Growing Successful Online Communities

Growing Successful

Online Communities

Angela Connor, SVP; Group Director - Media

April 4, 2014

CauseCamp

#CapstratSocial

© 2014 Capstrat LLC. All Rights Reserved.

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B2C

B2B

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Clients

Angela Connor @communitygirl #capstratsocial


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I pledge to be:

• Candid

• Insightful

• Passionate

• Helpful

• Funny

• Enlightening

AngelaConnor.com [email protected]


What to Expect

mailto:[email protected]


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What I’ll Share Today


AGENDA TOPIC TIME

If you build it will they come? 10 minutes

Community: More than Facebook and Twitter 10 minutes

Guiding principles for brands today 10 minutes

Leveraging events to grow community 15 minutes

Discussion/Q&A 15 minutes


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…manage a FB brand page.

…manage a LinkedIn or Twitter account.

…manage a niche online community.

…have a content strategy.

…create milestones and measure

your success.

…have identified your target audience.

…consider yourself a community manager.

Raise your hand if you…



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Why Communities Fail If you build it, will they come?


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Every community is different



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And so is every platform


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So don’t take a cookie-cutter approach


© 2014 Capstrat, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

WHY COMMUNITIES FAIL



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Communities fail because…

Companies take them for granted

Limited resources

No community manager

No clear objective or reason for existing

No long-term strategy or metrics

Shiny object syndrome



THERE’S MORE THAN

FACEBOOK AND TWITTER



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New communities still make headlines



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New Communities – More than Facebook and Twitter



GUIDING PRINCIPLES



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Guiding Principles

Focus on the members. It is a must that you have content that

draws people in and keeps them coming back. User-experience

is a key component.



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Guiding Principles



is a key component.

Provide value. Give participants information they can’t find

elsewhere. Educate them. Help solve their problems. Provide

insight on topics they care about.



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Guiding Principles



is a key component.

Provide value. Give participants information they can’t find

elsewhere. Educate them. Help solve their problems. Provide

insight on topics they care about.

Listen and respond. Be present. Find out what they like and

don’t like and do something about it. Be open. Ask for opinions

and feedback. Respect your members.



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Guiding Principles

Repurpose and remix. Existing content can be used and

reused. It will always be new to someone. Showcase user-

generated content. The well is never dry when you find ways to

breathe new life into archives and take a different approach.



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Guiding Principles





Make it easy for everyone. Membership is the goal but lurkers

matter. It could take months for a participant to actually join a

community. Provide some content that doesn’t require

membership and encourages conversion.



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Guiding Principles





Make it easy for everyone. Membership is the goal but lurkers

matter. It could take months for a participant to actually join a

community. Provide some content that doesn’t require

membership and encourages conversion.

Know what you want and why you’re there. If you don’t know

what you’d like from the community, the community won’t know

either, and you’ll never get it.



LEVERAGING EVENTS TO

GROW COMMUNITY



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Case Study: Carolina Biological Supply

Company



24 Angela Connor @communitygirl #capstratsocial


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Goal Key Metric Key Target 8-Week

Average

Final Status

Drive

engagement

on Twitter

Twitter favorites,

retweets and

mentions

Increase

followers on

Twitter

New Twitter

followers

Expand reach

on Facebook

to connect with

teachers

unable to

attend the

conference

New Fans

Facebook Post

Reach

Leveraging events to grow community



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Average

Final Status

Drive

engagement

on Twitter

Twitter favorites,

retweets and

mentions

65 favorites,

retweets and

mentions from

April 10-15

Increase

followers on

Twitter

New Twitter

followers

60 new followers

from March 29 to

April 22

Expand reach

on Facebook

to connect with

teachers

unable to

attend the

conference

New Fans 175 new fans

from April 4-15

Facebook Post

Reach

Average of 1,750

reached for all

posts.




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Average

Final Status

Drive

engagement

on Twitter

Twitter favorites,

retweets and

mentions

65 favorites,

retweets and

mentions from

April 10-15

6 favorites,

retweets and

mentions

Increase

followers on

Twitter

New Twitter

followers

60 new followers

from March 29 to

April 22

10 new

followers

Expand reach

on Facebook

to connect with

teachers

unable to

attend the

conference


from April 4-15

71 new fans

Facebook Post

Reach

Average of 1,750

reached for all

posts.

1260 average

reach




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Average

Final Status

Drive

engagement

on Twitter

Twitter favorites,

retweets and

mentions

65 favorites,

retweets and

mentions from

April 10-15

6 favorites,

retweets and

mentions

52 favorites,

retweets and

mentions

Increase

followers on

Twitter

New Twitter

followers

60 new followers

from March 29 to

April 22

10 new

followers

60 new

followers

(baseline: 701)

Expand reach

on Facebook

to connect with

teachers

unable to

attend the

conference


from April 4-15

71 new fans 627 new fans

(baseline:

8050)

Facebook Post

Reach

Average of 1,750

reached for all

posts.

1260 average

reach

5503 average

reach




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Handling a community crisis in the making

Kristina Johnson took to

Facebook to share her

sister Kim Johnson

Smith’s breast cancer

story.

While researching the

case, Capstrat and the

client learned that her

sister was not a

BCBSNC customer.

Instead of focusing on

shedding the blame,

Capstrat helped our client

draft a final response that

was in compliance with

HIPAA regulations and

did not focus on the

inaccuracies or ask

Kristina Johnson to

remove the post .



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The father of a 12-year-old girl

launched a Facebook campaign

stating that Blue Cross had denied his

daughter’s treatment. In 48 hours,

there were more than 1,000 likes.

In three days, there were more than

4,000 tweets with the hashtag

#helpellen, with approximately 1.1

million impressions. Users took to

local news to spread the word.

Capstrat worked with our client to

identify the inaccuracies in the story

on social media and on news outlets.

We developed messages to address

inaccuracies and worked with the

entire company to expedite the claim

and resolve it quickly.

Handling a community crisis in the making



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The Community Manager’s Oath

I own this community.

It is my job to make it a living, breathing,

interesting and active community.

I will not be lazy.

I will appreciate my community’s uniqueness

and seek to connect and engage.

I will try and test new tactics. I will seek

input from the community and act on it when

possible.

If I find myself indifferent or disinterested

in the growth and success of the community,

I will pass the baton and move on.



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Thank you!

Angela Connor

Senior Vice President;Group Director

[email protected]

919-573-6307

AngelaConnor.com

LinkedIn.com/angelaconnor


mailto:[email protected]


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Free Twitter Analysis and Audit For Two

Send Angela an email with

a few sentences describing

your pain points or goals for

Twitter. Include your Twitter

handle.

You will be eligible for

a Twitter analysis and top line

recommendations for

enhancing your presence and

connecting with your target

audience.

Recommendations will

include:

-Overview

-Reach

-Engagement

-Top content

-Follower profile

-Word clouds

-Best time to tweet

-Findings &

recommendations

[email protected]


Growing Successful Online Communities

Marketing

Transcript of Growing Successful Online Communities