The Missing 8th Component of the Seven Components of Successful Community
The use of social media is becoming more mainstream, and many companies are just starting to use it to engage their customers, partners, and employees. As this is happening, it continues to amaze me how many companies rollout a social media initiative without the proper planning. (See my post: Proper Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance (The Six Ps).) Instead, they focus on what they (the company) wants to get out of the engagement, and the platform/tools. By doing so they bypass (among other things), strategy, initial and ongoing planning, resource allocation for community management, and measurement – and then wonder they why the return on their social media investment is mediocre at best.
This is precisely why the “Tools / Rollout” component is the seventh component of my Seven Components of Successful Community. While selection and use of the right tools is a critical component, tools themselves are not what makes a social media initiative successful. It takes a congruent strategy where all the initiative stakeholders are involved, planning for ALL components of the initiative (not just the tools), and continued nurturing of the program and community. I thought seven components covered it. My bad. Twenty lashes with a wet noodle are due.
Special imported lashing noodles, straight from Italy.
I can’t help but be even more pained when I see a company take the time to go through the time and effort to develop a strategy and plan… but without any social media expertise. By comparison, you wouldn’t hire an accountant to design your house – so why would you rely on an IT developer (albeit a great one) to design a new online community that needs to foster communication? You might end up with an online community without any of the social media tools. Yes, really.
I won’t name the company, but a recent visit to the new, re-launched “Community” pages of a well known and growing mid-size SaaS software company in Boston brought it home in spades. Beyond a developer network, this new online “community” is nothing more than an online library – there’s literally no conversation. The kicker is that they spent a considerable amount of time on strategy and planning! Granted they do have a wealth of great content available, but it’s not community. If you think it is, I challenge you to go to your local library, stand between two rows of books, and try to carry on a conversation with nobody else there. If you are able to, congratulations… we’ll send the nice men in the white coats with the rubber van. They’ll give you candy if you behave.
Not only did they not leverage social media expertise, but beyond the developer network, there is no social media functionality (TOOLS) in these “communities”. Instead they have a great library for each of their defined verticals, containing Thought Leadership (primarily white papers), Case Studies, Products and Services (product announcements), and News and Events (including webinars). No forums, no blogs, no inbound or outbound RSS feeds, no profiles, comments, no idea share or innovation collaboration,… nothing.
Because of the opportunity lost, sometimes misguided efforts are sometimes worse than no efforts at all. I’ll be posting about that in the near future. But for now, my message to companies just getting started in social networking: If you don’t have the expertise, GET IT. Otherwise, your prospective membership will see that you don’t.
And welcome to the group, Expertise. The other Seven Components of Successful Community have been waiting for you.
Thoughts? Comments?
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Why I Use LinkedIn Recommendations
Last Friday, Jeremiah Owyang published a blog titled Requested Recommendations on Social Networks: Why I Won’t Do It. I really enjoy Jeremiah’s blog because he elevates the conversation around social networking and generally provide thoughtful insight, but on this one I have to disagree with most of the points in his this post. So much so, that I’m deviating from my usual topics of social media planning and execution to write this post. Requested or not, LinkedIn recommendations do have value and they should be one of your points of reference about candidates.
Maybe I’m an idealist, just too pragmatic, or maybe I care too much about my reputation. Regardless of whether a recommendation is via LinkedIn or another source – requested or not – I won’t put anything in a recommendation that I don’t feel is the honest truth. Just as I won’t recommend a person for a job if I don’t think they are a qualified fit. I attempt to be objective, and not display a recommendation for me if I don’t think it is accurate. As with a marriage, I firmly believe that there can be no misrepresentation up front if the employment or consulting relationship is to be long and fruitful.
Why I like LinkedIn Recommendations:
- As one hiring manager I recently spoke with put it, they provide more rounded perspective on an individual because “…they add texture to the person that you can’t derive from the profile and resume.”.
- They give me a list of references to consider contacting when hiring an individual – beyond the three recommendations that may have been provided on the job application.
- Anecdotal information sometimes found in LinkedIn recommendation provide insights into the person that can be explored further.
- Provided there are multiple recommendations from the same time period, they may provide information that can be easily cross-referenced between recommenders who worked with the candidate during the same period. How many times have you found something out about a candidate in call to the second, third or fourth recommender only to wish you knew so you could have asked an earlier one? Some of these can be identified up front.
- References (positive and negative) from more organic locations like blogs and Twitter are all well and good for those of us in social media or who work in companies or industries who have heavily adopted social networking. But for those don’t, this is not an option. And I’d wager that of everybody using LinkedIn, there are more folks in this circumstance than not. For them, LinkedIn is the primary social networking location for this information. An example, what are the chances that a fourth year accountant at a small non-social media savvy manufacturing company has existing organic references on blogs and twitter? Probably slim to none.
Now I’m not naive, and know far well that there is some puffery out there. The objectivity of any recommendation should always be examined – not just LinkedIn recommendations. As Miriam Salpeter commented to Jeremiah’s post, “No one should make a decision based on one piece of evidence…” And as Russ Somers also commented, ”Even the Unabomber can come up with three people who will say positive things about them.” As with any reference check whether by phone, email or other means, the old adage, “ask, then verify” holds true. ”
I will continue to use the recommendation engine at LinkedIn, and I hope others will too. As for Jeremiahs’ decision not to, I could understand if it was an issue of volume (too many requests), but not because the methodology is flawed. Any method of recommendation has some shortcomings.
What do you think?
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Products Don’t Blog, People Do
During my post-layoff sabbatical I have researched companies for whom I might approach to discuss employment opportunities. In addition to other criteria, companies must have a strong set of products and/or services, are positioned within their industry for growth, have an executive team in place who “get it” in regard to their business and the use of social media, and are utilizing (or are planning to utilize) social media. These are not necessarily social media vendors, these are companies that may be in advertising, consulting, IT, SaaS (software as a service), or another vertical.
Regardless of the vertical, one of the things I look at is the company’s use of social media. Any company that is going to compete in this day and age must have a solid social media strategy / plan and the means to execute. I am amazed at how many companies are not using social media, or have initiated the use of some social media without understanding how to use it. (Yes, here goes Steve again with the “strategy and planning” lecture…). For social media related vendors, the use of social media to run their own organizations is critical. The old adage “eating one’s own dog food” is especially true in this regard.
Take something as simple as a blog. Simple, yet so many companies and individuals incorrectly use blogs. I have seen many definitions for blogs, and Dave Evans provides one version in his book Social Media Marketing, An Hour a Day, “A blog is basically a diary that others can comment on.” Whether you agree with Dave’s definition or not, the point is that blogs are not a means of one way communication - outbound publishing. A blog is meant to foster conversation.
OK, so the improper use of a blog might be expected from a company that isn’t into and may not fully understand how to leverage different aspects of social media. Although misguided, there are many blogs created by “products”.
However, what is really amazing is when companies known for providing platforms for their client’s social media initiatives are so terribly off target when it comes to leveraging social media to run their own business.
I won’t name one company I came across, but they were behind a couple of the most well known and successful uses of social media to engage their clients’ customers for product innovation. Campaigns that are constantly used as case studies for what can be accomplished with social media. Their management has even been featured in some trade publications. Even though their CIO properly uses his blog to share information, raise discussion points relevant to their business, and solicit comments, they have two other “blogs” which totally miss the mark. One is the “Tech Blog”, and one is the “Product Blog”. The Tech Blog is s primarily an FAQ more suitable to the support page. The “Product Blog” is nothing more than a series of product functionality press releases. I’m sorry, but products don’t blog, people do.
Repeat after me… “social media is not outbound publishing”, “social media is not outbound publishing”, “social media is not outbound publishing”. Well done. Blogs are written by a person or people - identifiable persons or people – who have something relevant to say and want to solicit conversation. Blogs are not just another means to push information out. And they are certainly not the right venue for product functionality release announcements. Those belong on the News/Press Releases page.
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Strategy and Planning for Online Community
Up to 50% of all online community initiatives fail. Social media strategy and planning services are the new black for companies with struggling communities. Organizations just starting to leverage social media want to know how to be successful. Everybody seems to be asking the question, “How do we increase the likelihood that our social media initiative will succeed.”
Before examining components of a successful community, let’s take a look at some sure fire ways to increase the chance of FAILURE…
- Use a tools-focused, ”If you build it, they will come“ approach. Online community is not Kevin Costner’s Field of Dreams.
Field of Dreams in Dyersville, Iowa.
Photo courtesy of Iowa Tourism Office.
- Assume that all you need is a place, and that the users will just show up and supply all the content
- Have no defined, documented strategy and plan for the initiative
- having a defined, documented strategy and plan, but limited plan or resources for ongoing execution of said strategy
- Failing to nurture the community on an ongoing basis
- Not listening to your membership
- Focusing only on quantitative ROI while discounting the customer franchise value and the value of the relationship
- Pushing product before establishing a trusted relationship (marketing initiatives)
So, what strategy and planning is needed?
Before implementing any online community or social media initiative, I strongly suggest that clients develop a comprehensive social media strategy to assure that their social media initiatives are accurately and realistically aligned with their company strategy and business objectives – basically a blueprint to success utilizing current social media tools with best of breed community practices.
What would a comprehensive social media strategy include?
Some will say there are five things to define, some will say there are eleven, but the consensus is that regardless of how organized, the appropriate planning highly increases the probabilty of success. When I was at Mzinga, I coined the term “Seven Components of Successful Community” to define what I believe are the key social media strategy components. I consider these essential to the successful launch and ongoing management of an online community:
1. Community Membership Acquisition & Retention Plan
Target membership and desired interaction, acquisition (marketing) and retention, member ROI, and competition (other communities, other calls for target membership attention).
2. Strategy – Business Objectives Definition
The defined vision of the social media initiative and alignment with corporate strategy, business and financial goals (ROI and measures) and objectives of the initiative. Identification of documentation, decision making, ownership, policies, roles and responsibilities as related to community initiative.
3. Ongoing Community Management Plan
The plan for ongoing day-to-day community health – the “care and feeding” of the community. Usually supports pro-active community management and growth via community engagement and development, and alignment of the community to meet the community strategy, goals & objectives.
4. Membership Communication Plan
Defines the methods and modes of communication to the membership for all phases of the community lifecycle. (May be included as part of the Community Membership Acquisition & Retention Plan, or Ongoing Community Management Plan.)
5. Moderation Plan
Defines level and type of moderation, such as proactive scan or reactive moderation, use of word filtering, acceptable practices, and policies (such as TOS, violation reporting, and use of UGC).
6. Content Plan / Programming Schedule
The plan for sourcing and use of content – new & existing, internal & external, expert & user generated, static & event based.
7. Tools / Rollout Plan
The software and infrastructure enabling the social media initiative, includes rollout (all-inclusive) and future plans.
For each of the components, prescriptive actions should be included as part of the strategy and planning.
Companies who take the time to create a comprehensive social media strategy covering the Seven Components for Successful Community – whether organized as I’ve defined above or in another manner – will see their probability of success increase dramatically. If not, they might sadly become candidates for a Community Resuscitation Strategy.
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Social Media Isn’t a Free-for-All
Recently, I was speaking with one of our healthcare prospects regarding how to use social media to engage patients, leading to greater familiarity with their services, with the end goal of driving more patients to their participating doctor partners. During the conversation, it was mentioned that because of HIPPA, liability, and compliance issues, they were concerned that they wouldn’t be able to leverage social media because it is a “free-for-all”.
Over the years companies in the more constrained or regulated industries – healthcare, banking, investment, legal, and defense – tend to have a similar mindset. What I find most interesting is the assumption among those not familiar with social media is that social media = MySpace. It does not, but it can. For its purpose, MySpace is what MySpace needs to be: a fairly free-form gathering place, without an abundance controls or moderation. It is not representative of what one might do, for example, when applying social media for the amplification of investment information content.
Some established communities are somewhat free-for-all. But by leveraging the controls inherent in the better social media platforms, companies can have very controlled, tightly managed communities. Not surprising, most of the latter fall into the “constrained or regulated industries” I mentioned above. The use of access plans, moderation (both tools and human), community management, policy and Terms of Service definitions, security, roles and other social media platform functionality can provide just the right amount of control. Our job as social media consultants is to help clients understand exactly what functionality to use and how to use it to successfully meet the business goals and objective without introducing unacceptable levels of exposure or risk.
So, my advice to those who have doubts about deploying social media because it is too uncontrolled: have no doubts. The deployed community of any social media initiative can be as open or as controlled as it needs to be – just make sure that the right balance is struck. Whether or not you are in the “constrained or regulated industries”, do not dismiss social media because it is too “free-for-all”.
[This post orginially appeared at www.mzinga.com. It has been reposted with slight modification by permission.]
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“IM NOT GUNA B FRIEND WIT U ON FACEBOOK”
“IM NOT GUNNA B FRIEND WIT U ON FACEBOOK!!!! haha nooo wayyyyyy”
That was the response to the Facebook friend invitation I sent to my soon-to-be 15 year old daughter.
Shame on me… I failed to ask one of the most important questions when planning to engage someone via social media: what will your membership get out of this relationship? The ironic thing is that when I was at Mzinga – at least 3 – 4 times a week – I counsel our prospects and clients to ask just that question! They usually know what they want their company to get out of a new social media initiative or community, but they do not understand or have not asked what the target membership will gain from participating. The obvious question of “What are you offering that will attract and engage the members in such a way that they become active members of the community?” is (and in my case, was) simply not asked.
You see, my daughter’s use of Facebook is strictly as a mechanism to network with her school friends and acquaintances. The reaction to my invitation was very similar to the reaction I got when my daughter realized that I knew the words to many of the songs she currently had on her iPod – it was totally “uncool” that I knew some of the same songs. Just as “uncool” would be if she friended me on Facebook . By not asking the question, I assumed an end result that was not the reality of my target member.
Good thing my daughter and I have many other channels of communication… our relationship will not be damaged by my social media faux pas. However, if social media is one of the primary means you’re planning to use to engage your customers, employees, or partners (the membership), be sure to ask the question I didn’t. Otherwise, you may risk damaging your relationship.
[This post orginially appeared at www.mzinga.com. It has been reposted with slight modification by permission.]
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Proper Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance (The Six Ps)
When I was a young lad (longer ago than I’d like to admit) a very nice wise old man once told me what he considered the secret to his success. Why did I consider him wise? He was a very successful construction supervisor who was responsible for some of the most beautiful – and now historic – buildings in the West Palm Beach and Palm Beach Florida area.
Palm Beach Town Hall
OK, you could argue that maybe he wasn’t all that wise, but not that he wasn’t successful. His secret to success? ”The Six Ps”, something you may have heard of: Proper Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance.
Not a new saying, but very applicable to social media? Everything. As with many of life’s undertakings, a successful social media initiative requires The Six Ps. Knowing that social media can help solve your business challenges is a good first step. Having a social media strategy that meets your business goals and objectives is great. But defining the plans that will make your social media initiative a success: critical.
So, what plans am I talking about? The plans that provide a path to social media success with a recommended course of action to take advantage of the opportunities and mitigate any risks associated with your social media initiative. Although there are many pieces to each, I’ve taken the liberty of consolidating them down to six plans – The Six Ps of Social Media Planning, if you will…
- Social Media Plan
Defines your overall social media goals and objectives, including: member constituencies, rollout plan, proposed options for the community direction, internal social media readiness. - Community Programming Schedule (also known as a Content Plan)
High-level schedule of proposed content to attract and engage community members and drive adoption. Can include new & existing, internal & external, expert & user-generated content. May leverage blogs, seeded message boards, webinars, chats, polls, contests, etc. - Community Management Plan
Roles, responsibilities and rules of engagement of those involved in the care, feeding, and nurturing of your community. Can be yours and/or your vendor’s resources. - Moderation Plan
Moderation ensures that members are following the community rules, assists new members, and to fosters lively discussion. There are many ways to accomplish these moderation goals. The Moderation Plan provides interaction rules and guidelines and should be adjusted based on the needs of the community. - Community Ecosystem Plan
Provides a map of your potential social media structures, based on an analysis of stakeholders such as existing and potential customers, employees, partners, and competitors. - Social Media Matrix & Site Map Plan
Outlines the company and member content, the social media tools necessary, and a model for member interaction.
Although not an all-inclusive list, it suggests the depth of thought and definition you should be prepared undertake as you build a roadmap to success for your social media initiative.
[This post orginially appeared at www.mzinga.com. It has been reposted with slight modification by permission.]
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Ask the Social Media Planning Question: “Why?”
Client: “We want to launch 131 seasonal message boards.” What? Sure, we’d like to help you launch 131 seasonal message boards with you… let’s talk contract addendum. Wait – not so fast!
We get asked by Clients to do things they think they have a pretty good understanding of. They know what they want. They think they know why they want them. And, they think they know what it will take to make them successful. However, often we get involved to guide the Client to back-up and ask, “Why?” In this case, could the vendor provide what they are asking for from a platform and services perspective? Absolutely. For example, social media provider Mzinga (my former employer) has one Client who has over 1,100 message boards running on their platform, so that is not an issue. Would we as social media strategic consultants like the additional revenue that might come from such a project? You bet! But, should we reccomend launching 131 message boards? No.
One of the strategic consultants objectives is for us is to make sure our Clients are doing the right thing… setting them up for long term success. In this case, we have to ask the question: “Why?” “Why do you want (and do you really need) 131 separate message boards?” And the some of the follow-up questions: “Is this what the membership wants?”, “How does this meet your strategic and business objectives?”, “Why seasonal? – Why not keep the community active year ‘round?”, “Do you understand the ongoing management effort this will take?”, “How many Community Managers do you have?”, “How are you going to keep content fresh on so many boards?”, “What is your moderation strategy”, “Do you really want to make an effort to engage a community just to close the community at the end of the season?”, “How is permissioning going to work?”, “Will you have enough active members on each message board to build a vibrant community?”, and so on.
In this case, via what we called a Strategy Alignment, we counseled the client to consider narrowing it down to 6 message boards, provided a recommendation on how to grow out a true community by leveraging additional social media tools, and how to keep the communities vibrant and engaging by keep them up year ‘round and utilizing social media best practices. What could have been a short-term seasonal effort of message board implementation and management futility is now a roadmap to building six related, ongoing, successful communities.
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Get the Lawyers Involved – Now.
Upper management and the legal department can kill your social media initiative. The new world of transparency and perceived “loss of control” that the use of social media brings can (quite frankly), scare upper management and folks in the legal department. And many a well thought out social media initiative has come to a screeching halt in the 11th hour due to not having buy-in of these two important constituencies.
Although one can argue that companies never really had control of their message – only control of how said message was published – many companies don’t understand that the customers have long since taken the published message and added to it, commented on it, and maybe even ridiculed it. It just didn’t have as big an impact because it wasn’t as immediate or broadly distributed as it now is due to the web.
Regardless of the many examples where policies of transparency have benefited companies in ways previously unthought-of, when it gets down to being transparent many executives and legal departments still don’t understand, or they understand but are afraid to let go. “Allow customers or employees in our community to post negative things about our company or product?” A resounding “YES!” Guess what…? They have been, and will be doing it anyway, in places you don’t know about! And therefore you will have no way of engaging them in conversation, gather very valuable (albeit sometimes uncomfortable) feedback or product suggestions being provided, respond with accurate information, or make use of the product suggestions. You will have lost a very valuable open communication channel. Bring open communication into your venue, and benefit from it.
So you, Mr. or Ms. Community Manager or Director or Project Manager completely understand how your company can benefit from a policy of transparency as related to the deployment of social media. You “get it”. However, your executives and legal department may not. You need to get them involved early on in the process. Educate them. Help them understand how a policy of transparency can help the company. Give examples of where transparency has provided great benefits to the companies. Build your business case. Help them understand it is not as scary as it may sound. Help them “get it”. Don’t go to them late in the process just for approval of your Terms of Service policy. Get them involved early as you define your overall Social Media Strategy, Business Goals and Objectives, Community Participation Guidelines, Membership Acquisition and Retention Strategy, Programming Schedule, Content Plan, etc.
This approach may be more work, but the mitigating the risk of the plug being pulled on your social media initiative right before the finish line is well worth the extra effort.
[This post orginially appeared at www.mzinga.com. It has been reposted with slight modification by permission.]
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About
About This Blog
This blog is intended for those just getting started with social media. The purpose is to provide useful tips and opinions that will help you be successful with your social media initiative, and provide an area for discussion around all things social web.
About Me
A forward-thinking services and consulting management professional, I have over 20 years of combined progressive leadership success in professional services management, consulting, and pre-sales. My background includes eleven years’ experience in professional services delivery and management, business/technical consulting, and sales solutioning services/management in high-tech industries as well as ten years of HRMS project management in Fortune 100 corporations and three years of social media strategy and execution.
Most recently, as the Director of Social Media Strategic Consulting for Mzinga, I designed a new suite of social media strategic consulting services while creating and managing the professional services consulting group to deliver and help market them.
Email me: steve@stevemurthey.com
Tweet me: @stevemurthey
Link me: Steve on LinkedIn
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