- 1 - Community building and new initiatives: Laying a successful path and how to be on target experiencing from pitfalls, successes and lessons learnt Workshop on ePractice Communities George Kolomvos EUROPEAN DYNAMICS S.A Brussels, 16 June 2010

- 2 - An online community …means displaying information that involves people of similar interests to interact and collaborate to build a communication platform…

- 3 - Create a community Set a clear focus and goals Pass a concise message across Identify key people to join and drive your community Ensure high quality content Disseminate community results to third party sites Engage & network with your audience from day one Promote your community using ePractice tools Why join? Expand your professional network – meet Tell your story; speak to events; reach a broader audience – share Enhance professional skills and abilities – learn

- 4 - Community implementation strategy 1.Attract new members 2.Solicit members to contribute and participate 3.Create channels to communicate information Members on epractice.eu Provide new content Discuss on content New members Final stakeholders 13 2

- 5 - Build a critical mass The Heart of your Community is your People! Target networks of experts Drive and engage key people to your community Build a relationship; interact with current and potential members Be personable, visible and approachable

- 6 - Trigger participation Study your community –learn members’ interests – consult stats on page visits –ask them about their interests and what they want to see in the community Search and post community-related content –within ePractice –propose content items to the ePractice editorial team –contact leaders of relevant projects Use ePractice content to create new content –act on your content; ask questions; feedback; opinions –post comments on items

- 7 - Trigger participation Use ePractice tools –post a blog –send a message –ask for opinions Organise workshops –give people the chance to meet & network –open up communication lines and enable synergies Encourage members to contribute/participate: –rewarding mechanism – kudos –upgrading membership Support –explain and guide: RSS Feeds, share content through social bookmarking web services –editorial support

- 8 - Dissemination Disseminate Community’s results : –Create communication channels –Join other networks and post information –Support community’s workshops and events –Engage third parties to support actions by publishing submitted articles/releases –Mailout of newsletters & updates

- 9 - Initiatives Articles –community towards an opinion-making role –a product to promote Community’s view to third parties –reinforce cohesion of the community Affiliates – projects and initiatives hosted within the Community – establish a win-win relation

A successful community... is an active community, with strong collective behaviour, whose impact reaches out the final stakeholders calling their network to take action… and finally build a community that stands on its own…