as an experienced conference organiser, i’d like to think that i’m in a good position to tell whether an event was good or not… and dConstruct rocked! i always love tech events, who wouldn’t… you’re amongst your own and able to geek out til your heart’s content. therefore the social aspect is never under question… there’s going to be free beer and you’re going to be a little merry.

dConstruct had plenty of social, with the pre-party dinner at Gourmet Burger Kitchen, the pre-event party hosted by Chi.mp at Po Na Na and the post-party at Above Audio. all round awesomeness. one of the highlights for me was talking the hind legs off a donkey to the Chi.mp guys, Tony Haile and Rob Farrow… both really inspirational. if you haven’t already checked out Chi.mp, it’s well worth a look – one personal domain from which you can manage all of your online life.

but this event was different – i learned something from every single presentation that i’m planning to implement to my current project, 4mations.

my favourite presentations would have to be those of Joshua Porter and my good friend Daniel Burka. Joshua went into some depth about heuristics and how features and even copy can have great influence over communities and users.

a prime example that Joshua focussed in on was framing something as a loss as opposed to a potential gain… for example in sign ups…. rather than:-

“sign up here to be kept up to date with the latest news and releases”

a simple text change to:-

“sign up here to avoid missing out on the lastest news and releases”

could have much more of an effect. it’s a simple strategy but it’s quite clear the influence that this should have. another aspect that Joshua looked at and Daniel picked up on was letting your users take ownership to encourage them to sign up and keep them coming back for more. the example that Joshua gave here was enabling users to do basic functions on a site before having to go through the full sign-up process.

Daniel picked up on this point and cited Geni as being a great example of how this can be done…

using Geni as an example, by the time that you’ve entered your first name, last name and email address, you’ve started your family tree! genius! you’re more likely at that stage to go through signup having already made some level of commitment to it.

ownership can also be created through the copy alone… Flickr do this incredibly well with the use of “my photos”, “my sets” etc and are fab with the informal tone that they use.

Daniel also talked about the importance of encouraging users at points when they’re likely to drop out – for example when waiting for a file to upload… by simply popping in some friendly text to help entertain them and let them know you empathise with them will break any tension points that may otherwise have occured.

another feature which Daniel discussed which i will be looking into some more at 4mations, is attaching recent behaviours to personal profiles to encourage positive behaviour. i thought that this was a really interesting points and takes it a step further than purely avoiding anonymity.

presentations and mp3s will be available on the dconstruct site and i would highly recommend checking them out – not only did i have a ball, meet some amazing people and hang out with friends, i learned a whole bunch too – making me one happy geekette!

i’d love to be able to list a ten step guide to building a successful community, the problem with that is that if you followed it step by step, you’d probably fail because it’s about taking each situation on it’s own individual merit and adapting your approach to suit each.

however, there are some key considerations that you should always remember…

DECIDE YOUR TARGET MARKET

trying to appeal to a mass market is always going to be a tough challenge and not one that many can succeed at. find your niche and stick to it. think LOLCATS – a specific phenomenon with a huge effect – heck my mum even emailed me in lol language the other day (that or she was in a rush and just not very good at spelling). have a clear idea before launching or re-branding of who it is that you want to use your product or service and why they would want to. have a friend that knows nothing about the web ask you all about it and if you can explain it clearly and with conviction, that’s always a good sign!

RESEARCH THE MARKET

find out where your target audience is communicating, what they’re talking about and the tools that they’re using. by listening and contributing to these conversations, you’re more likely to pick up on something that they feel is missing in the market which enables you to provide that niche product that everyone’s been waiting for.

you can’t build a site or service and just expect people to come to you – you have to be prepared to interact with the community members in a place that’s convenient for them. above all else, you have to be genuine about wanting to be in the chatter, contributing something of value and not just posting a link as a thread in a forum.

LOOK AT YOUR SITE

i know how ridiculous that sounds, but so many people build their site to please their desires rather than what their users actually want. build tools that encourage the behaviour that you want to see on your site – think instant messaging facilities, rating, sharing etc.

MONITOR FEEDBACK, MONITOR FEEDBACK, MONITOR FEEDBACK

whenever and wherever possible, open the floor up to your users – whether that’s through emails, feedback boxes, surveys or whatever, just make sure you’re doing it as much as you possibly can. getting the feedback is just the first part though, if you don’t do anything with that feedback, it’s a pointless exercise and you’re community won’t feel listened to.

if you can, incorporate the feedback at each release that you can. if there’s a reason that you don’t want to include some feedback or can’t, don’t be afraid to say that – whether that’s to the individual or on your blog. people will understand if they know that they’ve recognised their feedback.

if people give you feedback, they’re buying into your product/service – they want you to succeed and in return they’ll become your best advocates with a much further reach than you could ever hope for on your own.

THE FUTURE’S BRIGHT

of course, there’s a lot more to it… and it is time consuming but the rewards can be huge – i’m not talking financially, but bringing people together and watching them interact – what can be more satisfying than that? if you don’t have time to do this stuff, then at the very least pay someone to do it. the effects can be just as great as that of a really good pr firm but the loyalty will be much greater and longer lasting. communities rock!

background

okay, so for those of you who haven’t been, sxsw is an awesome festival that takes place each march in Austin, celebrating interactive, music and film (not necessarily in that order, but we all know i’m a geek!). it’s by far one of the most fun events that i’ve ever been to and i’ve made some amazing friends and had some amazing hangovers as a result.

a change

now don’t get me wrong. i don’t have a drink problem, i don’t go to sxsw just for the parties. i do actually attend the presentations and boy, there have been some amazing ones – from the Zuckerberg keynote to the lifetime of secrets with Frank Warren where i actually cried (not many people know that, i blamed it on hayfever, sorry if you’re one of those that i fibbed to).

now, i’ve got the partying off pat…. i can do it rather well… i no longer fall asleep on people or lean on poor Ryan King to hold me up. i know to take plenty of paracetamol and water ready for the next morning and it always helps to have you outfit pre-picked so that you can sling yourself from the shower straight into your clothes and off you go. you see, i’m a bit of a pro.

this year though, i thought how much i’d love to not be able to drink one night and be “one of those” that have to be sensible because they have a panel the next day. so i set about submitting my panel ideas and they have been accepted for the panelpicker. excitement doesn’t describe the emotion when i found out and my smile was stuck for a good day and a half (i think people thought i had wind).

the panels

i know that i’ve already pimped it out and to be honest, short of flashiing my gnashers one more time, there’s not a lot more i can do with that. but, i did think that it would be good to give you some more background about the panels themselves (always helpful hey?).

walking the tech runway in stilettos

Lickle old me, Aubrey Sabala (digg), Tara Hunt (Citizen Agency), Sally Strebel (Best Party Ever), Kirstie Wells

all about being a girl in a boy’s world. and succeeding. a fun and lighthearted discussion that prepares females for greater success by helping them get comfortable in their own shoes. 5 panelists share the lessons learned on their journey toward success. plus i have some amazing stilettos lined up to wear if this gets through!!!

clear your ears for instant success

Lickle old me, Aubrey Sabala (digg), Tara Hunt (Citizen Agency), Sally Strebel (Best Party Ever), Vero Pepperrell (That Canadian Girl)

it’s a well known fact that whilst you’re in a conversation with someone you’re often thinking about what you’re going to say next rather than listening. this can be the same for businesses too. this panel discusses the skills it takes to have effective communication with your users and the benefits that brings.

and…

i’ve also been honored to be asked to speak on a further 2 panels that have been submitted by the lovely sally strebel. 5 Common Misperceptions of Technological Creativity and Climbing the Corporate Ladder in a Mini Skirt. i’m really excited about these panels as they’re both something that i’m passionate about. you can find full details here.

so, if you’d like to see me with my sensible hat on (for the whole of an hour), oh heck who am i kidding – it will be me being me, joined by some truly amazing women, i’d really appreciate you taking a couple of minutes out of your day to support us.

now to work out how i’d actually get there if the panels are successful… maybe i’ll party a little harder and save on hotel costs?

btw

thanks so much for the support that you’ve shown so far. things like this and this below really make me glow inside (even more than buying great shoes!!!). thankyou.

community bricks

i’m currently working on the social strategy for a really fun project. it’s challenging and rewarding. it’s what i enjoy and it’s something that i’ve spent a lot of time developing. as such, i’ve gone through what i consider to be the basic steps of building a successful community:-

1. establishing who the community is that you serve
2. deciding what problem it is that you’re solving and how you plan to solve it
3. working out where your community are having their conversations and how they want to be communicated with
4. finding out what it is that interests the members of the communities, what it is that bonds them, what tools they use etc.
5. what it is about your service/product that is actually going to distinguish you and make them give a damn

the company thang

having done that and established the networks i believed our users have adopted, i created corporate accounts on a number of sites that people who were interesting in what we were doing could connect with us on. for me, the benefit to this was that they’d easily be able to identify the tone and character of the brand and creates something for the company that anyone can use, rather than just myself. that makes sense right?

well why is it then that i still find myself updating content on my own networks as well as the branded networks? you’re guaranteed if i post a link on twitter i’ll get more than ten times the response as if i were to post it on the corporate twitter account. fact.

reputation

the change in our culture of late has meant that people zone out when they’re being marketed to – they rarely listen to ads, hate sales people (especially those of the stripy suit variety) and can see through thinly veiled social media attempts from the old boys trying to be cool.

someone that i barely know can recommend something on twitter or save a link on magnolia and i’m way more likely to check it out than a company persuading me to do so.

do your job

Brian Oberkirch recently wrote a really interesting piece about consumers not wanting to be talked to all of the time and i couldn’t agree more. for me, the perfect combination is having a company that let’s me have a nose (without that annoying person on your back asking if they can help until you have enough and leave) but is still on hand if you get lost and need a little point in the right direction.

the perfect company is one that uses their products and services as much as you, knows it inside out and is part of the conversation because they truly have something interesting to contribute, not because they feel they need to be seen to still be in the loop.

the insider

if the truth be known i think that people want to know who’s behind the scenes, they want to interact with someone that they know or have heard of, they want to know you’ve got flaws as well as sheen (why do you think so many mags sell when there’s pics of celebrities with blemishes – people don’t like perfection).

i realise for corporations that brings with it issues. you can’t rely on your marketing coming from a few individuals, after all what happens when those people leave? i’ve thought about this issue long and hard and i’m still not sure that i know the answer to be honest. it is a risk, but it’s a risk that you need to take, at the beginning anyway. surely it’s better you have people doing a bloody good job and getting your product or service out there into the domain and cross the other bridges when you come to them – after all, the hope would be that the brand would be well recognised by the time that happened?

the solution that i’ve settled for is to use both personal and professional. i converse with community members using the corporate name, encouraging people to recognise that there’s a human voice behind it. however, those same community members are also more than welcome to talk to me using my personal accounts. on twitter for example, my followers know if they follow me, they’ll hear about good days, bad days and the days where my heel snapped on the way to work. if they follow the work twitter account, they’ll hear about website developments, legal issues and exciting launches.

it becomes a different issue again when you throw seeding companies into the mix… but i won’t even get into that here. maybe i’m a small town girl with small town ideas but i’m going to stick with my beliefs. my beliefs that if you’re genuine, you care and you want to make a difference, your community will build. have nothing to hide, don’t be afraid to wear your heart on your sleeve and willing to share (collaboration is much more fulfilling than the feeling of hiding your ideas to keep that competitive advantage!).

onwards and upwards

it’s really not an easy situation to tackle and i think you need to remain open and flexible with your approach. be okay with the fact that you’re learning and developing – you’re on a journey and given time, your community members will be coming along for the ride too. i’d be really interested to hear how others approach this issue…

i should set the preface that i’m just a normal girl, working in an industry that i love, doing a job that i’m passionate about. i have as much as the next person to learn, but hey i’ve got fire in my belly, so just roll with me on this one…

i spent this afternoon doing my favorite sunday pasttime, reading blogs. yes i know, i really should get out more, but to be frank, it was just damn cold today. anyway, back to my original point, i came across this site where it taught you in 7 convenient steps how to build a community:

Step 1: Develop a networking plan
Step 2: Select a networking “platform”
Step 3: Market to your users
Step 4: Training and technical support
Step 5: Set up and manage a public online information forum
Step 6: Use networks for collaboration and problem solving
Step 7: Creat the spirit of the community

this is the part where i go into a bit of a ramble, so you might want to make yourself comfortable. whilst it’s all good and well to advise on building communities in 7 lovely steps and they make sense, there’s SO much more to it than that.

i’m often asked which sites i choose to build communities – the answer to which is whatever sites your “people” use (for me personally i’d use every site i could – every pocket of community is important no matter the size). I could go ahead and list sites like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Digg etc, but in honesty, I believe that social strategies should be fluid and always changing.

let me put that statement in context for you. when the likes of Tara Hunt, Kathy Sierra and Gary Vaynerchuk do their fantastic work to show people that communities are the way forward for organisations, i agree. i agree that 2 years, 1 year or heck ever 6 months from now, we’ll see a ton more community manager roles out there and i sincerely believe that’s a positive shift.

but, here’s the thing – i don’t believe that companies or individuals should try and build communities because that’s the cool thing of the moment. do it because you care, because you want that interaction and because you’re genuinely passionate about what you do, the service that you provide or the products that you sell.

i expect that the last thing that you want to hear is me telling you that you can’t just hire anyone to fill that role, but it’s true. you can’t just hope to pay someone enough for them to become passionate about your brand. they have to be your biggest advocate – to love what you do and embrace each and every community member – no matter the size of your community.

when i started work at Carsonified, i was taken on as event manager because of my experience in that field. at that point if i’m honest, i would have made a terrible community manager (even though i had a background of marketing). i didn’t know that much about the web or online communities, but the MOST important factor of all is that i didn’t have the fire in my belly (there’s that fire again ).

within 6 months of doing the role, i had fallen truly and deeply in love with the industry and everyone within it and that’s when things finally clicked for me. i believe now, that i can build communities in any industry and i say that because i “genuinely” love bringing people together, empowering them to communicate and to create their identities. i’d like to think in return that people know that anything i associate myself with is genuine – i really care about what i do and i REALLY care about people.

you need to realise that you have to be able to “listen” as well as speak, there needs to be open dialogue and you won’t always get an ego stroke. the first thing that you should be doing is setting a google alert for your name or brand (including misspellings) and tweetscans. the reason that i say this is because it gives you a chance to reach out to people and put things right as soon as you hear they’ve not had the greatest experience – and trust me, that direct contact, showing that you care, will have a deeper and more meaningful connection than any “customer relations” you could do.

if people are interested, i can of course write a more detailed post about exact steps that i think are worth taking, but i leave you with my final thoughts. love what you do. do it from your heart. be open and transparent. collaborate. remember that every member is important. reach out to as many people as you can. care. be true to yourself.

ok, rant over, i’m off to have a nap – all this community stuff is exhausting. i’d love to hear your thoughts.

m

p.s it would of course be just wrong not to take this opportunity to thank everyone for taking 5 minutes out of their day to read my silly blog. i love you all. really

p.p.s there’s a spot prize for the first person to guess the amount of times i used “communities” in this post!