Building Online communities – a case study Eela Devani Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

Definition Connecting a group of people online and making them feel a part of something special This 'something special’ element is often the overlooked part

Some key pointers 1.The community must have a purpose. Your community must have a purpose that matters to the people you’re trying to reach 2.Create content for and about your community 3.Recognise individual contributions from members. It is the most important way to encourage further contributions 4.Allow heated debates happen. Good debates are vital for successful communities, whether they are controversial or not 5.Have someone managing this: someone who worries about it everyday 6.Share control and power with members. This increases their involvement and ownership.

Typical objectives Repeat purchase and increased retention Attract new registrants and customers New revenue opportunities Reduced marketing costs Feedback and innovation One or more of these objectives can be typical. Objectives such as engagement on site may be a few layers below these

Writers & Artists: where it all began The publication of the Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook 2014 is the 107 th edition of the book. The book is a “how to guide to getting published” The decision to take this brand into the digital age was a simple one: – Writers are hungry for information and need guidance along the writing journey – Research conducted a couple of years ago suggested that the industry and the process was still a mystery for most people and every writer feels like they are on a journey that they all have to go through and it has the same distinct stages for everyone

The Writers and Artists opportunity Lay out the journey for writers and allow them to understand what they needed to do when and provide them with the 1:1 support at every step of the way Act as the “how to” in both the offline and online world

Strategy Help Writers and Artists successfully acquire the understanding, skills and support to get published and develop their writing careers. There are two key elements to this strategy: 1. Expert support: Publishing professionals help writers and artists with a range of paid for writing services 2. Community support: Facilitating a proactive community of writers and artists who help each other

The new Writers & Artists positioning Professional tailored writing advice to help writers get their book published properly, at every stage of your journey, whatever their experience or circumstances The Writers and Artists website combines three sources of advice and information: Free editorial content on all aspects of the writing and publishing process Lively community hub: peer writers and experts advice through community tools Commercial activity : online and offline author services and books

The Writers & Artists community offering Features Submit Q&As as well as respond to questions Comment on blogs Connect with other writers Share your work Write your own blog Enter competitions Reward points: uploading original pieces of work, providing feedback, asking questions on Q+A threads. Points = books and discounts on events and services

How the community works Writers & Artists internal role is to: Post articles and blogs Obtain inspirational interviews with authors that upcoming writers aspire to Moderate the Q&As and shared works threads As “Admin”, we allow the community to connect and talk to each other. A few instances have occurred where we have had to step in Even in these instances, the spirit of the community has shone through

Progressing to an offline community For the past two years, we have also offered the following offline events: How to get Published: one day conference Beat the Rejection clinic: 1:1 with a literary agent How to hook an Agent: half day masterclass with speed dating with an agent at the end

Growing a community means giving Some examples of social media activity Whether it is for a good cause... Something inspirational.... Something funny...

Partnering to deliver the something special National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) Five writers taking part in NaNoWriMo have agreed to blog during in November The five writers will receive a free editorial service (How Strong is Your Book Idea?) worth £ each Sections of their feedback will be made available in a final blog. Visitors to our site will be able to follow their progress, comment and offer advice

How our community has helped us achieve our objectives Registrations up by 50% since the site launched in Dec 2011 New revenue stream: 25% new revenues Twitter followers grown by 300% in the last 12 months Facebook followers grown by 55% in the last 12 months

Extending our community further.....