What's
Inside:
Greetings Online Communiteers,
While 2009 proved to be one of the most economically challenging years in decades, it was also a year of incredible growth and change in the online community and social media sector. Propelled by the US elections in late 08, celebrity participation (yeah you, @Oprah), and social unrest covered via social media (think Iran), Twitter and Facebook are now household words. As we approach 2010, the question that is top of mind is how will these social technologies change, and by the act of participation, change us in the coming year.
I hope that you all have a wonderful holiday season and a happy new year and I also hope to connect with many of you in 2010. Feel free to drop me a line and let me know what you are up to, what you are looking forward to, or what you need in 2010.
On to the report!
Bill Johnston, Editor
bjohnston@forumone.com
(follow @billjohnston & @ocreport on Twitter)
A Message From Our Sponsors:
Online Community Research Network
Are you tasked with building, growing and supporting a community and/or social media programs with limited resources, budget and support? Join the Online Community Research Network (OCRN) and collaborate, share and learn from other smart people in the community and social media industry who are doing the work and actively finding solutions.
If you're a community manager or social media strategist, join now and pay $595 for a one-year membership - that's a savings of $400 off the 2010 price.
Go here to sign up and enter discount code: ocreport
Please note: We restrict access to the OCRN to those directly responsible for online community management and/or social media strategy for their organization. Membership is not available to platform providers and third party service providers.
Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA)
WOMMA is the leading voice for ethical and effective word of mouth and social media marketing. WOMMA provides ethical leadership, industry best practices and tools for measureable ROI.
http://womma.org/join/
Online Community Highlights
Back to Basics: Online Community Strategy
As you probably already know, we are very passionate about online communities and social media programs. We recently began a blog series around online community strategy that will cover a range of topics including: goal definition; member needs research; social media ecosystem research; designing an online presence architecture; engagement planning; community platform selection; management & moderation; metrics & reporting; policy & creation; governance; superusers / elites. In our research through the Online Community Research Network, we've found that only about 25% of our research respondents have a comprehensive community strategy in place. Our goal is to share our research, experiences and relevant content from experienced community-building professionals via the twelve to fourteen week blog series. Read on below for the first two posts in the series and two other relatively recent posts around community strategy. We'd love to hear your thoughts and feedback, so please feel free to comment on any of the posts or to contact me directly.
Back to Basics: The Strategy Team & Goal Definition - December 14, 2009
Back to Basics: Developing an Online Community Strategy - December 2, 2009
Holistic Community Strategy - May 14, 2009
How to Develop a Community Strategy - January 29, 2008
2009 Online Community and Social Media Research Highlights
The Online Community Research Network conducted six research studies in 2009 covering a range of topics including, Surviving and Thriving in the Economic Downturn, Online Community Platform & Services Satisfaction, Social Media Ecosystems, Online Community Metrics and Reporting, Online Community & Social Media Staff Compensation our final report that we are working on now, Participating in the Social Media Ecosystem.
The full reports are available to members of the Online Community Research Network (OCRN). If you are interested in learning more about the benefits of a membership to the OCRN, please go here. To purchase an individual report please go here.
Read on below for highlights from each report:
Online Communities: Thriving in the Downturn
Online Community Platform & Services Satisfaction
Social Media Ecosystems
Online Metrics and Reporting 2009
Online Community & Social Media Compensation
Online Community & Social Media Staff: Satisfaction
More Highlights:
10 Ways Social Media Will Change In 2010 - RWW
Here are 10 ways that social media will evolve in 2010.
Use Social Media to Retain Customers - Mashable
Social media offers a number of opportunities to turn your new and existing customers into repeat customers and fans.
2009's 20 Most Unoriginal Online Media Planning Strategies - ClickZ
This post takes a hard look at the online advertising strategies of 2009.
Get Ready for Ten Top Marketing Trends in Twenty-Ten - Level Ten Interactive
Ten top marketing trends for 2010.
Facebook Privacy: An Oxymoron - Shelly Palmer
A deep dive into Facebooks' privacy policies.
Great Findings From Social Sciences Applied To Online Communities - Fever Bee
Here is a rundown of some great findings from various social sciences applied to online communities.
Social Media Policies of 113 Organizations - Social Media Today
Very nice compilation of social media policies from a variety of companies.
Facebook's Privacy Move Violates Contract With Users - RWW
Your name, profile picture, gender, current city, networks, Friends List, and all the pages you subscribe to are now publicly available information on Facebook. This means everyone on the web can see it -- it is searchable.
Online Community Events
Online Community Unconference East
February 10, 2010
New York, NY
The Online Community Unconference East is a gathering of online community professionals - managers, developers, business people, tool providers, investors - to discuss experience and strategies in the development and growth of online communities. Those involved in online community development (and social software in general) share many common challenges: community management, tools, marketing, business models, legal issues. As we have found with our past events, the best source of information on all of these challenges is other knowledgeable practitioners.
Early Bird tickets are available for only $145.
Go here to register.
Social Web Business Forum
April 8-9, 2010
Los Angeles, CA
The Social Web Business Forum is an invitation-based event bringing together business leaders who drive active online communities, social media programs, and Enterprise 2.0 for their organizations. The Business Forum (formerly known as the Online Community Business Forum) focuses specifically on business models and tactics, what works, and what is on the horizon and is based on the industry-leading Online Community Summit, a annual Forum One event now in it’s 9th year.
The fourth annual Business Forum will take place on April 8-9, 2010. The topics and sessions at the Business Forum will include an in depth review of social web business topics covering advertising, revenue and subscriber models; ROI frameworks; fostering internal collaboration, operationalizing and engaging in social media practices; team structure and governance; and case studies from leading organizations. We limit attendance at our executive events to allow for true discussion during and after our speaker-led sessions.
Click here to request an invitation.
Online Community Unconference
June 9, 2010
Mountain View, CA
The Online Community Unconference is a gathering of online community practitioners - managers, developers, business people, tool providers, investors - to discuss experience and strategies in the development and growth of online communities. Those involved in online community development (and social software in general) share many common challenges: community management, tools, marketing, business models, legal issues. As we have found with our past events, the best source of information on all of these challenges is other knowledgeable practitioners.
Go here to register.
Online Community Summit
October 7-8, 2010
Sonoma, CA
The Online Community Summit is an industry-leading, invitation-only event bringing together leaders in online collaboration.
Held each October in Sonoma, California, the Summit draws senior participants from industry (Amazon, AOL, Apple, Cisco, Microsoft, others); leading online community groups (ezboard, MEETUP, Motley Fool); non-commercial organizations (World Bank, PBS, American Academy of Pediatrics); media (BBC, Univision); philanthropy (Packard Foundation, Skoll Foundation, Omidyar Network) and many others.
The goal of the Summit is to allow practitioners from many disciplines -- who would not ordinarily meet -- the opportunity to share current and best experiences regarding online collaboration.
Click here to request an invitation or email me directly at bjohnston@forumone.com.
OC Expert Interviews: Best of 2009
This month, we'll take a look back at the expert interviews from 2009. We have a mix of video and blogged with experts in the community.
Aaron Strout, Powered
At the end of the day, companies will enjoy the greatest success when they are coordinating all of their efforts and driving their customers to their online communities and/or social outposts on places like LinkedIn and Facebook."
Dawn Foster, Fast Wonder Consulting
"One of the only things you can count on as a community manager is change: communities evolve, members come and go, new technologies replace the old, and the role itself is still emerging."
Allen Blue, LinkedIn
"It's important not to confuse a Vision with a product design, or even a strategy. I think people frequently say 'Vision' when they mean 'the product I'm building.' The product you're building should always be open to substantial modification and change: you either got it right, or you didn't, but what matters is how you react and make it successful."
Scott K. Wilder, formerally of Intuit
"Online communities provide not only a great way to answer to business and product relegated questions, but also provides the camaraderie that every entrepreneur can benefit from (and that most small business owners seek)."
Ryan Holmes, CEO/Founder, Invoke
"Twitters dependence on API is pretty amazing. As a service, 70%+ of its messaging volume is sent via its API, so they are ultimately very incentivized in keeping their developers and third party applications happy. I have likened Twitters business to owning a communication channel similar to IM, or email where there are multiple clients (ex: Outlook, Thunderbird, Yahoo! Mail in the case of email)."
Patrick O'Keefe, Founder, iFroggy Network
"Spend time setting up the entire operation before you make anything public. From the organization of the site to the (really important) guidelines or participation policies, your community should be consistent with who you are and how you want to be seen. Don’t set it up as you go and don’t try to cater to everyone – stay true to what your operation is about."
Dawn Lacallade, SolarWinds
"A deeply integrated community is part of the core fabric of a company and can be seen in all groups. I see this as the next great evolution of the companies that thrive on customer satisfaction… get your customers involved in everything!"
Ron Casalotti, BusinessWeek
"Fallacy Believed by Many: Social media is easy – anyone can head up our effort. Just because your CEO has a LinkedIn profile, or your Marketing Manager is on Facebook doesn’t mean they understand social media or can successfully lead your foray onto the Web. And the folks who built your Web site? Let them stick to their area of expertise (there’s a reason lab-techs stay on the ground while astronauts man the capsule)."
Chia Hwu, 23andMe
"One of the unique challenges that our community members face is deciding whether they want to "share" their genetic data with other members who have similar interests in ancestry or health topics. And if they decide to "share", they have to decide whether to do it at the Basic level (ancestry and aggregate data) or at the Extended level (detailed health risks)."
Angela Connor, WRAL.com
"This may not be a popular train of thought, but I think there is a distinct difference in community management geared towards the mainstream social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and blogs, and the management of those that are owned by a specific organization or what some would refer to as branded communities."
Mari Kuraishi, GlobalGiving.org
A video interview with Mari Kuraishi of GlobalGiving.org at the 2009 Online Community Summit in Sonoma, CA. Mari share's how GlobalGiving uses online community and social media strategy for global good.
Vida Killian, Dell
Another video interview from the 2009 Online Community Summit. Bill Johnston talks with Vida Killian of Dell about the value of online community at Dell as well as lessons learned from her experience with community and social media.
Know an online community expert with an
interesting story to tell? Or are you one yourself? Email me, and
you may be the next expert interviewee.
Online
Community Jobs
Below is a current list of Online Community job opportunities. If
you would like
to include an open position in the next issue of the newsletter, please
email
me with the title and link to the job description.
Appolicious.com
Community/Social Media Intern
Baptie & Company, Inc.
Community Manager – Hi-tech Channels (London)
Community Manager - Hi Tech Channels (Denver, CO)
CafeMom
Community Manager
Community Director
Edelman
Vice President Edelman Digital
Senior Vice President Edelman Digital
Forum One
Internet Research Analyst
Web Developer
Hope Street Group
Web Manager
Knight Foundation
Social Media Superstar
National Geographic
Community Director
Sonicbids
Designer
Director, Customer Engagement
Spiceworks
Community Manager
Test Yantra Software Solutions
Software Test Lead-Bangalore
United Service Organizations
Director, Online Fundraising
Wikimedia Foundation
Chief Technology Officer
WorldWinner
Senior Community Moderator & Customer Services Representative
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