Challenges, pitfalls & possibilities of implementing and building an online community

1. Challenges, pitfalls & possibilities of implementing and building an online community June 30, 2009 Tom Diederich: Manager, Community Management Services

2. Agenda • What’s a community? • Intuit: Where I learned the basics • Symantec: Starting from scratch -- almost • Cadence: A fresh start • Community best and worst practices • Blog best and worst practices • Q&A

3. What do I mean by “community”? • Large, ongoing, user-driven • By large I mean >5,000 target audience. • Created by a company for its customers • Otherwise known as an “enterprise community.” • Including the following technologies, in this order: • Forums • Blogs • Everything else

4. Intuit: Where I learned the basics • I saw the future! Moved from internal communications department to TurboTax community team • Cut my teeth as a forums moderator • A moderator is more than a cop! Ideally, the moderator is a community manager “in training” • Took what I learned and moved to Symantec as community manager to build my first online community

5. Starting from scratch – almost • Symantec inherited an existing community from Veritas acquisition in 2003. • The Veritas Architect Network (VAN) experienced 3 years of autopilot mode until I joined in 2006 -- yet customers kept it breathing: Namely three “super-users” (customers) who answered 90% of all customer inquiries. • Aside from the forums, all other areas of the legacy VAN community were obsolete. They needed a fresh start. I turned to the three super-users and we forged an alliance. Together, we built…

6. The Symantec Technology Network (STN) Tech news Articles and white papers written for our IT customers and prospective customers. Tech videos Landing page includes an embedded video player for product demos, tech talk & coverage from Vision and other industry events. Expert blogs An informal vehicle for talking directly to customers and partners on topics and issues that matter to them. Forums Q&A and threaded discussion on topics related to Symantec’s products.

7. Cadence: A fresh start • Had no community – the opportunity to start completely fresh!

8. At Cadence, community was the front-page • Promotion of your community is key. At Cadence, we put the community front and center on cadence.com! • I limited the community to two main sections: Forums and blogs. • I looked at blogs in a new way: treating them like a newspaper.

9. Forums & Blog structure • Newspapers have sections: Front page; local news, international news, business, sports, etc. • I took the same approach to the blog and forumcategories, knowing that chip designers(Cadence customers) specialize in 1 (or more)of 9 major areas of expertise. • I recruited product managers, engineers andarchitects and assigned them to the appropriateblog categories (authors) and forums (SMEs). • Later I identified customer “super-users” & recruited them to moderate specific forums.

10. Adding a “professional” blogger • Newspapers also have their “rock stars” (columnists). • Cadence – taking advantage of the slow death of traditional “print” newspapers – recruited Richard Goering, one of the best-known journalists in the EDA space. • New category added just for Rich titled: “Industry Insights.”

11. Some folks are natural bloggers • It’s easy for journalists to settle in as bloggers, but not always so easy for engineers and architects. Blog workshops and regular editorial meetings help here. • Bob Dwyer, an application engineer,inspired others with his innovative use of video in his blogs.

12. Others have good intentions… • Not to pick on Peter, but blog recruitment is a challenge. And should never end. • If 100 people volunteer to blog, 10 or less will ever post; and half of those will ever post more than once or twice. • Some folks need morecoaching than othersto get up to speed. • The key to success isto have a dedicatedblog “managing editor.”

13. Where I am today: Lithium Technologies We power some of the largest and most successful communities on the web!

14. Community best practices: What I’ve learned • A business owner who oversees budget and sets direction. • A community manager who conducts planning and day-to-day decision-making. • A moderator who sets the tone, enforces rules, and helps users. • Defined roles for staff and users, and software that supports those roles. • A set of comprehensive user guidelines. • Well-defined procedures for when violations or other issues arise. • High visibility to potential users. • The proper structure and atmosphere to engage users. • A well-managed group of “superusers.” • Strong measurementprocesses focused on business value.

15. Community worst practices: What I’ve learned • “We want to do this community as a pilot.” • "We want to use this primarily as an acquisition tool.” • "You will have to register in order to see the community.” • "We need to keep this under the radar for the first few months.” • "We don't know who will be serving as our administrator/community manager.” • "We think networking is the primary reason people are going to use the community.” • “We want to start with 20 (or 200) forums.” • "We want people to pay to participate.” • "This is a marketing community, not a support community.” • "We are targeting the CXO level."

16. Blog best practices: What worked for me • The community manager should treat his/her blog program like a newspaper. • The bloggers are your reporters. Hold weekly editorial meetings. • Hand out assignments based on product releases, industry events, etc. • Spontaneous posts are still encouraged. • Build and maintain an editorial calendar to mitigate gaps between posts. • Execs also like to know what’s in thepipeline – they generally don’t likesurprises. • Try to streamline the approval process(too many cooks…)

17. How it’s done right: CM Laura Buchanan

18. Blog worst practices • Keep it simple – don’t make it harder to blog for your company. • Complex approval workflow • Heavy-handed editing • Multi-layer review process • Obvious executive scrutiny • Choose bloggers you trust, and then trust them to do good work

19. More blog worst practices • Ghost blog, fake blog or blog comments • Using fictitious characters as blog authors • Heavy-handed moderation • Too formal and polished • Regurgitating existing company collateral verbatim • No blogging editorial calendar • Long gaps between posts • No structure to your blog program (like a newspaper with no sections).

20. Q&A

21. Let’s connect! • E-mail: tom.diederich@lithium.com or tdieds@me.com • My blog: http://lithosphere.lithium.com/t5/Getting-Social/bg-p/TomD • On Twitter: https://twitter.com/Dieds • On Facebook: www.facebook.com/Dieds • LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/tomdiederich Thank you!