WHAT IS COMMUNITY?

OPEN CLASSROOM CONSULTING

Hello!I am Melissa JonesI believe educators can apply business practices to improvelearning design.

You can find me at @openclssrm and hello@openclassroomhq.com

Many successful businesses rely on community strategies to drive their bottom line. Here are three lessons about community for learning designers from companies like Lyft:

Effective community strategies work for companies and customers.

Effective community strategiescreate an opportunity to reach shared goals.

SharedGoals

Business Objectives

UserNeeds

2.A community strategy is not about you; it’s about your users AND you.

Communities are notmegaphones.

Successful communities don’t exist to push information to members, in the hopes that members will share or amplify those messages.

If this is your approach, you don’t need a community. You need a marketing strategy.

Communities arenetworks of relationships.

Successful communities exist to connect members to you AND to one another.

The value comes in the organic nature of those connections, and the learning that results.

3.Your community can do a lot, but they can’t make up for poor planning.

“ Authentic, 1:1 personal connections are meaningful, emotional and sticky.

▪ Emily Castor, Lyft Community Strategist

A STRONG COMMUNITYdoesn’t happen by magic. It develops because you have one or all of the

following: ▪ a great product ▪ an awesome user experience▪ a community strategy that resonates▪ a kick-butt community manager

Effective community strategies are not replacements for:

Customer SupportYou still need a way to provide good information to your users if they get stuck. A Help Desk can have a community component, but good old fashioned FAQs or anointed “experts” -- often employees -- will still be necessary.

MarketingYour community can help get the word out about your business and products, but they can’t do it alone. You’ll need a clear marketing strategy that makes your value prop clear.

CommunicationYour community will rely on you to provide clear communications -- email, social media, your website. They’ll often leverage what you provide to share with their own networks.

Effective community strategies add value to and support these core business functions, but they won’t replace them.

A rich learning community can mean all the difference for your learners and their experience. Keep in mind:

Find a common goalWhat do both you AND your learners care about?

Invest in your community.Communities can work wonders, but they need love and care to grow.

Focus on relationships.How can you take yourself out of the equation and let learners learn from one another?

Thanks!!To learn more about community management for learning, visit openclassroomhq.com

You can find me at @openclssrm & hello@openclassroomhq.com

Credits

Special thanks to all the people who made and released these awesome resources for free:▪ Presentation template by SlidesCarnival▪ Photographs by Unsplash and Wikimedia