Communities: Build Or Join

Editor's Notes

1. Tell Duzins story Why I chose to join communities, instead of creating one
2. On last point: (think short and long term) Site creation, security protocols, take time Effectively creating a new product More difficult to enlist outside moderation
3. YDN Offsite content consists of: Marketing, Communication, Light Discussion, Fan building Onsite “”: Deeper conversation, Technical deep dives, Evergreen content, Permanent resources
4. Customer Service emails should talk like real people "At the tone, please record your message. When you have finished recording, you may hang up, or press 1 for more options. To leave a callback number, press 5. To send a fax, press 7. (Beep)”
5. For our audience, especially, typical marketing doesn’t work. They are extremely web savvy, and carry that internet chip on on their shoulders, so they’re typically skeptical of all marketing. Real voice has to happen. No BS.
6. Your customers are your knowledge base They help each other They warn of potential problems
7. While we do encourage community members to help other community members, we spend a great deal of time cultivating fans internally (ie employees) to help us cover all the major community areas. And, we never launch a community area without internal owners.
8. Very different ‘communities’ on Facebook, Twitter, and on your own site. Deliver content specific to that audience when you do any messaging.
9. Facebook you can be heavier on the communication, but people tend to passively ‘like’ rather than converse. For our audience, we rarely see debate on FB. On Twitter, heated debates can quickly become trends. People subscribe to searches on popular technologies. Different content for different audiences.
10. On Twitter especially. Depending on your audience, livetweeting can annoy. Know if people follow your company on their phone. If so, be careful of how often you tweet.
11. @s don’t go to all of your followers. .@s can solve that, but only use them if it’s important that all your followers see the info. Hashtags are great, but too many is annoying. Don’t spam hashtag. Always take the time to attribute to a service user if possible, rather than merely naming the person. RT often, but only excellent content. Don’t auto-DM followers. Don’t discuss private matters in a public forum.
12. Community is not easy Real work Real effort Real relationship Real loyalty Questions?