BUILDING COMMUNITIES

W h a t I l e a r n e d f r o m f a s h i o n b l o g g e r s .

H o w t o b u i l d f o r e n g a g e m e n t .

S o m e c o m m u n i t y m a n a g e m e n t t i p s .

w e a r d r o b e

MAKE YOURSELF CHOOSE

1 . D E F I N E A S I N G L E A U D I E N C E A R C H E T Y P E : - i t w i l l f o r c e y o u t o f o c u s o n t h e m o s t i m p o r t a n t ( b l o g g e r, d e s i g n e r, t e e n y b o p p e r ) - i t i s o k t o h a v e m u l t i p l e a r c h e t y p e s a s l o n g a s y o u s p e a k t o e a c h e f f e c t i v e l y

2 . F O C U S O N O N E R E A S O N W H Y: - w h y y o u a r e b u i l d i n g t h e p r o d u c t - w h y w o u l d y o u r a u d i e n c e u s e y o u r p r o d u c t

DEFINE & MEASURE

activation view a photo post a photo share a photo

Visitors“Users”

Contributors“Advocates”

Distributors“Evangelists”

they defend your productand give feedback

an opportunity to build advocates

they actively promote yourproduct to outside usersdefinition

kindly borrowed and tweaked from 500 Hats.

visit 2x/mo. for 2 mo.submit “hi-res” photo

every mo. (=> 1,000 visits/yr)

share/embed a photo=> drive 500 visits/mo.

for 3+ mo.retentionmetric

WHAT DRIVES USERS?

hope

fear

Positive Emotions Negative Emotions

pleasure pain

belonging

(use these emotions toempower users to policecontent as well as keepthe community in check)

(use these emotions to encourage engagementwith features, interviews,badges, points, ratings

and comments)

rejection

there’s also greed (to make $, get prizes, etc), but that’s another analysis to look at ROI.

WHY ENGAGE?

1 . A N T I C I PAT E D R E C I P R O C I T Y - w a n t c o m m e n t s , f e e d b a c k , a t t e n t i o n

2 . I N C R E A S E D R E C O G N I T I O N - w a n t y o u t o d r i v e t r a f f i c t o t h e m

3 . S E N S E O F E F F I C A C Y - w a n t t o m a k e a d i f f e r e n c e f o r o t h e r s

4 . S E N S E O F C O M M U N I T Y - w a n t t o f e e l p a r t o f s o m e t h i n g b i g g e r

LET THEM EAT CAKE

Pa r t o f b u i l d i n g a c o m m u n i t y i s a l l o w i n g u s e r st o m a n a g e t h e m s e l v e s , w h i c h f o s t e r s a s e n s e o f o w n e r s h i p f r o m t h e u s e r.

GENERAL TIPS

R e s p o n d t o e v e r y e m a i l , e v e n i f i t ’ s h e l l o .

B e t r a n s p a r e n t a n d h o n e s t w i t h y o u r c o m m u n i t y.

M a n a g e w i t h a l i g h t t o u c h ( w i t h c u r a t i o n ) .

G i v e u s e r s o w n e r s h i p o f t h e c o m m u n i t y.

K e e p t h e m u p d a t e d t o c h a n g e s a n d f e a t u r e s .

U p d a t e y o u r b l o g o r l i n k t o y o u r o w n b l o g .

SAY SORRY

S a y i n g s o r r y g o e s a l o n g w a y ( b e c u t e ,c h e e k y o r r e a l l y d e s p e r a t e ) .

“ in our services and products, we try harder.” - Avis

SAY THANK YOU

A l w a y s r e m e m b e r t o t h a n k y o u r u s e r sf o r a l l t h a t t h e y d o ( e m a i l s , s n a i l m a i l ,g i f t s , m e e t u p s , s h o u t o u t s ) .

CONTACT

Q U E S T I O N S ? S U G G E S T I O N S ? I D E A S ?

@ s u z a n n e x i e

s u z a n n e . x i e @ gm a i l . c om