Strategy First, Platform Second ... Please!

I don't know how many times I've had to shift a conversation into reverse when an initial business discussion about online communities begins with "We're thinking about starting an online community. What's your opinion of Platform X?"

Too many companies decide they want to invest in an online community -- be it internal or externally-facing -- and then move right to making the community platform acquisition decision without EVER considering the mission, vision and goals for the community. It's like starting a business negotiation with "I want to buy something. What have you got to sell?" instead of "Here's the problem I'm trying to solve ... "

When platform selection comes first, all the essential decisions about the community features, functions and engagement model will be based on whatever widget or components are built into the software package. Ultimately, crucial business needs and objectives have to be retrofitted into the features offered by the selected vendor's product, rather than allowing the business requirements to guide the feature, function and design decisions. It's really a backwards approach, no?

The most common reason for this is social business is still considered just a set of tools, rather than a powerful business process accelerator, innovation catalyst and organizational change agent. Many organizations don't know how or don't realize the necessity of investing time and energy in defining the strategic goals and objectives for the online community BEFORE they settle on features.

Sure, every community software platform has forums and blogs. But each platform deploys them in different ways, with different strengths and weaknesses. Absent a strategic plan on which to base the platform selection criteria, organizations risk making an enormous and expensive mistake if their platform of choice does not support the goals and processes  implicit in their business objectives.

For example: A B2B company seeks to build an online community to support their customers' use of an existing, expensive product or service. They will likely want a private (gated) community, a member directory linked to their existing CRM system and a rich analytical back end to identify high-value customers' areas of topical interest in the community so the company can serve those customers better...and make more sales.

These business objectives generate a very specific set of technical and functional requirements, requirements which will only be fully revealed through the creation of a strategic community plan prior to vendor selection. If the vendor is chosen before or without developing the critical use cases and functional requirements specified by the community plan, the whole development process will be a crap shoot. Will the vendor have this feature set in their portfolio? Will the needed functional interconnections be feasible at reasonable cost? Will it scale? Will it be secure? Will you know how to find out ahead of time?

Metrics are another area where software selection prior to strategic planning can come back to haunt an organization. Sure, all software tools can tell you how many hits, likes, views and posts occur on the community. What's missing is integrating with and reporting on business metrics! Most business metrics are unique to the organization or even the business unit. You need to define those business success measures before picking a vendor to be sure the platform's back end can deliver the data you need.

When Boss Bob shows up at your desk 6 months after community launch and asks how many of the members are prospects vs. customers, the average sales for active vs. non-active community members and if buyers of the most recent service line are interested in X, Y, or Z topic in the community, you may have a problem if the software can't help you answer those questions. Answering "I'll have to check with the software vendor on getting that information..." is not a good career move.

Armed with a proper strategic plan, you can turn your business requirements into feature requirements and conduct a detailed and transparent vendor selection evaluation process. Prioritizing feature/function needs and asking the right questions will help you select a vendor who will meet your expectations. For example: if posting to discussions by email is a critical success factor (your users are mobile, email-driven professionals such as doctors and lawyers), you will know to ask for this feature and disqualify any vendor who does not. Extensible search functions which surface both content and discussions in the same search results may be important if your community offers a mix of thought leadership, user postings and training materials. You get the idea!

Treat the creation of online communities as you would any other line of business activity -- a community is not just a marketing vehicle. Define the strategic outcomes you want from the community, specify the audience it will serve, develop the business metrics and measures needed to report outcomes and the operational plans to build and run the community over time. Then you can pick a platform and avoid a very costly and unnecessary mistake.

Time For You To Shine Online!

 

Photo Credit: bjorn.watland

As more and more individuals become involved in professional online communities, understanding how to engage online becomes increasingly important. While most professionals develop good skills at in-person networking and idea-sharing, when they start looking to use an online group or forum to collaborate with peers the keyboard can sometimes get in the way of effective communication. Here are a few guidelines to help new members of professional communities get the most out their participation in online peer groups.

Find the right online community

Identifying an appropriate online peer community for your needs may take some time. There are professional communities and online groups that serve every imaginable profession and discipline, so you may have several to chose from. Discovering which one will be best for you requires a bit of research and exploration. First, do Google searches on specific terms relevant for your profession and ask your peers where they go online for help and peer collaboration.

With a list of candidate communities in hand, take a moment to visit and explore each community to determine if it will be a good fit. Do the members seem to be people you would like to spend time with in-person? Do the discussion topics interest you? Did you learn something new in the forums or find a topic to which you might contribute a comment of two? If so, chances are you found a viable online home.

Take the first steps

Once you identify a possible community, spend some time filling in your community profile, then post an "introduce yourself" message. Most professional online communities have a "Welcome New Members" discussion or something similar where you can post a short "Hello, I am ..." introduction. My general rule of thumb for online etiquette is behavior that would be effective, welcomed or expected in face-to-face settings is likely to be acceptable online. What works in-person works online, too.

If you're ready to take the plunge and be more visible, the next step is to make a contribution to a discussion topic. Look for an active discussion thread that catches your interest and write a brief response. For some reason, this is sometimes one of the most difficult steps for professionals online. However, just as you wouldn’t join an in-person networking group and never, ever say a word, staying a silent member of an online community is a less-than-rewarding experience. Remember, as with all communities -- in-person and online -- you get what you put into the activity. If you give nothing, you get nothing.

Overcome barriers to participation

There are a number of reasons why professionals hesitate to participate online: they don’t feel they have anything to contribute (maybe this isn’t the right group?), they fear saying something stupid in public (find a safe or neutral discussion for the first few posts), or they are concerned they won’t be able to finish what they started (don’t worry, most online discussion threads only last a few days to a few weeks - tops!). Most community software platforms offer a subscription or notification option for discussions, so you can be notified if someone responds to your posts.

If you are still hesitant to post, there are other ways to establish connections with the group. Participate in quick polls and surveys online. This gives you access to the aggregate wisdom of your peers, and most communities share survey and poll data with community members.

Another approach, if you already have a blog, an article or other information of value to the community, would be to email the community manager and ask if they would be interested in the information. If they have a library or document upload area, you can always make a contribution there. Of course, be sure you have the rights to post it and that it does not contain any confidential information.

Reap the rewards of participation

Once you take these initial steps to participate in an online community, you will unleash the power of a global peer group. Idea exchange, personal experiences and know-how, research and best practices will all be available to you 24X7, wherever you can get online. You'll have a wealth of information and peers to help you be more effective at your work and expand your professional competence. What a great deal!

Remember, the more you participate and connect with other members, the more dependable and responsive the community as a whole will be to you. Online communities offer professionals an opportunity to shine -- sharing what they know, enhancing their reputations, making meaningful professional and business connections with peers. After spending so much time and energy in your career honing your professional know-how, isn't it time to shine online?

A Small Organization Creates a Big Community Success Case Study: ASCA's SCENE for School Counselors

 

When you're searching high and low for the next big thing, or scanning the edge for the next new thing, you can miss real success stories. So here's one to contemplate: a free, private online community serving a crucial constituency, aligned with but outside of an existing non-profit organization. And this is one of the most engaged, most active and fastest-growing communities I've seen in awhile. In preparation for a talk I am doing at the DigitalNow conference to a group of association executives, I came across this online community.

The American School Counselor Association (ASCA) serves professional school counselors, the individuals who work inside and outside the classroom -- pre-school through college -- helping our children succeed at the crucial work of learning. ASCA member benefits include state and local chapters, professional development resources, legislative advocacy, job listings, legal and ethical guidance and much more, as part of the paid member benefit. However, ASCA also offers a very special extra: ASCA SCENE, their free, private online peer support and collaboration community. And it is fantastic!

In less than four years, ASCA SCENE has grown to over 19,000 active and engaged community members, helping to drive the sponsoring organization's membership to nearly 30,000 paying members. I'll let ASCA Executive Director Richard Wong speak for himself on some of the key factors behind this community's success.

Vanessa: What drove you to start this community?

Richard: We wanted a way to let our members share files such as lesion plans, programs and other things they’ve done. Our folks are eager to do that. We tried a number of things but the technology wasn't there, so when the whole idea of social networks came along, that's what we wanted -- the technology caught up to us! The members were coming up with new things, we wanted to enable them and not control everything. We wanted to say: “We didn't do this, your colleagues did. Have at it!”

Vanessa: Why free? Why open to all school counselors, not just ASCA members?

Richard: The community was never meant to be a money-maker or to market other products and services. It was meant to be a service itself. Initially, we didn’t know whether to limit it to our members or open it to all who are interested. ASCA’s ultimate goal is to get the information out there- we want people to create and share wonderful school programs, so we wanted to open it up to all, even those who choose not to pay us dues.

Vanessa: Were you afraid of cannibalization?

Richard: We haven't really done an analysis to see how it has affected membership. We know that since we introduced the SCENE 3½ years ago, ASCA paid membership has grown by 5,000 members, from about 25K to 30K -- during a recession, so we don’t think it’s had a negative effect.

Vanessa: How did you socialize the community?

Richard: We surveyed members and found low penetration of social network skills. We needed to help our members (median age mid-40s) get into the 21st century. They work with kids and needed to learn these skills. We are doing them a favor by forcing them to get onto our social network, a safe space where they could learn how to relate to it and help students. It's free, safe and you don't have to be an ASCA member.

Vanessa: How do you promote SCENE?

Richard: We promote it in the bi-monthly (print) magazine. Drive people to the community every issue. What's new on the SCENE. We try to integrate our activities into the SCENE - we announce information on SCENE first, it's our main communication vehicle.

One thing we believe in strongly is focusing the community on best practices -- not on the association.  We are here to support good school counseling, we didn’t design the community to talk about ASCA.  It's completely member-driven. They need to be able to use the information at work.  We didn't want the community to be about ASCA. It's about school counselors.

Vanessa: Staffing?

Richard: We don't have any dedicated staff. We have an IT person who makes sure it runs, some staff oversee content because they want to see what is happening. One person approves all member applications and takes down inappropriate content. Our Board members monitor the SCENE regularly. 

Members are good about policing themselves. We engaged active association members early and pre-seeded with evangelists – we made sure they were on the SCENE when we first launched and that they were supported.

Vanessa: How did you inspire so much user-generated content and member engagement on the community?

Richard: Our folks were very eager. They wanted a way to share their info and brag about good work, such as an anti-bully program. 'It worked, here it is, take it and use it!' We have many graduate students; the younger folks really latched onto this and drove early engagement.

They posted a lot and asked for help from the senior folks, who come out of the woodwork to help.

Vanessa: How have ASCA benefited from the community?

Richard: Through the monitoring we will periodically say there is a lot of chatter about school climate or whatever, and pull the topic into the magazine or a conference.

A more direct way is our resource center, independent of the SCENE. When people make a formal question, we respond and put it out on our website.  We have a staff that monitors the SCENE resources, asks for permission, does a review process, and then puts that into our resource center. This was one of the original purposes of the SCENE, to get submissions and grow our resource center.

We needed a bully policy, we needed a conflict resolution policy. We got very few in response to earlier requests on the website, but once the SCENE was going, we got tons!

Vanessa: What challenges do you face, even though you are succeeding?

Richard: We want to grow a lot more, 19K is great but we have 30K members of the association. We are hitting a small percent of universe. Some of the other groups have 30-40K in their networks. We want to grow it in a way that is manageable for us without a dedicated staff. Without revenue we can't have a dedicated staff.

As the volume of information grows, we also need to make sure information is accurate and vibrant. We would like to explore ways to incorporate the different things we do - they tend to be somewhat siloed (Twitter, Facebook, conference app) but we need to tie them together.

Vanessa: What were the unanticipated outcomes from the SCENE?

Richard: We didn't imagine the level and scale; meeting such an un-met need. The community definitely helped raise the awareness of our organization by allowing people to be active in the association even if they are not an official member. The community generated a lot of buzz among professionals and graduate students. Also, most graduate students join the association and we give them liability insurance -- which they need anyway. And, happily we've won numerous awards for the SCENE.

The reason why I share this community case study is a best practice. Here is my assessment of why it succeeds:

1.     It identified an unmet need and serviced it clearly, with integrity

2.     Timing was paramount – the topics school counselors focus on are complex and they need each other

3.     The community was allowed to grow organically and focused on the members, not on ASCA

4.     Size matters – it served a large but focused audience

5.     It is evolving – features and focus ebb and flow based on member needs

6.     There is a clear mission and vision for the members to convene (on and off line)