The next Online Community Research Network project is open for participation. As part of our ongoing research around online community and social media strategy, metrics and ROI, we’ve launched our latest study on Social Media Strategy and Monitoring.

The intention of the study is to explore how organizations are managing their social media strategies what tools they are using to monitor their social media presence.

If you are involved in the development of your organizations’ Social Media and Community strategy and monitoring, I would encourage you to participate in a short survey here:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/socmedmon

The topics we are exploring in this project include:

• Key policies for staff participation in social media;
• Highest priority social media sites;
• Organizational business goals for participating in the social media ecosystem;
• Metrics and tools used to measure success on social media sites;
• The biggest challenges that executives and teams are facing

I would ask that you please complete the survey by next Friday, 7/16. All participants will get a copy of the results.

The tag for this research project is: #socmedmon

The next Online Community Research Network project is open for participation. In January, OCRN members discussed and prioritized a long list of topics, with a high priority being a repeat of last year’s useful platform satisfaction study.

If you are involved in strategy or management of your organization’s online community strategy or management, I would encourage you to participate in a short survey here:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/XWPJF79

The topics we are exploring in this project include:

* Review of current online community platform;
* Other community vendor services (metrics, sentiment analysis, moderation, etc.)
* Services you’d like to see but are currently unavailable

I would ask that you please complete the survey by next Friday, 6/17. All participants will get a copy of the results! Thanks!

Cross-posted from the Good Ideas Blog:
We are in an era of “Government 2.0″ enthusiasm. The Obama Administration, as well as state and local governments, are working hard to move information and services online. But as agencies and departments implement new web and social media programs, they run into a number of structural and legislative obstacles.

To sort through these challenges, we asked for the views of Fred Smith, a Senior Technologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who oversees many new media efforts. The CDC is always included on the short list of US government agencies using social media in innovative ways.

Here are five of Fred’s good ideas for effective social media programs in government:

1) Take Risks

New media are new. We all are experimenting to some extent. This means accepting some risk in social media efforts, and also tolerating some degree of failure. Senior management and staff need to understand the risk profile of social media efforts. (As a related note, Amazon reportedly includes “risk-taking” in their performance reviews.)

2) Realistic Evaluations

It is important to evaluate social media efforts, and particularly to understand which channels are best for reaching which audiences with which messages. Performance reporting will improve efforts. That said, it is necessary to be realistic about how precise communications evaluations can be (e.g. nobody ever asks “how effective was that brochure?” — they ask “how effective was our campaign?”).

3) In Government, Identify and Update Social Media-Challenging Policies

Many government policies were written before social media (or even the internet). They now can create obstacles. For example, as part of the “Paperwork Reduction Act”, the OMB is required to approve any program that asks questions of the public. Should that include, for example, voting up an idea on a social media site? This law, as well as laws and policies dealing with terms of service, tracking technologies, privacy issues, and others topics are being updated.

4) Promote Open Source

Government should use and contribute to open source initiatives. Unfortunately there are many terms of service, liability and other issues which hinder government participation. These obstacles are (slowly) being addressed. When government agencies can’t turn to open source, they should at least investigate offering their data and content
through open APIs.

5) Coordinate Security and Social Media Efforts

IT security staff and social media staff have very different – and typically conflicting – approaches to the web. It is important that they work together. At the CDC the security and social media teams meet monthly to work out any issues, and (importantly) to describe what is on the horizon in order to identify potential challenges.

Please feel free to vote or comment on these or other ideas – or add your own – on Good Ideas.

We’re approaching the June 9 Online Community Unconference in Mountain View, CA. Here’s a quick update on what will be a terrific event for online community professionals:

Attendees: We have a lot of knowledgeable folks from industry (Google, eBay, Walmart, HP, LinkedIn, Nokia, O’Reilly, Intel, Microsoft, Flickr) as well as from many smaller firms. We also have many non-commercial groups with community expertise (Wikia, Pew Health Group, Civic Ventures, Skoll Foundation). See the full (growing) list here: http://ocu2010.eventbrite.com/.

Discounts: Our final event discounts end May 26 – $50 off the event price. Sign up now!

Sponsors: Answers.com just joined the event as a Platinum Sponsor. We are expecting a group of others to join this week. If you would like sponsorship information, contact Chloe at ccaviness@ForumOne.com.

We’d be delighted to see you there: great venue, nice food, bottles of wine for some attendees – and most of all a great group. Here is more detail from a previous post. This year please join us!

Guest post by Amy Sample Ward

I love my community. Whether I’m talking about my role at NetSquared, my blog, or my network of friends, I am inspired every day and find value in, and rewards for, my participation. Regardless of whether I feel like, or am trying to be, a community builder, the community always provides opportunities for others to join me. These spaces are built on distributed power and that makes the community a moving, growing, living thing that I am a part of, rather than a weight, trouble, or burden that I’m responsible for.

But, it ain’t easy. Being a Community Builder (I refuse, on principle, to use the word Manager) is a lot of work. So, how do you do it without losing sleep or sanity?

Here’s my 3×3 to Sustainable Community Building.

1. There are no short cuts.

Lead by example
Interact, use tools, and create and share content the way you want your community members to do so. Seeing you leave a comment, or share a resource, will model the desired behavior so others can see what to do (especially if they are new to social media or new to your community) and how to do it (especially if they are new to your tool or platform).

Operate in public
When it comes to “administrator” or “moderator” activity, always conduct it in public unless it requires or involves personal information. Don’t send a private welcome message – do it in public so others can benefit (they too can see, join in, and find someone new)! Don’t remove or edit contributions, but leave a comment to suggest how they can be improved. If there’s offensive or inappropriate behavior, note it in public so others can learn what’s okay and what isn’t, and feel empowered to help moderate as a community.

Ask for feedback and help
Asking for help or ideas means that 1.) you trust the community, 2.) you know that your community is valuable and smart, and 3.) you are interested in collaborating (not dictating). Don’t be shy about it – post blog entries or conversation starters, share your own feedback (operate in public), and provide places for the community to share ideas or feedback at any time (not just on specific ideas or proposals).

2. Know your community.

Let the community know itself: Working in networks means that the “center” (that’s you) is no better than any of the other parts. You don’t have all the answers, all the information, all the best jokes. So, help your community know its self. Messages shouldn’t just be about you, stories shouldn’t just be about you. Find content and value from the community that you can help put the spotlight on; find stories and changemakers from the community that you can support. Make connections and introductions.

Know your role: Knowing your community means figuring out what they need from you, how they need your help, how they need you to help them to succeed. Some communities may need a “manager” to help keep everything moving along, and others may need an “operator” to make connections and recommendations. Some communities need a “friend” to share ideas and honest feedback, others may need a “champion” that can help push ideas and opportunities forward. Find your role (by asking for feedback and help!) and take pride in operating the way your community needs.

Help it grow: Part of knowing your community means recognizing when it needs new blood, a fresh wind, or a change of pace. That doesn’t always mean just one or the other. New blood = new members. If this is the case then help the community to promote itself and attract others interested in participating. Fresh wind = new topics or ideas. Sometimes, conversation can grow stagnant and ideas can fail to materialize into projects. It is your role to help find new inspiration. Change of pace = new way of operating. This may mean that the community has outgrown its facebook group and needs someone (you) to help move it onto the next platform/space where it can do more. You may need to be the one willing to say what everyone’s thinking and take on the task of making change.

3. Strive to be replaced.

Encourage interaction without you
The goal of operating in public and leading by example is to enable the community to know how to operate without you. There can be interaction and exchange without your permission. There can be conversation without your moderation. Encourage the community to take control by giving them the responsibility and opportunity to do so.

Reward and spotlight leaders
Your goal should be to be replaced by other community members, as this means that you’ve created something so valuable, with members so dedicated to it, that they are willing to steer the ship and man the sails themselves. To begin nurturing those who may become the captains, start highlighting members who are contributing value. Shine the spotlight on those taking on extra responsibility. Operate in public by thanking them for their work in a way that’s visible to the whole community.

Share your toolbox
There’s no way that the community can take responsibility and contribute equally with you if you hold the key to a hidden set of tools. Open up all functionality to anyone who has proven their elevated role in the group. Share resources like strategies, best practices, and examples with the community so everyone can learn and contribute at the level you do. By sharing resources, you’ll probably find that the community has some to share back that will make your work even better, too!

But remember: all communities are unique, just like the members that comprise them. You can’t expect every group to operate the same way as others, or for one successful example to hold true in another setting. Communities are made up of people and the best approach you can have is to remain human. Organizations are buildings: they aren’t any fun, they aren’t very conversational, and they’re often made of neutral colors. You’re a human: you’re passionate, you’re interesting, and you have something to say. So even if you have different tools, different ideas, and different goals from one community to the next throughout your work, remember to stay human.

For more on my experience with community building, read Online Community Building: Gardening vs Landscaping.

Cross-posted from the Good Ideas Blog

Ron Casalotti lives and breathes social media. For the past dozen years Ron has held senior social media positions at AOL, Business Week, and currently at Bloomberg. We asked Ron to share some of his accumulated wisdom in the form of five good ideas for using social media for the common good. Here are his thoughts:

The Business of Customers

For many years, companies have planned their existence based upon a fundamental falsehood – that they controlled their brands. And this charade was easy to perpetuate as hired pollsters, paid for by these companies, would create reports based upon the limited metrics available to them reinforcing their preconceived perception of what their customers were saying. Enter social media. Companies are now finding out that they do not control their brands – the customer does. Proposed: Social Media Departments become a separate and distinct segment of the corporate org chart, reporting to the CEO, and that Chief Community Officer (or a Social Media worded equivalent) be a permanent C-Suite position, tasked with independently (outside of influence from marketing; operations or product) engaging the company’s customer base and participating in a two-way conversation for the betterment of all.

Less Toast; More Water

Many people’s reaction when I speak to them about social media is akin to “Why do I care about who’s having toast for breakfast?” A great counter would be, “You shouldn’t – but you should care about who doesn’t have enough clean water to drink” Happening RIGHT NOW are grass roots groups using social media to advance awareness of and solicit funding for providing clean water for health and sanitation where none exists today. Almost 1 billion people do not have direct access to the 1% of the earth’s water that is suitable for drinking. Proposed: More attention be given and support provided to the current and future social media efforts to help solve this crisis. Charity:Water and folksinger Jewel’s Project Clean Water are two of the current charities using Twitter and other social media tools to help millions of others.

Coming to Our Census

“Ten questions in ten minutes.” That’s the mantra of the current U.S. Census Bureau’s 2010 survey. After receiving a mailed noticed that the form was on its way; the form package itself; and a post card reminder about the form; I filled it out and mailed it back via USPS. Let this be the last decennial census done this way. Proposed: In the ensuing time period between now and 2020, a system be developed where the Census can be taken, securely, online, with social media marketing used to get the word out to all. For those constituents without Internet access ten years from now, local polling places, libraries and motor vehicle offices among other public facilities would be made available.

The Codger’s Crusade

Attention everyone 55+ out there: I have a message for you from my buddies on Madison Ave (and its equivalents in Chicago, L.A., San Francisco, Miami, London, etc): “You’re dead to me.” It’s true, why spend valuable ad dollars on a group that is set in its ways, has strong brand loyalty, and (let’s face it) will be dying off soon anyway? Better to try and capture the heart$ and mind$ of the twenty-somethings while convincing ourselves that our brand is young and relevant. One small problem: 50 is not the new 40, it’s more like the new 35. The fastest growing segment using social media are the 50+ crowd — and that segment is growing fast as Baby Boomers aided by better health care and nutrition join the fold. The problem is, young mature adults (can I coin a demo phrase, YMAs?)do not want to be treated as being old, or senior for that matter. Many avoid the grandpa/grandma titles altogether as being too “old” sounding. Proposed: Social media sites that truly cater to the 50+ set that are not condescending and do not try to include 60 and 70 year olds (who should have their own social media sites). A few have tried, but ultimately none have succeeded to provide this without itself engaging in ageism. It can be done – we should be working hard to get there before we’re too old to care.

Vox Populi

Every politician promises to listen to his/her constituency, only to rely upon weighing the public’s sentiment by the volume of mail received on a given issue. The problem is, not many people engage in letter writing anymore, given more towards sending emails or voting in online polls. While some politicians have latched onto the new media wave many more choose to do things the way they’ve always been done, afraid to rock the boat. Proposed: All functions in every Senator’s, Representative’s, Governor’s and State Legislator’s offices be required to provide easily accessible online equivalents for all interaction with the public. It’s time to bring our government into the 21st century.

You can vote and comment on these ideas at Good Ideas. You can find Ron on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Here goes – our annual pitch to sponsors for the Online Community Unconference. It’s a huge event and great exposure, so we’re happy telling you why you should sponsor the event!

Forum One’s annual Online Community Unconference takes place on June 9th, 2010 in Mountain View, CA. The Unconference is an open space gathering of online community and social media professionals from the commercial and non profit sectors. We expect over 300 participants to attend this year.

A partial list of attendee organizations includes: Genentech, Panasonic, Linden Lab, Wells Fargo, LinkedIn, Google, Microsoft, Skoll Foundation, NetApp, Autodesk, Jigsaw, Flickr, Rosetta Stone, Care2.com, WellsFargo, SEGA of America, Norton, Symantec, and Intel (to name a few).

Online community professionals come to the event to discuss optimizing their online communities and social media programs. It’s an excellent and engaged audience. If you’d like exposure for your firm or products, here are three reasons to consider sponsoring:

1. Fantastic (but appropriate) Visibility
As a sponsor, you will receive the “normal” event perks – your logo on conference materials, acknowledgment at the event, a sponsor banner. The key to our sponsors’ success is that we don’t oversell our sponsorships, and we limit the number of service providers attending the event so that the ratio of practitioners to service providers is favorable (which also makes for a better attendee experience). You will also have an opportunity to address the full conference for 5 minutes shortly after lunch. In short: Limited competition for attention, you are free to participate as an attendee, and you get the events full attention shortly after lunch.

2. Good Value
Our packages start at $2k, with our premiere package at $5k. (A total steal!) Many events with smaller, less qualified audiences charge twice that, and typically try to cram in as many sponsors in as possible. We also have a handful of underwriting opportunities. Packages exceeding $5k will receive a discount.

3. Attendees are Senior Staff and Have Purchase Power & Influence
Forum One has hosted online community and social media events for nearly 10 years. Over the years, we have built a very senior network of community practitioners and executives. Most of the attendees at our conferences have direct purchase influence, and many have purchase authority. Business *gets done* at our events between sponsors and attendees.

That’s it in a nutshell: great event, great visibility, solid value and an awesome attendee list.

We really do appreciate your time and attention.

If you are interested in discussing terms, please contact me.

Now back to our regularly scheduled community and social media programing.

I’m in Austin for SxSWi (South by Southwest interactive) with several colleagues from Forum One and several thousand colleagues from around the world working in the digital and interactive fields. The “festival” is a nonstop series of keynotes and panel discussions during the day, and social events and meetups during the off hours (and in between sessions). What is the common thread tying everyone together? A strong interest in digital technology and a desire to connect with other like minded people.

As with any whirlwind experience, I will be processing the event for weeks to come, but I wanted to share some of the sessions that have been particularly thought-provoking or insightful.

Jaron Lanier’s Keynote
This has been, by far, the most thought provoking session I have attended at SxSW. Jaron Lanier started by inviting everyone to put away their laptops and smartphones, and to experience the session fully. It was a great idea, but also means there isn’t a good record of the session. Below are my notes and impressions:

• Wind instruments were the first computers, with the notes and silence being binary information. Flute-like instruments evolved into pipe organs, which evolved into self playing organs and pianos.
• Jaron referenced Project Xanadu as an idealized state for the Internet, where everyone would have 1 password (1 account) and there would only be one logical copy of a document. Infomediaries would disappear, every person would be a “first class citizen” and content creator, and content creators would be paid directly for their work.
• Real-time is the opposite of (human) dignity. Stated another way: machines are consumers and producers of real time streams, humans are not.
• People are “mean” online when they switch from an individual context to a pack context, where there is a natural pecking order, and a natural “loser” (person on the bottom of the totem pole”
• Jaron recommended reading: When the Machine Stops

See also:
The Monday Keynote SxSW Should Have Had

Danah Boyd’s on Privacy and Publicity
Danah Boyd gave an interesting talk on the current state of online privacy, and unpacked recent events concerning Facebook privacy issues as well as the privacy issues surrounding the Google Buzz launch.

See:
Making Sense of Privacy and Publicity (full text of presentation)
danah boyd’s Opening Remarks on Privacy and Publicity
Danah Boyd SXSW Keynote: Privacy is History

Chris Messina: ActivityStrea.ms: Is it Getting Streamy in Here?
Chris Messina from Google gave a solid review of the history of online streams, with his take being that we are essentially stuck in the RSS / late 90s portal mentality. He went on to articulate a vision for intelligent lifestreams, and more specifically, to give an overview of activitystrea.ms, an extension of the Atom feed format that supports social activity.

See:
ActivityStrea.ms: Is It Getting Streamy In Here?
Chris Messina on ActivityStrea.ms: Is It Getting Streamy In Here? at SXSW

The Social Marketing Compensation Study was initiated in December of 2009 as a joint research project between the Online Community Research Network and WOMMA. The intention of the study was to get a broad look at the emerging field of social media marketing, and specifically, to explore issues related to compensation and satisfaction in the area of social marketing. Forum One released a report based on the study this week.

We received approximately 224 responses. Participants represent a wide swath of the types of organizations participating in online community building activities, including: large software companies, large community destination sites, niche community sites, platform providers, interactive marketing firms and independent consultants.

A sample of the 220+ organizations that participated include (with their permission):
HP, Nielsen, Community Partners, Satmetrix, ComBlu, Avid, Fanscape, ZAGG, Bumbleride Inc., Vemma, PEMCO Insurance, Xorcom, Procter & Gamble, GlobalGiving, Hallmark Cards, Inc., Culligan, and Open Text.

Several key issues pertaining to the compensation of marketers working in social media surfaced during this report, including:
• On average, the female participants earned an annual salary of $64k, which is significantly lower than the average annual salary for men, which was close to $104k. (Our data set was 58% male and 42% female).
• Less than a third of the respondents, 31% (69), indicated that they received a salary increase in the past 12 months, and 19% (42) said they had actually taken a decrease in salary within the last year.
• On average, participants are somewhat satisfied with their current salary, with an average satisfaction score of 3.2 (where 1 = Dissatisfied and 5 = Very Satisfied) and a median score of 3.5. The male participants, on average, are slightly more satisfied with their overall salary amounts than the female participants.

Other Highlights Include:

Salaries by Gender
On average, the female participants earned an annual salary of $64k, which is significantly lower than the average annual salary for men, which was close to $104k. A large number of female participants indicated that they had a salary range that was less than $50k which brought the average salary lower for the women, whereas the male respondents, taken as a whole, had a much more evenly distributed salary ranges.

Salaries by Age
According to the respondents that participated in our survey, people who are in the age category of 41 – 50 are making the highest annual salary of $117k. The respondents aged 51 – 59 were the second highest salary earners, with an average salary of $109.5k. The lower salary averages belong to the 21 – 25 respondents, who earn an average salary of $28k. The overall average annual salary for all participants was $80.7k.

Salary Increases
Less than a third of the respondents, 31% (69), indicated that they received a salary increase in the past 12 months, and 19% (42) said they had actually taken a decrease in salary within the last year.

The Full Report
The full Social Marketing Compensation report includes additional information about job descriptions, departments in charge of social marketing, job satisfaction and other areas related to the emergent role of Social Marketing. To purchase the report ($99), please go to our Research Store.

The next Online Community Research Network project is open for participation. In January, OCRN members discussed and prioritized a long list of topics, and the issue that made top of the list was “Developing Social a Strategy”.

The OCRN chose to study how social media strategy is developed, communicated and implemented because, frankly, so many organizations are actively struggling with the topic. We hope that by getting real-world feedback, advice and experiences from practitioners (read: the folks ACTUALLY doing the work), we can all gain insight in to this important topic.

If you are involved in the development of your organizations Social Media and Community strategy, I would encourage you to participate in a short survey here:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ocr_socstrat

The topics we are exploring in this project include:

• The definition of social media strategy;
• The current scope of community and social media efforts;
• The current state of strategy development;
• The process organizations are using to develop strategy;
• Ownership and governance of social strategy;
• The biggest challenges that executives and teams are facing

I would ask that you please complete the survey by next Friday, 3/12. All participants will get a copy of the results.

The tag for this research project is: #socstrat