Kickstarting Online Communities: Con Edison Case Study

PROPRIETARY & CONFIDENTIAL

Kick Starting Online Communities: Best Practices to Engage Audiences Through the Power of Community Case Study: Con Edison

May 22, 2013

Sandra Fathi President, Affect [email protected] @sandrafathi

WOMM-U, Chicago


OVERVIEW KICK STARTING COMMUNITIES

1.  Is a Community Right for You? 2.  Choosing Your Technology 3.  Planning & Launch 4.  Driving Membership & Participation 5.  Maintaining & Measuring Engagement 6.  Case Study: Con Edison’s Power of Giving Online Community


•  Is your target audience active online? (e.g. social networks, forums, blogs etc.)

•  Is your brand active online? Do your followers regularly engage with you?

•  Do you have a steady stream of unique content to communicate?

•  Does your brand have customer/employee advocates that are eager to engage?

•  Do you have the internal resources to manage a community on a daily basis?

IS IT RIGHT FOR YOUR BRAND? KICK STARTING COMMUNITIES


Before deciding to launch a new community, remember to : •  Look Before You Leap •  Define Goals & Objectives / Desired Business Impact •  Experiment With Engagement Through Social •  Assign Internal Resources •  Understand Your Technology Options •  Think About the Future (Long-term vs. short-term impact)

IS IT RIGHT FOR YOUR BRAND? KICK STARTING COMMUNITIES


CHOOSING YOUR TECHNOLOGY

KICK STARTING COMMUNITIES

1.  Build It

2.  Buy It

3.  Rent It

4.  Hybrid

1.  Analytics

2.  Cost

3.  Time-to-Market

4.  Resources

5.  CRM

Tech Options Requirements


EXAMPLE: NING vs. LITHIUM


1.  Simple Customization

2.  No CRM Integration

3.  Fast and Easy Launch

4.  Standard UI

5.  Lower Cost/No Cost

1.  High-Level of Customization

2.  Integration w/ Salesforce

3.  Time Consuming Build

4.  Customizable UI

5.  Higher Cost (based on requirements)

Ning Lithium


EXAMPLE: NING KICK STARTING COMMUNITIES


EXAMPLE: LITHIUM KICK STARTING COMMUNITIES


If you build it, will they come?

PLANNING & LAUNCH KICK STARTING COMMUNITIES


LAUNCH TOOLKIT KICK STARTING COMMUNITIES

1.  Community Usage Policy 2.  Administrator Workflow Plan 3.  Content Strategy 4.  Community Response Map/FAQ 5.  Technical Recommendations 6.  Internal/External Communications Launch Program


•  Utilize a well-designed, easy-to-use interface •  Create a content plan/editorial calendar •  Identify and train internal community admins •  Identify and train customers, partners, influencers

(exclusivity sells) •  Schedule launch promotion – hit users on their preferred

channels (e.g. social media, traditional marketing, PR) •  Pre-populate the community with content •  Determine KPI’s to measure success

PRE-LAUNCH TIPS KICK STARTING COMMUNITIES


Once you’ve built it, how do you keep them coming back?

DRIVING MEMBERSHIP & PARTICIPATION



DRIVING MEMBERSHIP & PARTICIPATION



•  6 Month Promotion Plan that includes: •  Weekly communication with current users •  Monthly promotion to non-users •  Ambassador activation strategy •  Employee engagement strategy •  Offline promotion strategy (e.g. marketing collateral) •  Content refresh schedule •  Weekly measurement/KPI’s

ENGAGEMENT TOOLKIT KICK STARTING COMMUNITIES


•  Be consistent and creative with promotion efforts, don’t give up!

•  Promote new community content externally to drive traffic

•  Ask ambassadors to share expertise on topics of their choice, use incentives/contests to drive participation

•  Include a call-to-action in posted content to drive conversation and engagement

•  Hold back on over-promoting your brand and services – focus on third-party content (e.g. articles, infographics and statistics) – use the 80/20 rule

MEMBERSHIP & PARTICIPATION TIPS



You built it, they came. But did it impact your business?

MAINTAINING & MEASURING ENGAGEMENT



MAINTENANCE & MEASUREMENT TOOLKIT


1.  Community Engagement KPIs 2.  Technical Tripwires 3.  Formalized Measurement Template 4.  Expansion Strategy (to be implemented aer 6 months) 5.  Communicate Success to Leadership 6.  Big Ideas to Maintain Engagement


•  Keep the community fresh by incorporating multimedia (e.g. videos, photos, executive insights)

•  Consistently identify new prospects to join the community, ask current members to recruit their network

•  Promote the community across all marketing channels, online and offline (e.g. tradeshows/events, social media)

•  Track qualitative and quantitative metrics on a monthly basis to see community growth and value. Examine business impact (e.g. web traffic + quality of conversion)

MAINTENANCE & MEASUREMENT



SAMPLE METRICS KICK STARTING COMMUNITIES

1.  # of New Visitors

2.  # of Returning Visitors

3.  # of Registered Users

4.  % of Active Members

5.  # of Engagements

6.  # of Member Posts

7.  # Leads Generated

1.  Content Popularity

2.  Language & Tone

3.  Sense of Community

4.  Quality of Engagement

5.  Relevancy of Content

6.  Speed of Replies

7.  Influencers/Ambassadors

Quantitative Qualitative


Case Study: Con Edison Power of Giving Online Community


Con Edison operates one of the most complex electrical power systems in the world, serving New York City and

Westchester County. •  3.3 million customers

•  Population of over 9 million people •  660 square mile service territory •  Hundreds of strategic partners

POWER OF GIVING ONLINE COMMUNITY

CASE STUDY: CON EDISON


Con Edison’s Power of Giving Program provides financial or in-kind support to hundreds of organizations whose activities

advance strong, vibrant and stable communities.

The program extends beyond cash grants and is enhanced by a strong and loyal corps of employees, a robust board

participation program, partnerships and collaborations and an education matching gi program.




STRATEGIC PARTNERS CASE STUDY: CON EDISON


•  Enhance non-profit partners’ access to Con Edison and strengthen communication

•  Build and improve partner support and satisfaction •  Strengthen connections and communication between Con

Edison partners, empower them to share resources to promote collaboration

•  Reputation management during times of crisis (e.g. natural disaster, power outages etc.)

POG ONLINE COMMUNITY GOALS & OBJECTIVES



•  30-day launch •  Simple customization •  Easy-to-use technology, must support Google Analytics •  Ability to manage community with 1-2 team members •  Ability to access community from mobile devices •  Ability to send communications directly to members •  Forums/discussion boards for users •  Ability to upgrade UI/customization as community grows

POG ONLINE COMMUNITY REQUIREMENTS



•  Customized email invitation to ‘Insiders’ (invited first) •  Customized email invitation to partners by area of interest

(e.g. arts & culture, education etc.) •  Insiders invited to contribute content and receive

administrative permissions •  Official launch at Power of Giving forum event (partners

invited to sign-up onsite) •  Weekly email communication to users from Con Edison

highlighting new posted content •  Con Edison Program Managers trained to invite partner

contacts

POG ONLINE COMMUNITY LAUNCH STRATEGY



550 Members

1 Year Post-Launch New Members Every

Week

145 Blog Posts Posted by Users

300+ photos and

videos

8-10 Average Minutes On

Site




POG ONLINE COMMUNITY BLOG



POG ONLINE COMMUNITY EVENT BOARD


The events board is used weekly by members to

promote events that are happening within their

organizations.


•  Social Impact Measurement Group: 34 active members •  PR & Media Relations Best Practices Group: 32 active members •  Arts & Culture Group: 28 active members •  Social Media Bootcamp: 22 active members

POG ONLINE COMMUNITY GROUPS



POG ONLINE COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT SNAPSHOT


Members ask Con Edison for input and

feedback on hot topics.


REPUTATION MANAGEMENT CASE STUDY: CON EDISON

Hurricane Sandy updates received over 250 views by members


WOMM-U Kick Starting Online Communities: Best Practices to Engage Audiences Through the Power of Community

May 22, 2013

Sandra Fathi President, Affect [email protected] @sandrafathi

Kickstarting Online Communities: Con Edison Case Study

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