Stephen Dale Semantix (UK) Ltd www.semantix.co.uk Building & Nurturing Successful On-line Communities (…….batteries not included) Stephen Dale Semantix (UK) Ltd www.semantix.co.uk

What makes a successful CoP? clear purpose – what will it be used to do? creating a safe and trusted environment committed core group of active participants being motivated knowing the needs of participants having a clear action plan with activities to meet needs blending face-to-face and online activities Nurturing and sustaining the CoP requires effort and energy from a skilled facilitator. Why does a person engage with a CoP? Attractive purpose grabs and retains attention Perceived benefits: Socialisation Co-learning, knowledge sharing and co-production Each person chooses to be a member Volition Joining in – and leaving!

Facilitator Responsibilities Supporting sociability, relationship and trust building Seed and feed discussion topics Maintain and sustain the communities health Direct knowledge nuggets for capture and reuse Work to network community members Provide basic help as needed with the tools Reporting CoP activity – metrics, evaluations Ensure the space is kept "tidy" and navigable Monitoring success criteria and impact http://www.communities.idea.gov.uk

Facilitating online - the challenges Designing the right mix of online and off-line activities ('blended learning') Catering for different learning styles and needs Learning to become a 'guide' or 'facilitator' Dealing with administrative, technical issues and support requirements, and issues of time Avoiding the dangers of misinterpretation of text Finding the right voice Standing back, and allowing members to discover the power In the beginning, you need at least one unexpected value for the members every few days. Keep it simple: Involve your team in feeding the community with interesting content, such current news, events, training offers, key documents etc. Rely on the fun factor: polls and fancy stuff like video, photos and audio can be motivating and reduce anxieties, especially in the beginning http://www.communities.idea.gov.uk

Understanding your Community Helping Communities Best Practice Communities Knowledge Stewarding Communities Innovation Communities Drivers Lower cost through reuse Social responsibility Lower cost through standardisation Consistency of project Improves outcomes Professional development Tracks shifting marketing trends Regulation and legislation Activities Connecting members Knowledge who’s who Collecting, Vetting Publishing Enlisting leading experts Manage content Decipher trends Share insights Development of Policy Structure and roles Problem solving Sub committees Index and store Best practice Task force Domain experts Sub-committees Reward for participation Sense of belonging Assistance to daily work Desire for improvement Passion for the topic Job responsibility to detect emerging trends Knowledge Tacit - high socialisation Low tacit Explicit to explore Tacit to explicit Tacit to tacit Explicit to tacit. Understanding your community will help you to anticipate its needs.

Comment with attribution Levels of engagement Browse (Anon) Comment Register Comment with attribution Ask a question with attribution Start a forum topic Upload a video Write a blog Become a mentor Become an expert Level of engagement Engaging new members Introduction forums are great way to help people familiarise themselves with an online community, and are simple to set up. By asking a fun question this will allow them to express their personality or interesting things about themselves, and it will help people get to know each other better. Type of engagement http://steve-dale.net

Understanding the community profile Observers Power Contributors Inactive Know who your contributors are – and look after them! Observers (some call them ‘lurkers’) are still valuable members of the community. The fact that they accessing and reading content contributes to the overall dynamics of the community. Inactive users (those who have registered but have not contributed or accessed any content) should be removed. It is necessary to ‘feed’ and weed’ a community in order for it to flourish and grow. Know who your contributors are – and look after them! http://steve-dale.net

The community will have a rhythm of activity A facilitator needs to understand the natural rhythm of the community. It won’t be ‘full-on’ all the time and there may be periods of inactivity. Knowing when to intervene comes from understanding these cycles of activity/inactivity. Understanding the rhythm helps you keep with the beat! http://steve-dale.net

Community Metrics http://www.communities.idea.gov.uk

Network maps provide insight and prompt questions “I frequently or very frequently receive information from this person that I need to do my job.” Knowledge flows along existing pathways in organizations. To understand the knowledge flow, find out what the patterns are. Create interventions to create, reinforce, or change the patterns to improve the knowledge flow. Hutchinson Associates 2005

Engagement Strategies: Hot seats Can be used to attract new members to the community. Enables participants to ask the person in the hot seat (usually an expert in their field) questions, to which they can respond over a set period of time. Normally run using the forum, but they can also be run as a phone conference, webinar or interview Source: http://www.communities.idea.gov.uk/

Engagement Strategies: Newsletters Regular newsletters signposting new and interesting content will draw members back into the CoP.

CoP Health Check Symptom Actions No participation or activity. No new documents or links posted No new discussion threads, announcements or news Post new content, requesting feedback and comments to elicit new conversation. Remind people to set alerts for the site. Talk to members to find out what people are working on and ask people what they would like to see on it. Activity only by a few people Call or email members who haven’t participated for a while; find out why they haven’t been participating. Use those conversations to elicit new content and encourage contribution. Be sure that the people who are not contributing understand how to use the tools. Never assume that tools are “intuitive” to everyone, or that everyone understands how to use them. People use email instead of posting questions and discussions on the CoP The email habit is a hard one to break. If the goal of the community is to capture all the relevant discussions for future use, then the community facilitator needs to take a strong stand with members. One way to do this is to make a public statement that no questions sent by individual email will be answered, but that questions posted to the community will always be answered in set time. Another approach is to respond to all email questions by asking the requestor to post the question in the forum. Sudden drop in discussions where there was previous activity. Review the postings for potential “flaming”. Edit the discussion threads to remove inappropriate comments (and state that you have done so). Speak with the people who have posted and clarify the norms for participation of the community. Another community is focused on the same topic. If the members of the other community are current or previous members of your community, talk to them about why the community isn’t meeting their needs. If they do want to take a specific focus, then be sure that you have set up cross-linkages to the other community sites, and are referring people back and forth as needed. If the new community consists of people who are not participating in the current community, ask some of the same questions. See if there is sufficient overlap that the new community might be better managed as a Sub - CoP of the current site or a merger between the communities A simple CoP health check will guide the facilitator on suitable interventions for various ‘symptoms’ of an unhealthy CoP. Source: http://www.communities.idea.gov.uk/

Help for Facilitators http://www.communities.idea.gov.uk Having a place to go to get help and information is essential. The on-line facilitator’s CoP is a place for ‘crowd-sourcing’ and co-creation of useful information and good practice. http://www.communities.idea.gov.uk

Community Facilitator Check-List Recognize and market achievements of the whole community in front of the company and other communities Recognize and market community successes and their effect on: Customer service Innovation Creation of new lines of business Newsletters Publications Recognize and Market communities internally and externally Sell successes up to senior management via storytelling of community achievements Single out key players for their accomplishments in front of their peers Create programs that recognize leaders, communities, membership and community roles Recognizing volunteers, especially in community roles where there was no compensation, is essential Use the community sponsor as an important spokesperson Create community posters, newsletters, publications, tools, brochures, etc. Create programs that recognize community contributions, participation, helping peers, sharing experiences, connecting experts, and mentoring. Create processes for rewarding knowledge nuggets captured, created, and shared Convey a feeling of appreciation for members through positive reinforcement http://www.communities.idea.gov.uk

Summary Build it and they won’t come…technology by itself won’t guarantee a successful community. The facilitator (or community manager) is the key to a successful and vibrant community. It’s hard work and requires lots of energy… When deploying the technology, remember… batteries are not included!

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