be much more successful if the focus is on providing information and resources first and realize that sales will be a natural progression. That will be a subsequent benefit after realizing many other benefits such as positive WOM, increased brand visibility online, etc first. It’s about establishing a presence based on giving back resources for what your community needs and establishing a relationship with them.

What have I missed?

I enjoy receiving questions from people. These questions are going to become common as community becomes an integral part of marketing plans.

I have a startup making a product. We’re selling them online. We have:

• a website
• a blog
• forums

The problem is that not many come to the forums. And if they do, they don’t register or participate much.
Instead of trying to have our own forums, should we just join our customers where they are? But then I won’t be able to customize or monetize the forums.

Whether you have a blog and/or forums, it’s all the same. You need to build community around YOUR community. That’s how I started my online community work.

Here are the steps for getting things going:

1.  Provide a central gathering place.

• It can be as simple as a blog all the way to fully featured forums (or both).
• Add resources and information that provides value to your product & related topics.
• Then jazz it up with interactive events of interest to your customer segment.

2.  Set up web analytics at your site.

• Plug in Google Analytics
• Claim your blog on Technorati
• Set up Feedburner (although Google seems to really have broken this)

3. Start listening to find where your customers & potential customers are at

• Set up Google Alerts
• Monitor Twitter – Tweetdeck nicely sorts groups into columns
• Set up a Social Media Firehose (put it in a dashboard like Netvibes.com)
• Use an integrated tool like Techrigy SM2 (& yes I work for them)

4. Monitor and start noting trends

• Check your monitoring  on a daily basis if you’re serious about this.
• As you get things going, check your web analytics on a weekly basis (which may shift to more often as it becomes addictive).
• Identify where your potential customers are hanging out at. It’s not practical to join every social networking site. So be selective.

5. Participate

• Join specific social networks and get involved. Provide value & resources. It’s not about you or your product. It’s about developing relationships. Meet people as people.
• Comment on blogs that are identified by your listening system. Join the conversation.
• Contribute to the conversation at large by blogging about industry related topics on your blog.
• Respond to those that are looking for your type of product. How will you know? if you’re listening for industry related topics then they will surface.

6. Build Brand

• Be consistent & be everywhere. Listening will enable you to efficiently do that.
• Provide a unique point of view that is memorable.
• Find a way to be repetitive. Is it your logo, your photo, your username, etc Make it easy for people to remember you.
• Establish yourself as a voice in your niche. Get to know others with common interests.

And if this sounds like work, it is. There’s no question about that. It takes time & energy. But remember that you’re creating relationships and something much bigger than just selling items. You’re creating a brand. If you pay it forward & provide value to those you interact with, then they will support you. In two to three months you’ll look back & see your progress.

What questions do you have? Which parts should I expand on? What has worked for you?

Today one of my ongoing searches on community brought Chris Pirillo’s Geek Community Building project to my attention. I think we need to take notice. And you’ll probably enjoy yourself at the same time!

What makes his new community so outstanding? He started it four days ago & has over 2800 members. And he is inviting people to come, join & create groups within his community. Although as you browse the following links, you’ll realize that created new issues.   One thing I noted & really appreciate is that Chris likes good grammar & spelling.

He has some great ideas here. The videos have more information in addition to the text. (I really appreciate having both, because I don’t watch videos much.)

• How to Build an Internet Community

• What Information Should You Put in a Social Profile?
• What’s the Best Way to Write a Forum or Blog Post?
• How Can You be an Awesome Commenter?
• Do You Need Community Group Leader Tips?
• User Generated Contentedness

And join the community if you want to watch it grow. I’m hoping to interview Chris & find out more about this project. But in the meantime I just joined it to experience it.

Finally, voyeurism has went to a whole new level! Chris has live video streaming from his home office space 24/7. Twitter makes it easy to keep up with where people are at & where they’re going, but I’m not sure that I would be comfortable with a video going all the time. I’ve had it open tonite while I browsed the links above & Chris stopped in to check on something. Someone was with him & they talked about the location of a monitor. Very trippy, but I suppose if you get used to it…