So You Want to Launch an Open Forum… Kelly Flowers-Steggles Principal GrowthVine Consulting Martha Jack Director eConverse Social Media

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What is an Open Forum? A community for all members--providing a place for the entire membership to communicate and collaborate. Discussion is open to anything and everything, not limited to a specific interest group, role, committee or component Purpose is to open lines of communication between entire membership and get the broadest reach for feedback among the membership. Takes away barriers of participation (cost, geography, experience, etc.) One of the greatest tools in your arsenal and often the mechanism to give your members access to each other that they’ve been asking for 3

Why would you do this? Ensures all members are subscribed to at least one community Takes away barriers to participation Assists in data collection Provides a sense of community 24/7, 365 Access to other members Huge member benefit One central place to communicate and track statistics Provides qualitative data on where member interests lie Regular reminder of community in members’ inboxes Associates industry expertise with your association brand 4

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Stages to launch the Open Forum Approval Pre-Launch Tech setup/decisions Communicate – coming soon/transition from old Launch process Hand-holding Troubleshoot Manage Report 6

Approval Defining WHY, goals, metrics Getting reference success stories from other HL clients Assigning staff ownership Outlining board involvement Proposed launch date Proposed staff/board time investment 7

Pre-Launch Tasks Write down tangible goals at launch, 3 months, 6 months, 1 year Decide data points for reporting Find beta/super users Validate s then clean data and auto-subscribe Place community on full moderation so no messages will go out Develop launch messaging Develop seed questions, answers and member contributors Create timeline for seed question launch Define owner of community for management and engagement **Branding or specific logo for Open Forum – “Ask your mates” 8

Tech Crash-Course Which Connected Community components will be offered Discussions Library Blogs Events Who will be included? (member types/security roles) Higher Logic needs to create if it will be auto- subscribed Importance of validation If >2,000 address, $0.05/address Full moderation 9

Membership in Open Forum 10 Auto-subscribed Opt-in Open Closed At Launch After Launch Your Open Forum

Seed Question Pointers Look at Analytics to see what are the most heavily trafficked pages and develop questions around those topics Get answers for every question you develop Develop provocative subject lines Run questions by super users Create timeline spreadsheet to track when you will launch each question Invite super users to post questions that will get caught in moderation that you can then post when you launch Make them short, but personal 11

Example – Seed Question Spreadsheet 12

Communicate 1. Coming Soon s/Transitioning timeline – via constant contact (4 weeks – to get seed questions) then again 1 week out 2. Launch date “We’re OPEN” mail merged with User name and password CEO/board president –via constant contact 3. Why this Open Forum ROCKS? (Board president)- via community 4. “Thanks” High ranking member- via community 5. Staff / Community Manager “Getting started/TIPS”- via community 13

Crucial Post-Launch Period Posting seed questions Monitoring organic questions and responses Pull reports frequently in beginning Asking for feedback and implementing changes Weed out unsubscribe requests and negative comments Remind of Terms of Use and Rules/Etiquette and Consequences How long…? 14

What is normal/expected? 5% – 15% unsubscribe rate over time 1% - 2% may be vocal about it in the beginning If you go with an opt-in model, it typically takes 6 months to get 20% subscribed For every 500 members, look to have 20 posts/month 15

Case Study: Society of Hospital Medicine Problem: Hesitancy to auto-subscribe Process/Solution: After many proposals, an auto-subscribed Open Forum was created April Huge selling point was the ability to pull people in to opt-in special interest groups. Result/Outcome: All members are now auto-subscribed, respecting expiry dates and grace periods. Unique logins, SIG membership, continues to grow. 16

Trouble Case Study: American Academy of Periodontology Problem- History of negative posters to list serv Process/Solution- Moved to Higher Logic to be able to moderate and minimize negative and unprofessional posts Result/Outcome- A standardized process to moderate, triage and keep the Open Forum valuable and productive 17

Problem: Inflammatory postings 18 Define what is inflammatory or a violation Re-define Terms of Use –what is acceptable, what is violation

Process/Solution #1 Put Open Forum on Self-Moderation Flag as Inappropriate Sent Message to Open Forum defining what self –moderation meant Moderating items moved into self-moderation Responding to members/complainants Making adjustments 19

Outcome/Problem of Self-Moderation Many members used “Flag as Inappropriate” just to DISAGREE with the posting 20

Process/Solution #2- Discussion Ad feedback form Changed to No Moderation Created Triage Process for moderation Read all messages/review Pull messages as needed Put individuals on moderation as needed Created discussion ad linking to review of Terms and complaint form Concerned about a posting page Created complaint form using Wufoo to allow members to alert staff of possible violationcomplaint form using Wufoo 21

Process/Solution 22 AAP Triage team and resolution

Outcome Only 8 posts pulled in 12 months Average of clicks on Discussion ad monthly Productive listserv Allows members to voice concerns Significantly decreases staff time to answer calls, s, etc about what is inappropriate 23

Case Study: Institute of Public Works Engineering Australasia Problem: How to grow database of non-members while providing value to both members/non-members Establish IPWEA as a global leader in Public Works Engineering Process/Solution: Created open forum that auto-subs all AMS contacts (web account creation, event registration, purchases, etc.) Result/Outcome: Membership has grown 50%, prospects doubled, website traffic quadrupled 24

Increasing Engagement- Open Forum 2.0 Review reports Adding functionality/components Ongoing feature additions Discussion Ads Conjunction with In Person event “Ask your mate HH” Moderated discussion/Live Chat – 1 pm Dr. Johnson will discuss…AANAC Book Club Introduce yourself here Infographic with 1 year stats 25

26 Manage Community ReportTroubleshoot *You may need to Relaunch*

What are you going to do Monday…? 27 Audit need for and/or state of current Open Forum Explore how your Open Forum fits in your org strategically Have “owner” connect with other departments Create an engagement strategy

Thank You! Martha Jack, B.J., M.A. Director, eConverse Social Kelly Flowers-Steggles Principal, GrowthVine