Public Disclosure Authorized Public Disclosure Authorized
BUILDING Public Disclosure Authorized COMMUNITY A PRIMER 2018 UPDATE Public Disclosure Authorized BUILDING COMMUNITY—A PRIMER PROJECT LEAD(s): Andrei Tolstopiatenko, Emilia Galiano WRITER: Ray Eisenberg SUBJECT MATTER EXPERTS: Ivan Butina, Bruce Summers, Claudia Oliveira Neto Teixeira, Michael Haws and Fatbardha Ajeti GRAPHIC DESIGN: Corporate Visions / Michael Haws TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...... 5 How to Use this Primer...... 5 Feedback...... 5
I - COMMUNITY BUILDING...... 7 Defining Community...... 7
Community and Community of Practice Defined...... 7 Sense of Community...... 7 Roles in the Community...... 8 Community Lifecycle...... 9
Planning Your Community...... 11 Conducting a Competitive Analysis...... 11 Conducting an Audience Analysis...... 12
Designing Your Community...... 16 Recruiting and Creating a Core Group...... 16 Principles of Good Community Design...... 18 Community Focus...... 19 Creating a Community Charter...... 20 Defining Community Value...... 21 Specifying Measures and Return on Investment (ROI)...... 21 Convening Venues...... 23
Launching Your Community...... 25 Setting up Your Convening Venues...... 25 Selecting a Collaboration Platform...... 25 Setting up the Collaboration Platform...... 25
Expanding Your Community...... 31 Community Manager Framework and Key Areas of Activity...... 31 Engaging in Key Community Building Activities...... 31
II - COMMUNITY MANAGEMENT...... 39 Growing Communities...... 39 Growth Channels and the Community Lifecycle...... 39 Reasons to Grow Your Community...... 40 Reasons Not to Grow Your Community...... 40 How to Grow Your Community...... 40 Growth Tactics and the Community Lifecycle...... 41 Growing a Community - Summary...... 44
BUILDING COMMUNITY—A PRIMER I 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS continued
Initiating and Sustaining Discussions in a Community...... 44 Discussions, Relationships, and Communities...... 44 Principles from Facilitation...... 45 Framework for Initiating Discussions...... 45 Types of Discussion...... 46 Guidelines for Sustaining Discussions...... 48
Content and Content Planning...... 49 The Purpose and Importance of Content...... 49 Making Existing Content More Social...... 50 Creating New Social Content...... 50 Principles of Creating Good Social Content...... 51 Content Themes...... 51 Creating a Content Calendar...... 52
Events and Activities...... 53 The Role of Events...... 53 Shared Experiences and the Hierarchy of Social Presence...... 54 Types of Events...... 54 Activities and Content for Creating Great Events...... 55 Scheduling Round-table Discussions...... 56
III - WORK BOOK...... 59 Defining and Planning Your Community...... 60 Designing Your Community for Success...... 64 (Re)launching Your Community...... 69 Planning for Your Next 3 Months...... 76 CM Level 1 Checklist...... 81
IV - ADDITIONAL RESOURCES...... 83 Learning, References, and Links...... 83 Glossary...... 84 Useful Links...... 85 Community Building Checklist...... 86
Community Examples...... 88 Jobs Gateway in South Eastern Europe Community of Practice (147 members)...... 88 KnowledgeMatters! Community of Practice (521 members)...... 89 Social Inclusion GSG Community of Practice (330 members) ...... 90 SecureNutrition Community of Practice (6,200 members)...... 91
4 I INTRODUCTION
This primer provides concrete steps and tools to help you build a community of practitioners and/or online community in the context of the World Bank Group (WBG). Here when we use the word “community” we mean either community of practice or online community in the WBG context. We will differentiate between the two where needed.
The primer is divided into four sections: • Community Design and Building • Community Management • Work Book • Resources
Community and community building will vary in its audiences—geographically, culturally, linguistically, politically, historically, and economically—and in its implementation given all these different contexts, but the principles remain consistent. This primer expands on these principles within the framework of the WBG.
How to Use this Primer For those of you who have not taken the Community Management Training, and have not had any other formal community management training or experience, it is recommended that you go through the material in the order that it is presented.
If you have taken community management training or are an experienced community manager, use this primer for reference as you go through the process of building your community, dipping into it where and when appropriate.
Feedback We would love to hear from you about how you are using the primer, including any errors you find, omissions of material that you would like to see included, and other suggestions that you might have.
If you are a World Bank employee, you can post your comments to the WBG Community Managers community on the Intranet.
If you have accessed this document through the Open Learning Campus or the World Bank Documents and Reports, you can post comments at this link: https://olc.worldbank.org/content/building-community-primer-english
BUILDING COMMUNITY—A PRIMER I 5 6 I 1
COMMUNITY BUILDING
This Community Building section deals with Here the stress is on the importance of the “A group of people who the following topics: regularity of interaction among members, share a concern or Defining Community and on their professional development through peer learning. Simply put, the goal Planning Community passion for something of a community of practice is to help its that they do, and learn Designing Community members get better at what they do by Launching Your Community interacting with and learning from each other how to do it better as over time. Expanding Your Community they interact regularly.” A community of practice is definitely not defined by an online space; it is not defined Defining Community by a web site. In fact, a community of practice If you asked 100 people to define might or might not have an online space to community, you would probably receive meet and share. On the other hand, at the 100 different definitions. In this section, WBG communities of practice are only one we look at: type of existing online community. In fact, if Community versus communities we take a look at our collaboration platforms, of practice we’ll find online communities that also Sense of community belong to teams, departments, units, GPs, projects, and others. However, while there are Roles in a community structural differences between a community Community lifecycle of practice and an online community that doesn’t belong to a community of practice, Community and Community the principles of community management of Practice Defined are true for both. The World Bank Group defines a community of practice (CoP) as a gathering of individuals Sense of Community motivated by the desire to cross organizational A key characteristic of successful boundaries, to relate to one another, and to communities (successful meaning active, build a body of actionable knowledge through engaged communities that people want to coordination and collaboration. As you can see, visit, and where members contribute on a the focus is on members who are motivated regular basis) is a sense of community. to connect with one another beyond This concept was developed by McMillan & organizational boundaries. Chavis (Sense of Community: A Definition Here are two important concepts for today’s and Theory, David W. McMillan and David WBG: “actionable knowledge,” meaning M. Chavis, Journal of Community Psychology, knowledge that is actually integrated Volume 14, 1986). They state that a sense of and implemented in operations; and community can be broken down conceptually “collaboration.” into four elements: Another definition, by community of practice Membership guru Etienne Wenger, nicely complements Influence the WBG definition: “A group of people who Fulfillment of needs share a concern or passion for something Emotional connection that they do, and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly.”
BUILDING COMMUNITY—A PRIMER I 7 Membership identification with that history, and a deeply Figure 1 is a diagram developed by FeverBee, Membership refers to who is in the felt connection between members. Ltd., a leading community management community and who is out. It shows consultancy, showing the multiple duties of a that people value being a member, and Roles in the Community community manager. being identified as a member. Fan clubs No single person can run a community by The diagram illustrates eight areas of a are an extreme example of the power of him/herself. There are several roles that need community manager’s scope of work: membership and are often characterized by to be filled if a community is to be successful. strategy, growth, moderation, content, symbols of membership: badges, t-shirts, This does not mean that there has to be a relationships, events and activities, business and so on. Professional associations are separate person for every single role but the integration, and user experience. also extreme examples of communities of roles should be identified and defined clearly Clearly, this is enough work for a full time practice. before those roles are assigned to members. position! We understand that not all When you are setting up your community, Role of the Community Manager communities can afford to have a dedicated you need to be clear about who is in and who full-time community manager, and there can is out. For example, is your community only Building a successful community of practice be alternatives. However, the dedication and for senior economists dealing with world or online community requires lots of effort. amount of work a community requires to economic issues at the macro level? Or is Ideally, a community should have a person succeed does not change. it for all members of the Bank who have a dedicated to working on it. The community manager generally reports to passing interest in these matters? Is it for the community leader (see Other Community Bank employees and contractors only, or is it for an external audience of partners, NGOs, and academic institutions as well? Figure 1: Community Manager’s Scope of Work Influence Influence refers to the notion that “my voice COMMUNITY counts.” When you speak, others listen and MANAGER’S SCOPE often act on your advice. At the very least, being a member of this community should OF WORK assure you of the opportunity to speak STRATEGY and ensure that you will be heard. At the same time you allow for other members to USER influence you because you value their opinion GROWTH and advice. EXPERIENCE
Fulfillment of needs People belong to communities to satisfy one or more needs; in a community of practice, the primary need is to get better BUSINESS at one’s job or profession. In a community COMMUNITY INTEGRATION MODERATION of practice, strong relationships might also MANAGER develop between members but that is not the primary motivation for association. If the content is not appropriate, relevant, current, or useful, then attendance, contributions, participation, engagement, and membership will soon begin to fall. EVENTS/ CONTENT ACTIVITIES Emotional connection An emotional connection is the most RELATIONSHIPS nebulous aspect of the sense of community but for true community, often the most important. Emotional connection includes shared history and shared participation and
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Roles following), so until your community day, the more the sponsor is aware of and has achieved sufficient mass and budget, participates in the development of the TIP the community leader can function as the community, the more likely the community manager. will be valued and supported. Therefore, it’s The creation of subgroups often has important to regularly report to a sponsor— to wait until the community obtains Other Community Roles possibly on a quarterly basis—and to ask for sufficient mass to support any sub- input. Even if you are or have a dedicated division, and it is recommended that community manager for your community, you preserve the cohesion of the the manager cannot do everything alone, Knowledge Management (KM) Advisor community as a whole before creating especially if the goal is a successful and Some communities at the WBG have any subgroups. growing community that thrives. a dedicated knowledge management There are several other roles that can be advisor. This is a knowledge management delegated to different members: professional who might dedicate a FeverBee describes the community lifecycle Community Leader or Co-Leaders percentage of his or her time—in agreement with his or her manager—to as consisting of four stages: inception, Community Sponsor the support of the community. While most establishment, maturity, and mitosis. Knowledge Management Adviser knowledge management professionals In the inception phase, the community Community Manager Backup are knowledgeable about communities of manager and members with more formal Project/Subgroup Leaders practice in general, they can bring additional roles (See “Other Community Roles” One person can fulfill more than one of expertise on how to capture, package, preceding) create more than 50% of a these roles, and this is often the case when organize, and disseminate the knowledge— community’s content and directly invite more starting communities. mostly tacit—that is shared in a community. than 50% of the community’s members. As
Community Leader Community Manager Backup these percentages shrink, the community graduates to the establishment and maturity Usually a community of practice or online A community leader might be able to tap phases. community at the WBG has at least one into additional human resources by obtaining technical expert that acts as the community a percentage of some staff time to be leader. A community can have a co- dedicated to the community. If not technical leadership model with usually two, but experts, these people can be dedicated to Figure 2: Four Life Stages sometimes three or four co-leaders. The specific community management tasks, according to their time availability, and community leader has a full time job in his or Inception Establishment her area of expertise and can dedicate only a can serve as a backup for the community small amount a time to the community. manager. The community manager is hired by and Community Project/Subgroup Leader reports to the community leader, who Finally, as the community grows and 4 provides the technical expertise that a community manager usually doesn’t have. expands, some community members can LIFE The community leader is mainly involved on take on dedicated roles as leaders of a the strategic level of the community and— community project or a subgroup. For STAGES because of an acknowledged skill set as a example, a health care professional’s of Community Management technical expert—is key in role modeling the community can create a project dedicated to behaviors expected of community members. reviewing the implications of new legislation Mitosis Maturity If a community leader doesn’t have the on health care in a specific region. budget to hire a community manager, then the leader has to cover that role. Community Lifecycle Image courtesy of Feverbee, Ltd. Like people, communities have a lifecycle: a Community Sponsor community is born, it grows, and eventually A community’s sponsor is the organizational dies; although as communities continue to be manager who provides the budget for the refreshed by new membership, communities community and to whom the community can often change significantly over time leader reports. While not expected to be without actually “dying.” very involved in the community day-to-
BUILDING COMMUNITY—A PRIMER I 9 Figure 3: Lifecycle stages and task descriptions
This primer focuses on the inception, establishment and maturity phases. Image courtesy of Feverbee, Ltd.
10 I COMMUNITY BUILDING
“Both the community Planning Your Community leader and the Planning your community involves the Learn what works and what doesn’t following: from existing relevant communities. community manager Conducting a competitive analysis Identify opportunities to leverage should be involved in Conducting an audience analysis existing communities and collaborate Defining and refining your domain with them. the planning phase.” Defining and refining your audience A competitive analysis helps you visualize how your idea of community fits into the In this primer, the two analyses are presented domain’s existing ecosystem of communities, sequentially, with the audience analysis networks, and other relevant professional following the competitive one. However, you gatherings. can do them in parallel or do either one first. When conducting your analysis, refer to the Conducting a Competitive “Competitive Analysis Template” (see Work Analysis Book) where you can find a set of questions to help you research your community. Both the community leader and the community manager should be involved in Searching for Communities at the the planning phase. World Bank Group Planning your community involves the The WBG has several directories that will be following: useful to you when conducting a competitive Conducting a competitive analysis analysis of existing World Bank communities. Conducting an audience analysis Defining and refining your domain Defining and refining your audience TIP Whether you have been assigned the task of creating a community or you want to create a community, you definitely have an idea If you don’t find any community like of what it should be about, and for whom. the one you have in mind, it doesn’t However your idea for this community might necessarily mean that you have a genius not be unique. Maybe there are other existing idea that no one else thought of before. communities that are exactly like or closely It could be that no one cares enough resemble the one you have in mind or are about the topic! Make sure that you are somehow relevant to it. not the only one who thinks that this “community” is a good idea. A competitive analysis helps you achieve several objectives: Avoid duplication. Better focus your community by identifying a specific area or niche.
BUILDING COMMUNITY—A PRIMER I 11 One of them is the OLC Connect page: https://olc.worldbank.org/wbg-connect. Figure 4: OLC WBc Connect This is a database of WBG communities. Here you can easily search by topic, geographic focus, sponsoring Vice Presidency, or by using keywords in the Search function. Each community has a dedicated page indicating the community leader(s), and providing other key information such as its organizational mapping and a link to its online site, as well as its purpose, objectives, and activities. Other places where WBG communities can be found are: the Updated WBG Communities Inventory in the WBG Community Managers group and the Intranet Resource Center Directory. Conducting an Audience Analysis The audience analysis helps you get to know and understand your potential members—especially what motivates them and what they value. Why is this important? A community is made up of the people who Figure 5: Intranet Community Directory decide to join it and make it come alive. If you don’t have members who actively participate in the community, then you don’t have a community. But how do you make sure that members actively participate? This is the biggest challenge for anyone who has tried to build a community here at the WBG. You need to provide value to your members! Think of yourself: would you take time to participate in something that doesn’t offer you any value? Probably not. Your community members feel the same way! But how do you know what value you can provide to your members? Yes, you might have some ideas, but don’t assume! You might be wrong. You need to analyze your audience—your potential members—to understand what they value that you can offer them. Community is all about shared value. A community has to provide value, and this value is a combination of business value (what value does the community provide to
12 I COMMUNITY BUILDING
the organization?) and member value (what talk about in the community and why they value does the community provide to its should go there. TIP members?). You also need to clearly define your audience by narrowing down your target audience— Defining the domain and the audience your potential members. Figure 6: Community means shared value is not a one-time event; it is a process A domain that is too vague, with a undertaken over time that will change membership that is too vast, will not work; as your analysis, your interviews, and for example, all professionals working in your interactions with the Core Group education. reveal the right members for the right subjects. These could also change as So, narrow down the target domain and think your community matures: a community of a more specific audience to start with, so initially set up for novices might that they have something more concrete morph or expand into a community for they can engage around. Have at least two experts. qualifiers. You can get even more specific and have more qualifiers but always have at least two. This can be easily collected if available online Use the following format for your audience or through a survey. Community Value and domain description: Value is discussed in detail in the section A community for {qualifier }1 who are Habits titled “Defining Community Value,” on {qualifier 2} Habits tell you what your potential members page 21. do. By analyzing members’ habits you’ll Examples of Community Audience understand where they are most likely to A community is not about you, your great receive their information, what content idea, or what you need to get out of it. A and Domain Descriptions sources they read, who they interact with community is about your members. Always Here are examples of community audience within the domain, if they are members of put your members at the center. descriptions: any other community or similar professional A community for water sanitation gathering, how familiar they are with online professionals working in South Asia. Defining and Refining networks, communities, and collaboration Your Domain Water sanitation professionals is the first sites, and when they visit them. All these are qualifier; South Asia is the second. The domain of a community is essentially examples of crucial information that will help the area and topic(s) your community will A community for gender professionals you tailor your community to your members. be interested in, your subject matter area who are working on primary education These questions can be posed through a or thematic area that the community will be for girls who are affected by the AIDS survey. talking about. It’s the “what” of community epidemic in Southern Africa. and the “why” it exists. If the domain—your In this example, there are four Psychographics subject matter area or thematic area—is qualifiers. Psychographics will help you understand too vast it becomes necessarily vague and what your members think, and what their members will not understand what they can Defining and Refining challenges and aspirations are. This is crucial Your Audience information particularly for the determination of the value your community can provide There are three elements to address in your to members. Psychographic information audience analysis: can be collected through a random sample TIP Demographics of potential member interviews. You could Habits interview 10-15% of your membership base. Psychographics When doing your audience analysis, you can If you deliver value to your members first, refer to the “Audience Analysis Template” they will exponentially deliver it back to Demographics (p.60) where you can find sample information you. If you try to extract value first, you Demographic data tells you who your and questions to ask for each of the three will fail. potential members are: information such as pieces of analysis. age, gender, and organizational mapping.
BUILDING COMMUNITY—A PRIMER I 13 covering their demographics, habits, and TIP Here’s an example of a survey: psychographics. Survey design is an art and science in and of itself, but here are some 1. Where do you go to learn more As a community manager, make sure suggestions: about your professional area? that you update your own profile in the Try to limit your questions to no more 2. Which social media channels do you SkillFinder: you want to make sure that than 10. use professionally? others can find relevant information Try to limit your demographic about you, just as you hope to find 3. What days and times of day are you questions (especially when you can information about your potential most active on the Internet? find the information from other members! 4. If you search the Internet for sources such as SkillFinder and professional information, when do Linkedin). you search most often? When conducting surveys online, try Using the SkillFinder Tool to use multiple-choice questions to 5. If you search offlinefor professional make it easy for your respondents to information, where do you search The WBG has an important tool that can answer. most frequently? help you with your audience analysis: the When conducting surveys in person, SkillFinder. 6. Do you belong to any communities make sure you get your questions of practice or professional This is a database of all WBG staff, with answered, but do not hesitate to associations (inside or outside profiles that include contact information, “go with the flow” and go in depth WBG)? areas of expertise and skills, present and past on issues that your interviewee is 7. Are you active in any online work experience, as well as short bios. interested in. It can open up new community (inside or outside WBG)? You can find the demographic information ideas for topics and themes for you need about any potential members who your community. Plus if you find 8. Are you active in any offline are internal to the WBG. somebody that is passionate about community (inside or outside a topic, you stand a good chance of WBG)? Creating and Conducting a Survey not only recruiting that person to the community but having them take on To find out more about your audience an active role as well. you can create and conduct a survey
Figure 7: SkillFinder Tool
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particular, you should have a clear idea of our first 100 members, and then open it up to Here’s an example of a 10-question its position within the wider ecosystem of a larger audience. survey: its domain and about the member needs, This elevator pitch example is for a 1. What would you like to get from challenges, and aspirations it can address. community built around social inclusion: our Community of Practice? As a result, you should be able to develop Reducing poverty alone is not enough for What are your organizational and a short value elevator pitch about your ensuring that development benefits reach business needs that we can help community that is not informed by your all groups equally and so social inclusion has you achieve with our CoP? initial ideas but rather by the analysis you did recently become an important element of the 2. What other online tools and of what is out there already and what unique WBG’s twin goals and the new Sustainable platforms do you use such as value it can offer to its members. And you Development Goals. Social Inclusion Facebook, LinkedIn, and C4D? can use the pitch to attract new members to CoP brings together social development your group. specialists and other Bank staff already 3. Are you a member of other working on social inclusion and related sectorial networks such as Local Elevator Pitch Examples issues, such as inequality and gender, as Content groups on LinkedIn? well as practitioners who would like to 4. What sectorial events are you This elevator pitch example is for a incorporate social inclusion in their work. The attending such as workshops and knowledge management community: CoP’s main objectives are to connect people and identify, curate and share relevant conferences? This community is for Knowledge knowledge using a variety of media (online 5. At what time do you usually Management (KM) professionals to share best platforms, newsletters and regular events.) go online? Are you online on practices to improve their KM skills so that
weekends? others might benefit from their experiences, This elevator pitch example is for a and so they can receive the recognition 6. What are the key issues that you community built around credit reporting: for their expertise from their peers and are interested in regarding local managers. This community also provides The Credit Reporting Community aims content? resources, tips, and ongoing support so that to bring together WBG staff interested in 7. What are the main struggles new practitioners do not have to “go it alone” finding the best ways to help individuals, in terms of local content and do not have to start from scratch every and micro, small and medium enterprises implementation in your country? time. make use of ‘reputational’ collateral to gain 8. Where do you get your information access to finance. Besides helping connect, regarding local content? What sort This elevator pitch example is for a stay in touch and interact with each other, of materials do you read online and community around employment in the oil, the community aims to share best practices offline? gas, and mining industries: as well as challenges and failures. Also, the group will be able to provide a one-stop The World Bank has created a Community of 9. What are your biggest shop to gain access to relevant documents, Practice on Local Content Development that is achievements in terms of Local publications, templates, etc. Last but not promoting the creation of local employment Content policies? least, the group will provide a platform to and local procurement resulting from the oil, 10. Would you like to become a core share fun humor as well as encouragement gas and mining industry. member of our Community of and appreciation for its members. Practice and share one specific We want to bring together policy makers, topic? business professionals, civil society organizations, academics and donors who are working on this emerging topic. You can use the Creating an Elevator Pitch about We want to connect our members from all pitch to attract new over the world in order for them to learn from Your Community each other and share best practices. We want members to your After having completed the competitive and to avoid that policy makers, for example in group. audience analyses you should know if your Mozambique, have to reinvent the wheel community should exist at all—meaning when implementing a local content policy that it is unique and it can provide value. In that government officials in Malaysia have already solved. We want to get the Community of Practice off the ground with
BUILDING COMMUNITY—A PRIMER I 15 “Who should your Designing Your perspective directly into the design of Community your community, thus making it even more member-centric. Core Group members Designing your community involves the Sense of ownership—By participating following: be? You should in the design process, these members choose those people Initial conceptualization will develop a sense of ownership of Recruiting and creating a Core Group the community. In turn, this means who are the most Co-designing the community with the that they’ll be committed to its enthusiastic about Core Group success, and will be available to help Identifying value you as it develops. You’ll definitely your community idea.” Establishing a measurement system need and appreciate their help! Role models—Core Group members Initial Conceptualization will be role models as they will practice The idea or request for a community will those community behaviors that you often come from a senior manager. At the expect from members. WBG, a TTL or above who has a vision to form a community of practice, gathers a few Composition of the Core Group colleagues and develops a Knowledge Note You should identify a number of people that or Concept Note outlining the goals of the is large enough to be representative of the community (usually before a community broader audience of potential members— manager is designated or recruited). think of different member profiles based on regions, areas of expertise, organizations, The TTL becomes the Community Leader etc.—but small enough to foster developing or Co-Leader and together with other strong relationships with one another, thus roles like Community Sponsor, Knowledge contributing to the sense of community. Management (KM) Advisor, Communications Manager, and later the Community Manager, A good number would be between 8 and create the initial concept of the community, 15 people, depending on the size of the as well as doing the initial planning and community, but this is not set in stone. If you outlining the broad goals of the community. have only 30 to 50 potential members, a Core (See also the section titled “Other Community Group of 4 to 5 might be sufficient. On the Roles” on page 9.) These individuals are also other hand, you definitely don’t want more responsible for creating a Core Group. than 15 people because then they won’t be able to quickly develop close relationships Recruiting and Creating a with each other. Core Group Who should your Core Group members be? The Core Group is made up of potential A mistake some might make is to nominate members who are interested in (and often the top experts or representatives of different passionate about) the community you’d like organizational structures. The problem to build and are committed to its creation with that approach is that those who are and success. In some instances, over time, the appointed might be experts in their domain, Core Group replaces the Core Team (although but might not necessarily care much about the Community Leader role always remains). the community and not be committed to it. Instead you should choose those people You should identify a Core Group of potential who are the most enthusiastic about your members and co-design the community with community idea. You might have a sense them, for several reasons: of who they are because of your existing Members’ perspective—While the relationships and past conversations. You audience analysis gave you initial could also identify some from the audience insights on members’ needs, now analysis, e.g., those who have been the most you’ll be able to include members’ enthusiastic when answering your interview questions.
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While Core Group members don’t necessarily need to be the top experts within the Figure 8: The Core Group is the heart of your CoP domain, it is very important that they be recognized as peers by their colleagues and Core other practitioners. Otherwise, they will not Group be able to function as role models because Outside Public it is unlikely that other members will wish to replicate their behaviors. Active Members Centrality of the Core Group Figure 8 demonstrates the importance of the Peripheral Core Group. Members As you can see, the Core Group is at the center of different levels of community membership and they are the smallest membership group. In addition to the Core Group, every community has active members, those who contribute to an online platform or an e-mail thread, or come to events. Finally, every community has peripheral members who only consume the Larger online communities often show community’s content but never contribute to it. Nevertheless, the periphery is still important: every community needs 90-9-1 profile 90% periphery, 9% active, and 1% core consumers, and the members of this population are all potentially active profile 70% periphery, 20% active, and 10% core members. 70-20-10 } Larger online communities often show a 90- 9-1 profile (90% periphery, 9% active, and 1% core); or a 70-20-10 profile (70% periphery, Domain conflict will be dealt with. This aspect is the 20% active, and 10% core). Questions on the domain help you “who” of your community. Generally, the larger the community, the understand what topics the community higher the number of peripheral members should be concerned with and which it Practice it will have. Smaller communities have a should not, how the community would Questions on the practice help you clarify proportionally lower number of peripheral be legitimized within the organization, how the community will become an effective members. Very small communities might and around which topics members can be knowledge resource for its members and even have more active members than engaged. Basically, the domain provides a other constituencies that might benefit from peripheral members. community’s identity. It is the “what” and the it. You need to address how knowledge will “why” of your community. be stored and shared; how learning activities Interviewing the Core Group will be organized; what should be recorded In order to co-design the community with Community and what should be “off-record”; what the Core Group, you should discuss with the Questions on the community are related development projects should be undertaken, Team key aspects of the community. In doing to its audience, its operational model, and so on. This aspect is the “how” of your so, you can refer to the “Core Group Interview the desired behaviors, and the way community. Template,” p.66, where you’ll find questions to communications among members will discuss divided in three areas: happen. This element addresses what roles Domain people will play, how “newbies” will be Community integrated into the community, and how Practice
BUILDING COMMUNITY—A PRIMER I 17 Principles of Good Community Design
Before embarking on the design of your community you should be aware of some of the major principles of community design because designing a community is not like designing any other organizational structure. A community should not mirror the institutional structure— even when institutionalized, such as the Global Solution Groups at the WBG. Remember, its membership is voluntary and there are no reporting relationships. We recommend that you follow 10 key that have a set term. If a Core Group principles of community design when member decreases her or his level If you would like to explore designing communities at the WBG. of participation, they should not be TIP these principles further refer forced to continue to be a Core Group to “Cultivating Communities Design for evolution: The member. Likewise, it should be easy for of Practice” (Wenger, community you create is not set an active member who becomes more McDermot, and Snyder, in stone as designed and will not committed to the community to move 2002). stay that way in perpetuity. up to become a Core Group member. It evolves as the domain evolves or It should also be easy for peripheral members change or practices consumers to move up and become cease to exist. (The concept of value change. The community has to active members. is explored in greater detail in the adapt to those changes to survive. Develop both public and private section titled “Defining Community Open a dialogue between inside and community spaces: We often think that Value,” on page 21.) outside perspectives: It is useful to a community is about activities and Cultivate trust: Because a community listen to external perspectives when discussion by everyone with everyone. is about relationships that lead designing a community. This means However, a community also needs to a free exchange of knowledge, listening to stakeholders who are private spaces for one-on-one or small expertise, and collaboration, it is outside the community’s domain yet group conversations. The stronger crucial that members develop a sense can provide useful insights that will the relationships members develop of trust towards one another and allow you to position your community with one another, the stronger the the community at large. This means well inside the organization or within community will become. So, these that you need to ask yourself what the larger industry outside. It also connections should be encouraged. behaviors and actions will foster the means fostering relationships between On an online platform this means that development of this sense of trust. your community of practice and you should have a feature that allows Because if the membership does external groups that your members members to find and message each not trust the community, they won’t also belong to, such as professional other. If you use an e-mail group for feel comfortable asking questions associations. You will often find that face-to-face meetings, it means that or sharing what they know with one your audience consists of people who you should also facilitate individual or another. are members of multiple communities small group connections to allow them Combine familiarity and excitement: and you should look to leverage those to have their own e-mail exchanges A community should have some internal/external networks. or private discussions, while always elements that become familiar to its Invite different levels of participation: encouraging members to share members. This can be visual branding, You should design your community content of value to the wider audience a common language, or shared and keeping in mind the three different in the community at large. expected regular activities or events. categories of members (Core Group, Focus on value: Community is all about However, there also needs to be some active members, and peripheral shared value. To be successful, your spice that brings excitement from members) and not address only one community has to provide value, and time to time to the community. For of them. Also, members will move this value is a combination of business example, you could organize a special from one level of membership to value (the value a community provides retreat or have a special guest that is a another over time and you should to the organization) and member value superstar in the domain. make this transition easy. For example, (the value a community provides to its Create a rhythm for the community: the Core Group members you initially members). Always remember: unless Rhythm is about having regular identified are not official positions your community provides value, it will activities (for example, blog posts,
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Community Focus Coordination A community can deliver on many aspects of Coordination may seem pretty elementary, value. However, especially at the beginning, but it is especially important in a context it’s important to have a specific focus. A such as the WBG. Coordination is the primary community of practice can be focused on focus of communities whose members come five different areas (for specific examples in from different parts of the organization events, newsletters) that members will each of these areas, refer to the Additional or different organizations and work on become familiar with over time and Resources section): very similar projects or possibly with the same clients. These communities facilitate come to expect from the community, Practitioner support eventually committing their own time the exchange of information on who is Business support to them. Often called the “cadence” of doing what in order to avoid duplication Learning a community, it’s a huge factor in the of effort and encourage efficiency through development of a sense of community. Innovation cross-support, integration, and pooling of resources when appropriate. Achieve stakeholder alignment: If Coordination you have a distributed community, A community could eventually deliver meaning that members are in different Practitioner support on several or even all five functions, but countries of the world (which is usually Practitioner support is the most basic and it is important to start small and focused the case at the WBG), you need to probably the most common area of focus. and expand as the community develops. make sure that the design of the This is about practitioners asking specific However, this does not mean that you should community includes perspectives, questions, seeking references, providing discourage members who become active needs, and interests from different materials to the community and getting in a different area. In fact, the development regions. One way to accomplish this responses from other practitioners of the should be allowed to be spontaneous. For is by making sure that you identify community. Many communities start their example, you could decide with your Core Core Group members from different lifecycle like this. Group that the focus will be on business geographies. If you can’t do that, support. If a member asks a question to the then you should interview potential Business support community at large, you shouldn’t prevent members from different regions. Business support is about focusing on or ignore her/him, but rather encourage Create a structure that promotes both supporting an organization’s business—in responses. This doesn’t mean that you local variations and global connections: the case of the WBG, its operations. Examples are switching focus from business to This aspect is also related to of business support would be helping practitioners support; you’re simply allowing distributed communities and it means with the recruitment of technical experts members to find the value they’re looking that you should allow for the creation for project teams, providing the best of for in the community and are allowing the of community subgroups if there are knowledge available to a project, or ensuring community to develop organically. It might significant numbers of members in the quality of areas relevant to the domain in be that your community is better suited to a specific country or region. These that project. practitioner support than business support members should also be allowed to and that the focus of the community will shift have their own structure and culture. Learning organically over time because that is what is However, it’s important that such Learning is the primary focus of communities of value to the members. Similarly, a support subgroups are well coordinated with where members learn from one another community can engage from time to time in one another and with the larger by sharing their knowledge, expertise, innovation and brainstorming ideas for new community. This can be achieved and experience or collaboratively creating processes or new approaches in their field. by having each subgroup appoint knowledge repositories. representatives who will ensure the exchange of knowledge and Innovation collaboration at the larger level. Innovation is the primary focus of communities whose members want to find new approaches and solutions to specific challenges and problems and want to do so collaboratively within the community.
BUILDING COMMUNITY—A PRIMER I 19 Creating a Community that you’ll be able to answer many of What are the resources needed— Charter these questions thanks to the “Core Group including budget? Interview” template and the conversations What are the key domain topics— The community charter is the output of you had with your Core Group members. including what are the key issues? your design process. The following template What convening venues will be used was developed internally to help you define The charter defines the following: for members to communicate? Online everything you will need for your community. What is the purpose of the venues include C4D or Yammer, It’s a guidance document for you and your community—including its value, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and so on; team, but it is also a resource for your primary scope, and goals? offline and face-to-face venues include events, conferences, meetups, brown members so that they’re reminded of what Who are its members? bag lunches (BBLs) and lunch-and- the community is about. What is its operating model—including learns, and so on. (See the section how it will be organized? This “Community Charter Template” has titled “Convening Venues” for more different sections with suggested questions What are the desired behaviors of the details.) you should be able to answer. You’ll notice membership? How will the community be measured?
Figure 9: Community Charter Sample Template
them?
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Specifying Measures and Return Figure 10: Value Matrix on Investment (ROI) One aspect of community design that is often Short-trm vlu Lon -trm vlu overlooked but is really important for the community’s success is measurement and Hlp with chlln s Profssionl dvlopmnt ROI. If you neglect to establish a system to Accss to xprtis Rputtion measure your community outputs, outcomes Confidnc Profssionl idntit and impact, and report its ROI, you won’t be Fun with coll us Ntwork able to prove its value and might not get the Mnin ful prticiption Mrktbilit support you need. Mmbrs Sns of blon in Identifying and communicating ROI is crucial to finding and keeping sponsors. However, measurement can also be important for Rpid problm solvin Strt ic cpcit buildin members since it shows them what they Tim nd cost svin Productivit are able to achieve as a community, thus Improvd qulit Knowld -drivn projcts boosting their pride and sense of community. Snr is cross units Kpin brst The Importance of Outcomes Rsourcs for oprtions Innovtion Communit-supportd Rtntion of tlnts When thinking of ROI it’s important to focus on outcomes. Often we focus only on Or nition Nw strt is & cpbilit risk tkin outputs such as materials produced, number of views, events organized and number of participants, or e-discussions facilitated and About Behaviors In addition to this distinction, you also have number of contributors. However, one then An often overlooked area is that of behaviors. to think of short-term and long-term value, has a legitimate question: “So what?” What However, behaviors are truly crucial because for both the organization and the members. is the impact of those materials being read, participants coming to an event, or members a community is about behavior change. A The long-term value is the substantive contributing to an e-discussion? community is about people developing trust and strategic impact a community can and respecting each other, and feeling free to have. However, sponsors and members Therefore, it is important to focus on ask, share, provide feedback, and collaborate might not have the patience to wait to see outcomes, which are the series of concrete publicly within the forum. How does that this impact from the community. Hence, impacts a community creates on improving happen? It’s really crucial that you think hard it’s also important to identify short-term, projects, operations, development about this together with your team and Core more immediate, value. In the case of the challenges. Group! If you don’t have a strategy on how to organization, this is important if a sponsor achieve the desired behaviors, you probably needs some evidence in the short term that won’t be able to develop the sense of trust a community is worth supporting. Members WBG’s outcomes needed for the community to succeed. also may need evidence because if they are supported by don’t see immediate value, they simply will VPU’s outcomes Defining Community Value not come back! are supported by A community should provide value both to the organization and to its members. If it Value Example—Short-term and Department/GP’s outcomes doesn’t provide value to the organization it’s Long-term Value are supported by irrelevant and will not be able to obtain any In Figure 10—which is by no means meant Unit’s outcomes kind of support. Similarly, if members do not to be exhaustive—you can see some find value in the community they simply will examples of short-term and long-term value are supported by not participate. for both the organization and the members. Community’s outcomes
BUILDING COMMUNITY—A PRIMER I 21 As you can see outcomes are strictly related sponsors who can then see immediate value TIP to value and, in fact, they define the value created by the community. created by a community. When thinking of As you can see outcomes are informed by desired outcomes for your community, make Make sure that you assess all three outputs, which are in turn created thanks to sure to align them with your organizational measures: inputs, outputs, and inputs. structure. This is important to ensure outcomes and select the indicators relevance for your community and support informed by conversations with both Measuring Community Outcomes to it. your sponsor and the members. How can we measure community outcomes? You should be able to relate your There is no quantitative way to do it. community’s outcomes to unit, department, Community outcomes can be captured only or GP outcomes, and finally to WBG through members’ stories that connect outcomes. community activities, their outputs (resource creation), and their outcomes (resource application). This approach, proposed by “A community should Etienne Wenger, is called “systematic provide value both to anecdotal evidence.” the organization and to Anecdotal evidence consists of the stories that make these connections between its members.” activities, outputs, and outcomes. However, a story is not enough to prove that a The relationship between outcomes and community is providing value. institutional hierarchy you see here might Anecdotal evidence needs to be collected not necessarily apply to your case: it’s just a in a systematic way: on a regular basis and general example to help you visualize the covering the entire range of the community concept. and its diversity, capturing both failures and successes, and adding quantitative indicators The Importance of Small Wins where possible. While the long term is strategically crucial, Quantitative indicators can usually be it’s also important to think of the short term. captured at the output level—for example While outcomes define the long-term value views, shares, presences, interventions, etc. of a community, small wins will define its short-term value. The community needs to Finally, when we talk about outcomes in achieve some smaller outcomes—the small terms of community resource application wins—that are achievable in a relatively in projects, we can’t claim that the short time. This is very important for creating improvement seen is exclusively due to this enthusiasm among members and adding to their sense of community, as well as for
Figure 11: Examples of Outputs and Outcomes The following table shows examples of how outputs and outcomes relate:
Inputs Outputs Outcomes
Hours worked Connections created Solutions sets created
Blogposts written Unique commenters Projects impacted
People invited Discussions occurring Practitioner hours saved
Conversations initiated Discussion depth Support requests deflected
Platform management Files shared New business sourced
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particular output. In fact, there can be many Face-to-face (events such as conferences, Nonetheless as a medium- to long-term goal, more factors. meet-ups, trainings and so on) convening members either regionally or on It is crucial then to ask the member who is Email content-related events such as international sharing the success story to let you know Virtual meetings, for example local content expositions could become a how much of the improvement can be teleconferencing or video conferences viable, more direct means of interaction, if endorsed by the Steering Committee and attributed to the community’s resources in File sharing and collaboration supported by our membership. The need for percentages. Then to give the claim even Online collaboration platform, these face-2-face meetings can be assessed more credibility, she/he can also say by for example at WBG, Yammer or via member surveys, announced through the what percentage she/he is sure about that Collaboration 4 Development (C4D) CoP calendar and participation registered via statement. That way, if you have a dollar Online knowledge repository number you can put on the improvement the “attend event“ feature of the latter. of the project because of hours saved or Social Media Groups (Linkedin, additional opportunities identified, that Facebook) WBG Collaboration Platforms number can be multiplied by the true At the World Bank we currently have a set of percentages thus giving a credible figure on Importance of Convening Venues diverse internal platforms, based on Microsoft the ROI created by the community for that products, for different kinds of collaboration: specific project. As part of your community design you should select the convening venues for your Yammer Groups – these are meant for highly Importance of a Culture of Sharing community. interactive cross-organizational community But how are you going to collect the stories— This example of convening venues is from building and are well suited for Communities the anecdotal evidence— that will show the the community of practice for Extractives for of Practice. You may want to request your value created by your community? To do so, Local Content Development: group to be set up with a SharePoint content your members need to be used to and willing library, for additional content management to share their stories. Therefore, you need Online Platform C4D: Given the target features. to develop a culture of story sharing in your audience of experts from all over the world, Teams – This collaboration spaces are meant community. the online forum is the principal medium for project teams mainly, and may be less well of engagement. Autogenerated C4D Because it takes time, it’s crucial that you suited for the more informal communities Summary-Emails will keep not so active start doing it from the very beginning, with of practice. That said, they may be a good members informed about things going on the Core Group in the design phase of your choice if the group is planning to work on and potentially re-engage them. At a later community building process. specific outputs (like knowledge co-creation). stage we will curate these summary-emails ourselves, even though this would imply a Planner – This product is mainly for task Convening Venues significant amount of work. management and it can be added within A convening venue is the way your members the context of a Team, for additional project connect and communicate. It is crucial that Face-2-Face meetings: Given that our management features. you decide on where and how and when your members are located in different areas of Intranet sites (SharePoint) – Depending on community will meet, communicate, and the world, convening them physically poses your dissemination and engagement needs, collaborate. a significant challenge. The online platform a hybrid solution combining SharePoint and therefore represents the pivotal channel A convening venue can be in person and/or Yammer, with blog and discussion features, of member interaction and engagement. online, synchronous and/or asynchronous may be the right way to go. This is also the and can include: option with the greatest overhead and would require time to set up and manage properly. To learn more about these options, you Figure 12: Measuring Community Outcomes can visit the Collaboration Tools Help page: https://worldbankgroup.sharepoint.com/ Systematic Anecdotal Evidence sites/wbsites/collabtools/Pages/home.aspx
Anecdotal Evidence Systematicity Some of the options mentioned above allow the community manager to invite external Activity Diversity and Range participants as guest, but there are some restrictions and limitations related to the Resources creation Failures and successes types of accounts that can be invited (usually Microsoft work or school accounts that have Resource application Quantitative indicators access to the Office 365 suite of tools).
BUILDING COMMUNITY—A PRIMER I 23 TIP Figure 13: Examples of Convening Venues This example of convening venues is from the community of practice for Secure Nutrution:
Your community might have multiple convening venues. It might meet face-to-face at its annual conference, the conference presentation materials might be stored and shared on One Drive, and ongoing discussions about the conference and follow-up activities might continue in discussion forums online.
The suite of collaboration options is slightly responses were on questions related to different for IFC staff, but it does include online participation and similar topics. Teams and a hybrid intranet site solution. Locations—Think of the different physical WBG staff can also set up an externally locations of your members and what would facing collaboration space on Collaboration be the best way to connect them. for Development (C4D). C4D is for external use, meaning that non-WBG staff can also Support—Consider also costs and support access it which is essential if you are dealing available. For example, if you decide to build with external clients, partners, NGOs, or in- your own online community instead of country institutions that do not have access using what’s offered by the WBG, you’ll incur to our Intranet. significant expenses initially and will have to think of a budget for ongoing maintenance Deciding on Convening Venues and support. When choosing the convening venues, you Multiple Venues—Be aware that most have to make sure that your members will communities use a combination of convening use them. So, how can you determine what’s venues. However, you must make sure that right for you? there is a minimum of duplication and there
is clarity on which venue is used for what. Habits—Refer to the habits part of your audience analyses and see what the Survey
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multiple types of venues: face-to-face venues “It is crucial that you Launching Your (events such as conferences, meet-ups, decide on where Community trainings and so on), email, teleconference Launching your community involves the and video conference, virtual meeting, file and how your following: sharing and collaboration, and an online knowledge repository. community will Setting up the convening venues Selecting the collaboration platform It is crucial that you decide on where meet, communicate, and how your community will meet, Setting up the collaboration platform communicate, and collaborate. and collaborate.” Creating the community description Creating anchor content As part of your community design process you should have selected the convening Onboarding the Core Group venues for your community. Setting them Implementing a soft launch of the up will vary depending on which venue you community decided on and what tool you are using. Setting up Your Convening Online collaboration platforms can be requested through the Intranet Resource Venues Center: https://irc.worldbank.org/site/ A convening venue is the way your members home. Should you select a hybrid solution connect and communicate. There are a wide (Yammer and SharePoint), you may need range of convening venues at your disposal. to spend some time to develop your online (See “Convening Venues” in the previous collaboration platform in collaboration with section). As described earlier, you can have ITS. Selecting a Collaboration Platform If you choose to have a hybrid collaboration platform as your main convening venue, its design will involve some care as the site will be the main link between you and the members, and more importantly, the links between the members themselves. Setting up the Collaboration Platform
If you choose to have a collaboration platform as your main convening venue, its design will involve some care as the site will be the main link between you and the members, and more importantly, the links between the members themselves.
BUILDING COMMUNITY—A PRIMER I 25
Designing the Home Page Figure 14: Examples of Home Pages There are many ways you can design your home page.
Two Contrasting Examples of Home Pages Here are examples of the home pages of two communities of practice set up on a collaboration platform. The home page in the first example might look neater and better organized, but it does not put members at its center. In fact, it looks like a web site. On the other hand, the home page in the second example is all about its members: you can see easily and immediately what the most recent member content is, who the new members are, what the latest discussions are with the newest questions, and who the week’s leaders in the community are. It’s true that it looks messy and its layout can definitely be improved, but what is much more important is that it puts members at the center. When you see this home page you can tell it’s a community! As a result, the community in the second example has much more member participation than the first one. Many people focus on having a fancy design for their community’s home page. While visuals are important and it’s good to have a well-executed design, that is not a determining factor for the success of your community and it definitely should not supersede member focus. Remember this: an online community is not a web site! When members—and, just as importantly, potential members—see an online community, they need to see that members are engaged and participating.
“Remember this: an online community is not a web site!”
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WBG Home Page Example Let’s take a look at a WBG example Figure 15: WBG CoP Example of a community home page, the KnowledgeMatters! community. The KnowledgeMatters! Community is one of the more active communities at the WBG. The key elements in the home page design are: Members—Member activity under “RECENT ACTIVITY” is visible at the center of the home page, signaling to visitors that this platform is about members Relevance and Timeliness—The latest content is featured prominently under “Recent Activity.” Note also the call-to-action: “Don’t forget to @Mention your posts,” a feature that notifies the person you are referring to directly. So, three elements make this an eye-catching home page that will encourage participation: member activity is front and center, content is relevant and timely, and there is a clear call to action. When designing your community’s home page, these three elements should be the core concern. In addition, bear in mind Creating the Community Description that your call to action (where you ask your When you set up an online platform for TIP When crafting your members or visitors to do something) can a community, you should also have a community description, use change as your priorities change. Also, you community description: this is the first thing the “Community Description can have more than one call to action, but that visitors will look at to learn more about Template,” (p.74) where you you should try to limit it to three because the community. can find an example for each of these points. when you ask people to do too many things In closed communities, visitors can usually they might not do anything. see only the community description with a little additional information before joining it. So, if the goal of your community description Start by welcoming the visitor, then is to convert visitors into members by clearly state who this community is attracting your target audience, a good TIP for, and show that you understand community description will help them decide your audience’s needs, challenges, or whether they should join or not. aspirations. You can use the “Welcome” Make sure that you have mobile- template on p.77. friendly online venues. Check that Guidelines for Community Descriptions Be specific about the concrete benefits recent member activity is also visible When crafting your community description your community would offer. on laptop, tablet, and other mobile use these guidelines: devices as the screen resolution and Optionally, you can conclude by aspect ratio changes depending on Try to use around 50 words. mentioning the larger vision for your the size of the device and its screen, Cover three core points and two community’s impact if it makes sense so some content might not display optional ones. for your audience. correctly or might not display at all.
BUILDING COMMUNITY—A PRIMER I 27 Examples of Community Descriptions able to access learning resources and “Once you have chosen The following are examples of community discussions on various topics related the priority topic, select descriptions from C4D: to inclusive and sustainable cities; find out about relevant events; and connect the pieces of content— Private Equity and Venture Capital with people from all over the world Community Description Example including city leaders, policymakers, timely, relevant, and The PE/VC Community is an active thought leaders, employees of forum for knowledge sharing and international and civil society interesting—to collaboration among all stakeholders in organizations and students to name a populate your platform. the industry whose work contributes to few. Together we can make sure that the common goal of broadening access the inclusiveness agenda remains a This will be your anchor to long-term capital for early-stage priority in development. and growing companies in developing Local Content Development content.” countries. Community Description Example Engaging with this professional This community connects policy network will open doors globally so makers, companies, academics and you can find answers, obtain valuable practitioners, to share and create introductions, access hard-to-find data knowledge around local content and share perspectives. development in the extractive This Community of Practice is jointly industries. It is a one-stop shop owned by the Capital Markets Practice for current debates, peer-to-peer of the World Bank and Emerging exchange, events, and critical research Markets Private Equity Association. that will allow you to deliver better results. A little long at 86 words but it is a well-crafted Our vision is to build an active forum community description. The description for mutually beneficial knowledge starts by saying who this community is for. exchange enabling experts worldwide Then it continues by showing understanding to implement the best possible local of the work of the target audience and its content solutions. common challenge. Finally, it ends by stating very clearly what someone would gain by Creating Anchor Content joining this community. Once you have set up the platform, It also states who owns this community. discussions with your Core Group should Sometimes a community’s sponsor requests enable you to identify the priority topic this ownership statement, especially (or topics) you can engage your members when different organizational units or around. If you choose more than one topic, organizations are involved. If you have to be careful that you do not choose too many add it don’t commit the mistake—which as you will risk losing focus, and diluting often happens—of starting the description members’ participation. with such a statement; add it at the end as a Once you have chosen the priority topic, separate note instead. select the pieces of content—timely, Inclusive and Sustainable Cities relevant, and interesting— to populate your Community Description Example platform. This will be your anchor content. Welcome to the Inclusive and Anchor content should be relevant and Sustainable Cities Community of compelling to your members, thus providing Practice! This is a community for all immediate value to them and enticing people who have an interest in issues them to visit and continue to revisit your of lack of inclusion in urban areas. As a community. member of our community you will be
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Examples of Core Group Onboarding TIP “The Core Group is Activities the heart of your This example itemizes Core Group If you post all your content community.” onboarding and pilot activities for a immediately, it can be overwhelming community based on social protection and for members, and some members will labor: risk missing pieces of content relevant and anchor content you chose. Pilot activities Work through the Community Charter to them. You’d miss the opportunity of can include: exercise together specifically focusing having something to share after the Discussions (including Q&A and on: the purpose, key topics and immediate launch, building quality Working Out Loud) measures conversations around each single piece Blog posts Draft a community description and of a thread. So, don’t share everything Introductions then modify it to one that we all agree you have immediately, but select your on Document collaboration anchor content relevant to the priority List specific discussions that can be FAQs topics you chose with the Core Group. held within the community and decide Community “netiquette”—the type on the top 5 of behavior you expect to see on the List activities and events and decide on community which ones The important thing is that you decide Pilot online discussion with core group exactly what you want to do, indicating also Anchor Content Posting Guidelines who will do it and when. When doing so, This example is for a community based Follow these guidelines when posting make sure that no one overpromises and on governance, anticorruption, and content: that everyone can deliver on what they have accountability: Make sure you stick to content relevant committed to. Introductions: Have core members introduce themselves in a discussion to the priority topics you selected and The pilot activities are very important post (much like the CM community keep the rest for later. because they create the initial interaction does), This would introduce them to Don’t post all your content at one time. on the platform—although only among posting on Yammer and navigating If you have lots of content on a certain Core Group members—thus showing future the site. This is important because topic, don’t post it all immediately, but members when they join that there is activity our community targets a very broad keep some for later. That way you’ll in the community and that it’s not a silent audience and it is important that they have something to offer over time and empty space. you’ll be able to keep the attention of get to know each other and start to Also, these activities are important because members. build up trust if we expect them to they anchor the behavior you want to see share their experiences. Onboarding the Core Group from your current and potential members. Core Group: Use the original Working They model what is acceptable and expected The Core Group is the heart of your Group, now the Core Group, to decide behavior and behavior that you want to community. However, it cannot go from zero on initial topics to tackle and solicit encourage. to full speed immediately. They will need to participation from that group. Ideally ramp up gradually and there this would involve a different member are several activities that they can be involved Online and Offline Pilot Activities starting a discussion each week and/or in. Pilot activities do not have to be limited contributing blog posts. The Working to the online platform. You can apply the Group served as the impetus to create Starting Pilot Activities same principles to an email group or you the CoP and has a vested interest in its could select some initial face-to-face event, success. You should discuss with your Core Group webinar, VC or teleconference activities to Practical Advice Series: Include the which pilot activities to undertake in order pilot. In the case of face-to-face events, you Core Group in both determining and to start generating some interaction in the should also invite some potential members creating the Advice Series our team community while allowing the Core Group to to attend so that you can see what works for produces—these are 2-page leaflets begin to learn how to use the platform. Your them and what doesn’t. that explain an aspect of governance & decision will be informed by the key topics
BUILDING COMMUNITY—A PRIMER I 29 anticorruption in operations, we have to help you onboard future members and to Continue with those individual invitations produced them on governance and step in for you when you are not available. and spread your invitation net more broadly accountability action plans, different as your community takes off. Implementing a Soft Launch of your kinds of audits, and what to do if As well as inviting people whom you know, your project is under investigation. Community have your Core Group members invite They simplify complex topics and Once you have set up your convening venues people whom you don’t know personally provide resources for further questions and your online platform if you want one, but who they suspect might be interested. on the topics. In bringing the Core have selected your priority topics, anchor Make it easy for them to do this by preparing Group members into this process, we content, and pilot activities, and have trained a standard email for each of them to create content that is relevant to the your Core Group, you are ready to launch personalize and send to their contacts. community (as they would select the your community. topics) and involve the Core Group However, this launch should be soft. Some actively in our work (and us in theirs). people like to start with a big launch: that is This example is for a community based on not recommended until you have something health and nutrition: more to show. So, do a soft launch by piloting “Your Core Group Provide training to all Core Group some activities and expanding the number members to ensure comfort when of members participating along the way. should be comfortable navigating the online Yammer page, as Give yourself a target of a set number of with all tools and well as other online resources utilized people to invite each week. This number by the CoP. The intent is to build will vary depending on whether your should be able to use confidence in our Core Group members community population will be 30 members them as well as you to be able to show our general or 300 members at maturity. Make sure that audience members how to navigate our your invitations are personalized (see next yourself. It is important online space. section, “Inviting Initial Members”). Point not only for the Review/Update community charter. people to existing resources and activities in Develop quarterly/semi-annual the community so that you can show value group to use the tools calendar scheduling: immediately. efficiently but also Upcoming CoP meetings (both Core and general membership Inviting Initial Members for them to be able levels) As part of the soft launch, you should invite to help you onboard Knowledge exchanges/learning your initial set of potential members to join: events Invite specific individuals—You future members and Planned community outreach might know people personally and to step in for you via online discussions professionally who have a high likelihood of wanting to be involved in when you are not Training the Core Group your community: invite those first. available.” Invite event attendees—People Involving the Core Group in pilot activities may have attended an event such will enable them to start learning how to as a workshop, training session, or use the platform, however you should also conference around the topic of your involve them in more formal training on the community. Because they attended, platform. you already know they have expressed Formal training is important for your an interest in the topic and have made online platform if you have one, but also some effort to learn more. Invite for any other tool you decide to use as a those attendees (and sign-ups who convening venue. Your Core Group should did not attend) especially if you have be comfortable with all tools and should be the presentations and other event able to use them as well as you yourself. It is materials or video to share on the important not only for the group to use the platform (a major value to members). tools efficiently but also for them to be able
30 I COMMUNITY BUILDING
the entire lifecycle of the community, “The community Expanding Your as new members come onboard manager should not Community and continue to do so over time. focus on all areas of There are several areas of activity that a However, it is especially important community manager should focus on when in the inception phase, when the activity equally and/ starting to build and expand a community, foundations of the community are and within those areas, specific activities to being built. If relationships aren’t built or simultaneously, engage in. at this stage, your community will but should prioritize never graduate to the next stage. Community Manager those that are relevant Engaging in Key Community Framework and Key Areas of Building Activities for the stage of Activity Given the key activity areas for the inception the lifecycle of the There are eight key areas of activity for a stage, you should be involved in three main community manager. community.” activities for the remainder of the inception Strategy phase: Content Creating a community calendar Growth Staging initial content and Activities/Events engagement Moderation Inviting and converting new members User Experience Influence/Relationships Creating a Community Calendar Business Integration There are several types of community calendar that you can create: The community manager should not focus on all areas of activity equally and/ Detailed community calendar or simultaneously, but should prioritize High-level community calendar those that are relevant for the stage of the Shared community calendar lifecycle of the community. Initially, you need strategy—without which you are unlikely Creating a Detailed Community to succeed—relationships— with a focus Calendar on the Core Group—and user experience— A detailed community calendar helps you making sure that all the tools you choose focus on the right tasks to accomplish in your as convening venues are user friendly for community development work. Refer to p.76 the manager, the Core Group, and future for the detailed “Community Management members. Calendar Template” adapted for the WBG However, when first beginning togrow your from FeverBee. community through the inception phase, the Community managers should use this first phase of community building, there are calendar to plan their work and to know three areas of activity that the community exactly what to do day-by-day. It is manager should focus on: important that each day, community Growth—because you still don’t have managers first focus on what they have any members except the Core Group planned in order to move the community Moderation—because you have to do along the planned strategy, and only react to a lot of work to initiate discussions and what is going on in the community later. Of solicit responses course, there can be exceptions, but planned Relationships—because community daily tasks should be accomplished every building is about relationship building day. among members. Relationship building is very important throughout
BUILDING COMMUNITY—A PRIMER I 31 Figure 16: Example of a Detailed Calendar
Growth Moderation Content Relationships Events/Activities User Experience Business integration Strategy Discussion 1: Introduce Yourself. Prompt core group None None None None None None None Monday members to introduce themselves Tuesday None None None None None None None None Wednesday None None None Have a call with a core group member None None None None Prompt selected core group
Week 1 Thursday None members to comment on CL's Community Leader blog post None None None None blog post Friday None none None None None None None None Saturday None None None None None None None None Sunday None None None None None None None None
Prompt selected core group Monday None members to comment on Core member blog post Have a coffee with a core group member None None None None blog post Tuesday None None None None None None None None Prompt selected core group Wednesday None members to contribute to Document collaboration None None None None None document Thursday None None None None Core group meeting/VC None None None Discussion 3: Week 2 Challenge/specific post. Friday None Prompt selected core group None None None None None members to participate in discussion Saturday None None None None None None None None Sunday None None None None None None None None
Discussion 4: What is the best way to….? Prompt a core Post update about Monday Directly invite 2 people group member and the 2 new community activities / Have a call with a core group member None None None None members to participate in newcomers discussion Relationship building with members of the community - this requires high levels of Directly invite 2 people None None None None None None Tuesday personal contact (ask questions, give compliments etc…)
Discussion 5: Opinion-seeking Week 3 Wednesday Directly invite 2 people post. Prompt 3 members to Member interview Introduce new members None None None None participate in discussions.
Thursday Directly invite 2 people None None Introduce new members None None None None Friday Directly invite 2 people None None Introduce new members None None None None Saturday None None None None None None None None Sunday None None None None None None None None
Discussion 6: Specific tech Continue relationship building process as Directly invite 2 people None None None None None Monday question? per Week 3. Continue relationship building process as Directly invite 2 people None Content about launch None None None None Tuesday per Week 3. Prompt 5 members to Continue relationship building process as Directly invite 2 people None None None None None Wednesday participate in discussions. per Week 3. Continue relationship building process as Directly invite 2 people None Content interview Webinar None None None Thursday per Week 3. Week 4 Discussion 7: Expertise- Continue relationship building process as Directly invite 2 people None None None None None Friday seeking post per Week 3. Prompt 5 members to None None None None None None None Saturday participate in discussions. Sunday None None None None None None None None
32 I CHAPTER 3: WHAT FIAS WILL DO
COMMUNITY BUILDING
In the following example of the detailed calendar template, there are three weeks Figure 17: Example of a High-Level Community Calendar of activities planned with Core Group pilot The following graphic shows an example from the “Incubating Innovation for Rural Electrification” activities planned for the first two weeks community. shown: There are three planned discussions scheduled. There are two blog posts scheduled— one by the community leader and one by a Core Group member. One document collaboration is planned. Outside the platform, there is a meeting with a VC planned for the Core Group. Under Moderation, action is planned to initiate discussions and solicit responses Under Relationships, it is planned to engage Core Group members. You can also plan and allocate your work hours based on your total availability. Figure 18: Example of a Shared Community Calendar Creating a High-Level Community The following graphic shows an example from the calendar of the KnowledgeMatters! community Calendar of practice. A high-level community calendar helps you plan the major activities for a specific timeframe, whether it’s a semester or a year. This type of calendar should be planned with the Core Group and should be shared with them and your team. It can also be shared with members if you wish, so that they know what major activities are on the horizon. The nice thing about this calendar is that it’s visually very clear and straight-forward, using icons to indicate e-discussions on the online platform (the “@” symbol), webinars (the camera), and face-to-face events (two people shaking hands). Also, in this high-level calendar you can see how the community has an e-discussion before and after each webinar or face-to- face event. This shows you how they planned to leverage webinars and face-to-face events for e-discussions (offline and online) and vice-versa.
Creating a Shared Community Calendar A shared community calendar is a calendar where members can also add items. Most
BUILDING COMMUNITY—A PRIMER I 33 online platforms have one, as well as email services. This type of calendar helps members Figure 19: Example of a Staged Engagement find out what is going on in the community on any given day and provides another vehicle for participation by members because they too can add events such as conferences • Original Post and meet-ups to the shared calendar. Reminder It is most similar to the standard desk calendar we are all familiar with. • Member Contributions Member Staging Initial Content and Targeting Engagement Staging content and engagement helps you • Spontaneous Contributions Mass spur member participation in the community. Message
Staged Engagement Example Let’s say the activity is an online discussion and it will be between Core Group members. members, you’ll also target them. Of for staged questions and comments about These are the activities you might engage in course, member targeting can’t be a presentation to trigger a lively and quality and the order of those activities: random, you need to know which discussion. 1. Initiate the action: You as a community members can contribute on which topics. Inviting and Converting Members manager will reach out to a Core Group 3. Mass communication: Once you have Adding and onboarding members are key member gently reminding her/him the other members, you can take a third components of building your community, day before about the discussion she/he action: sending out a mass message and the success of your community is often committed to initiate. You could start by to the community. So, now that you measured in terms of numbers of members asking if she/he needs anything. Also, have a discussion with a few comments and rates of membership growth. take the opportunity to confirm the time you can send its link to the entire she/he plans to initiate the discussion. community letting members know that Sometimes we see people inviting their Your reminder will ensure that the Core this discussion is going on and that some entire list of potential members at once, Group member publishes the original post members have already contributed. whether they total 30, 100, or 1,000. That opening the discussion. Those who are interested in the topic, approach is definitely not the most effective 2. Target one or more members: The especially if they’re knowledgeable for member engagement. The best way to second action you’ll take is to reach out about it, will probably want to contribute invite members is to do it in waves, inviting to another Core Group member the day themselves as they will not want to be them in small groups every 3 to 10 weeks before the posting telling her/him at left out. They will also want to show depending on the total number of your what time the discussion will be initiated their expertise. Therefore your mass potential members and your available time. and asking her/him to comment as she/ message will stimulate more members’ Inviting Members in Waves he is also knowledgeable about the spontaneous contributions. Why invite your members in waves? topic. You should repeat this action with The staged engagement process is certainly 2 to 3 different members. This action is time-consuming. However, you should Active appearance: The cool thing is called member targeting and it will result stick to it and repeat it until your members that because of the pilot activities in other members contributing to the get used to the platform and become you did with your Core Group, new discussion. Each of the members you comfortable with the community activities. members will find that they just joined contacted knows that you contacted her/ When you see that members start initiating an active community instead of a him, but she/he doesn’t know that you activities on their own and contributing “silent” space. You want to build on this did so with the others. The result is that to each other’s activities you can stop momentum by introducing a number you have a discussion with some initial using or use only sporadically the staged of members who can both get and add contributions from multiple members. engagement process. value to the existing activities. While undertaking the pilot activities Member familiarity: You also want to This process can also be applied to email with the Core Group this process will get to know the new members and discussions, where only the tool changes, or involve only members of the Core Group. introduce them to the community to face-to-face events, where you can plan However, once you start inviting other
34 I COMMUNITY BUILDING
one-by-one. This way they will be more likely to be active in the community from the very beginning and you will learn what each new member is TIP interested in so you’ll be able to make specific asks. Conversely, if you invite too many members at once, you won’t SkillFinder Profile—For each new be able to focus on them individually, member who is WBG staff, you can do and they will be much less likely to some research online by looking at their become active in the community. SkillFinder profile.
Inviting Members en Masse Of course, if you have a large potential membership base of, let’s say more than 500 members, you should stop the process of inviting members in waves and start doing larger group invitations, or invite everyone left at once. You should only do this when you see that there is enough activity and timely and relevant content to make the community attractive per se to new members. “Adding and Learning about New Members onboarding members There are several ways that you can get to know new members, especially if they are are key components WBG staff: of building your SkillFinder Profile—For each new member who is WBG staff, you can community” do some research online by looking at their SkillFinder profile. Blogs—Find out if they have a blog— whether it is WBG-hosted or external. Journal articles—Research their articles for journals to familiarize yourself with topics they write about. C4D Profile—If members are already on C4D you can look at their C4D profile (if they completed it). LinkedIn—You should also search for TIP the new member on LinkedIn as most professionals use this social network. Twitter—Twitter is another great Because of LinkedIn’s degrees platform to get to know people if of separation system, the more your new member tweets. In fact, connections you have in LinkedIn, professionals mostly use Twitter to the more likely you are to have tweet and connect around issues they access to profiles you are not directly work on or that they’re passionate connected to. about. Google—You should always try to Google someone: you might find very interesting information around
BUILDING COMMUNITY—A PRIMER I 35 which you can connect with the new The welcome message is your first interaction acknowledge them. You might never member! with a new member and is usually done get another chance. privately, through the direct message Right tone – You must address the Creating a Welcome Message function in an online platform, or through an person that you are welcoming using After you have invited a new member you email otherwise. the right tone, whether formally or should always welcome her/him, especially The goal of the welcome message is to get informally. You know which tone to in the inception phase of your community. her/him to take a specific first action in the use because you know your audience Later, you will continue doing this for the community. well thanks to the audience analysis entire lifetime of your community if it’s and because you did some research on In addition, you’ll make the new member feel relatively small or if it’s closed and you don’t the new member. good about the community because there is have many new members. On the other Relevant/personal references - Show someone responsive and interested in her/ hand, if you create a large community with that you know your new members by him. a constant influx of members, you can mentioning something relevant about stop welcoming them individually when it her/his background that you found out becomes too time-consuming; however, Guidelines for Welcome Messages from your research. some form of automated welcome message The welcome message should be around 50 Call to action - Have a clear call to should be generated. But, now in the words long and it should cover three—and action with a direct link taking her/ inception phase, you should definitely do it. possibly four—points. him to where to respond. You could Just because you have not sent an invitation, Always welcome - First, you must have 2-3 calls to action but never if somebody joins that does not release always welcome a new member. It is more than that. It’s very important you from the obligation to send a welcome hard enough to get people to come to to not overwhelm the new member, message. Welcome messages are possibly your community and when somebody increasing the likelihood of a positive more important for those who are joining does make the effort to come, and reaction. who have not been invited, since they have the extra effort to join, you must Your availability - Finally, let the spent the extra effort to find you. member know that you are always
Figure 20: Example of a Welcome Message Here’s a good example of an informal welcome message from WBG C4D community based on megadisasters.
Ivan!!
Welcome to our community! So you are interested in learning more about megadisasters. :)
Please introduce yourself to the rest of the group!
To learn more on how to navigate the site, please click here: https://collaboration.worldbank.org/docs/DOC-2150
To introduce yourself to the rest of the team, please click here: https://collaboration.worldbank.org/docs/DOC-2120
Finally, feel free to suggest topics you would like us to cover on future online discussions.
Do not hesitate to contact me if you have any question.
Best, Rasha
36 I COMMUNITY BUILDING
available as community manager in the new member to those existing members and collaborating, should also apply to case she/he needs something. you think she/he should get to know. communities. Thanks to the competitive This message has a very informal welcome analysis you did, you should already know and tone, which is appropriate for that which communities are relevant to yours, audience; it has a clear call to action by asking enabling you to start suggesting some new members to introduce themselves; TIP common activities. This will also allow you and it also lets new members know that the to get more exposure, possibly attract more community manager is available. members, and learn from other communities’ Don’t forget that you also have a practices. However the message could be improved Core Group and that—based on their in the following ways: the link to introduce availability—you can ask them to help Example of Community Coordination her/himself should immediately follow the you with many of these actions, such call of action; there is no reference to the Here you have an example of a talk organized as welcoming members or making jointly by two groups: the Social Inclusion member’s background; and, it doesn’t say introductions. how and where to suggest topics for online CoP and the Global Group on Indigenous discussions. Peoples. These collaborations could also be explored Connecting Members at the level of the Community Leaders Your member onboarding doesn’t stop with enabling them to achieve broader goals and Coordinating with Other Communities the welcome message and the call to action. leverage synergies across organizational As your members become more comfortable boundaries. Since communities are about relationships with the community, it’s important that and your most important job is to make sure you also start connecting with other Promoting Activities Within the that members build relationships with one communities relevant to your domain. In Community another, always make sure that you introduce fact, all behaviors you expect from your Promote the activities happening within members in terms of sharing knowledge, the community rather than the community itself. Rather than say “join the community for these special things,” promote an upcoming event or discussion to someone outside the community. Ask them to give their opinion, or have them join a panel. By inviting someone to participate in a particular activity directly, you make an appeal to their social needs. Once they join and participate, they’re far more likely to continue participating, rather than forget about the account they’ve just created. Big Launch Now that you have a community with active members who are engaging in quality activities, if you still want to do a big launch you can do it. Then if you organize an event and introduce a wider audience to the community, visitors to your community will find not an empty shell of a website, but a community with active members and great content and they are much more likely not only to join but to keep coming back, and become active.
BUILDING COMMUNITY—A PRIMER I 37 38 I 2
COMMUNITY MANAGEMENT
To grow or not to grow This Community Management section deals In Maturity, the objective is to reach the with the following topics: point where the community has reached its depends on where initial maximum potential. And in Mitosis, Growing Communities the objective is to sustain and increase the your community falls Initiating and Sustaining Discussions in level of both activity and sense of community on the Community a Community through facilitating multiple, smaller online Content and Content Planning communities. Lifecycle, on the Events and Activities To grow or not to grow depends on where objectives of your your community falls on the Community Growing Communities Lifecycle, on the objectives of your community, the You’ll often be asked “how many members community, the charter you’ve created, the charter you’ve created, are there in your community?” - the core team, and the members themselves. the core team, and the implication being that bigger is better and See page 11 for more detail on the that you constantly need to be growing your community lifecycle. members themselves. community. However, not all communities actually need to grow so you need to be clear Example 1: Growth -Learning from whether, when, and how your community Megadisasters CoP should grow. Ideally this decision should be driven by the community itself and the The Megadisasters CoP wanted to grow, but community leader. they grew in waves. First, they developed In this section, you’ll look at: a Core Group with subject-matter experts who were committed to the topic and the Growth Channels and the Community idea and success of the community. The Lifecycle: How to identify and leverage community manager sent out personal the most appropriate channel for invitations, targeting each member and the growth. There are several different value they would bring and receive from growth channels that work better at participating in the community. The fact different stages of the community that there was already engagement in the lifecycle. So you need to be sure you’re group, attracted new members. The CoP using the channel that best supports was originally closed. The CoP then had a big your efforts at each stage. launch in Japan, with now open membership. Reasons to Grow: Five reasons to grow Their Primary focus is on growth and your community dissemination. Action Plan for Growth: How to develop an action plan to recruit Example 2: No Growth –Teacher members and grow your communities. Motivation Working Group Growth Channels and the The Teacher Motivation Working Group is Community Lifecycle primarily a working group, not an ongoing community of practice that is active FeverBee defines the community lifecycle periodically on specific topics. as consisting of four stages: inception, establishment, maturity, and mitosis. At the Inception stage, the objective is to achieve critical mass. In the Establishment phase, the objective is to increase growth and activity.
BUILDING COMMUNITY—A PRIMER I 39 COMMUNITY MANAGEMENT
Reasons to Grow Your Tackle potential problems (data-driven) – Heavy focus on growth emphasizes the Community You might notice potential problems in your wrong metrics – An overly strong emphasis community based on what your data says. on growth tends to place a focus on the We’ve identified five reasons to grow your For example, perhaps you’ve exhausted all wrong metrics. This can come at the expense community: the possible members in your sector, or the of activity levels, content quality, and the average age of your members begins to Sustainability (early-stage sense of community amongst members, increase significantly, then you’ll want to start communities) which can ultimately affect the return your to increase the appeal of your community to company sees on its community investments. Regeneration (fading/struggling a new audience to prevent it from declining communities) In conclusion, you do need growth, but you and eventually failing. New opportunities (mature must make sure that you’re growing for the communities) Replenishment (mature communities) – If right reasons and at the right time so that you have a mature community, you will you don’t destroy the work you’ve already Tackle potential problems (data- want to replenish the membership. Every done. Growth is not always the best solution driven) mature community needs a steady flow of for problems within a community. Replenishment (mature communities) new members joining. Over a long period of time, you’ll notice that many, (sometimes How to Grow Your Community If your community does not fit within one of most), of the members in your community these five reasons, then you should seriously leave. They’ll lose interest in the topic, their Once you have determined whether you consider whether or not you actually need to priorities change, or perhaps they take a need to grow, you now can consider how grow. new job that takes them away from the to grow using each of four channels. The community. Whatever the reason, community challenge is to know when to use each Sustainability (early-stage communities) members will move on, so you need to have channel to drive the growth you desire. – You are working on an early stage a steady stream of new members available to Direct Growth – Direct growth is, perhaps, community, and you need to grow to reach replace them. the easiest and most reliable form of growth, sustainability, or, critical mass. A community and it happens when you are appealing to an needs a certain level of active members to Reasons Not to Grow Your audience that you already have access to. This maintain its momentum, otherwise it’s at a can be done via direct invitations, mailing greater risk of failing. Community lists, and related partnerships at the WBG. Most communities are squarely focused on Regeneration (fading/struggling growth. They want more numbers. More communities) – You are working on a fading Word-of-Mouth Growth – Word-of-mouth people. A bigger audience. However, there or struggling community that you want to growth can happen when community are several factors that mitigate against this regenerate and reinvigorate. Communities members share content with their goal of growth. struggle for different reasons - It might be connections, and when they individually refer because they never reached critical mass. It Member desires and balance – Most groups someone to the community. It can happen might be that their regular members moved are actually quite happy as they are. A at an event where there is a hashtag that on, and they were never able to replace sudden influx in growth can throw off this is related to the community, or if someone them. Growth is absolutely a way out of a balance. is invested in the community. Meaning, struggling community. With regeneration, Impact on community spirit – Growth it’s in their best interest to push people new members can help to bring new ideas can actually hurt a community. Imagine towards the community. Finally, word of and experiences, and breathe fresh life into you’ve been a part of an online group for mouth growth also happens when you the community, an added bonus. a number of years. You have relationships host more involvement activities in your New opportunities (mature communities) established with these people, and suddenly, community. The more a community member – You have a mature community that is 200 new people join. You don’t recognize feels involved, the more likely they are to looking to expand into new opportunities. who is participating, and you no longer feel recommend the community to their friends People’s interests grow and change, and new like you’re a close part of the group, one of or peers. innovations and techniques are introduced the very reasons you joined. This is what Promotion – Promotion is when you reach to communities. You want to position happens when you strive for an influx in out to audiences that you don’t already have community growth to embrace the next big growth. Communities can grow beyond the access to. There are a variety of different thing, rather than ignore or overlook it and point where the people in the community promotional channels that can be used to risk losing your audience. still feel that they have a strong sense of appeal to an external audience, for example, community with each other. events and competitions, newsletters,
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Segment – You’ll want to target segments Figure 21: Community Growth of your audience, one at a time. Mass email blasts have very low conversion rates, that is, converting non-members to new members, and new members to Direct Growth Word-of-mouth active members and for this crucial stage Personal invites Referrals in the community building process, you’ll Email lists Content sharing want to make sure that you achieve these Partnerships with other CoP’s, Recogni�on conversions. Audiences can be segmented by GPs, Units, etc... Investment demographics, habits, and psychographics. (Refer to your Audience Analysis.) Look for Involvement ac�vi�es clusters within the groups to target. HOW Have Specific Reasons – When you’re deciding which group to target, you’ll also want to think about why you are choosing Promo�on Search to target them. It’s much more effective if you have a specific reason for targeting a Events/compe��ons Community Finder Profile particular group or person and tailor your Adver�sing CoP search on Open Learning Campus requests and messages accordingly. You Newsle�er should have tailored calls to action and be specific when asking them for their thoughts and opinions. Promote Activities – When inviting people to join your community, make sure that you and exposure to the Collaboration For the community is thriving, this is the moment are promoting activities that happen within Development (C4D) platform. you want to engage in promotional tactics. the community rather than promoting the Search – Search is what happens when The next sections focus on two of the community itself. Give them a reason to join. an audience organically finds your channels: direct growth and word-of-mouth. Give them a reason to participate. Data shows community through searches online, such that the earlier you can get members to as CommunityFinder, and the Open Learning Direct Growth Principles participate, the more likely they are to Campus. remain long-term members. When it comes to direct growth, here are several principles to follow. Growth Tactics and the Community Lifecycle
Referring to the Community Lifecycle, we Figure 22: Community Lifecycle can also categorize the growth tactics by where your community is in the lifecycle. The Lifecycle begins with direct growth as you’re starting the community. Most of the initial growth will come from you directly reaching out and inviting people to join the # OF NEW MEMBERS community. In sending invitations, you need to target the audience that is the best fit for your community. As the community grows, more of the growth LIFECYCLE can and should come from referral or word- INCEPTION ESTABLISHMENT MATURITY MITOSIS STAGE of-mouth growth. Once more than 50% of DIRECT DIRECT REFERRAL TYPE OF DIRECT REFERRAL DIRECT growth and activity in the community is REFERRAL PROMOTION GROWTH GROWTH WORD-OF- PROMOTION PROMOTION SEARCH generated by members, you want to initiate MOUTH more word-of-mouth growth tactics. Once
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Stagger Recruitment – Stagger your Figure 23 is an example of an initial outreach Stagger distribution – Do not email your recruitment efforts over time. The reason for email for a prospective community member. entire mailing list all at once. doing this is two-fold. First, you don’t want to Promote activity – Share and promote exhaust your mailing list all at once. Second, Mailing Lists what’s happening in the. you’ll get better at recruiting the more Plan the first 3 weeks of activity– If you are often you do it. Staggering your approaches Follow these guidelines when using mailing choosing to invite people by mailing list, plan enables you to experiment and find out what lists: works best, so that you can gradually adapt the first 3 weeks of community involvement and optimize your approach. Segment the list – When using a mailing list, for them. If you can get them participating make sure that you ruthlessly segment the multiple times within the first 3 weeks, Direct Growth Tools list. they’re far more likely to become regular And more than just age, gender, or location. members of the community. Two tools for direct growth are; If you can, segment by interest or by date Individual direct invitations that they joined the community, and point Mailing lists. them to areas that are directly relevant for them. Ruthlessly segment and aim for high conversion rates. That should be your motto. Individual Direct invitations Follow these guidelines when sending direct invitations: Figure 23: Initial Outreach Example
Send to those interested – You should send direct invitations to people who might [Name] be interested in the community – search their profile on the Intranet or LinkedIn, and see why they would be a good fit for the Thank you for finding SecureNutrition on LinkedIn, (name), and for your community. For example, does their work engagement in the seminar on February 23rd. Here is a link to some align with the mission of the community? Are they considered a subject matter expert in follow up materials that I’d think you would find useful. the topic that your community is focused on? Develop relationships – In this invitation, I’d be really interested to hear your thoughts, good or bad, about you should seek to develop a relationship first. Your outreach must be done in a the seminar. Are you able to post them to our group? https://www. genuine way. If the emails feel fake, or if they linkedin.com/groups/4737415/4737415-6107956172793339907 feel like you want something from them, you won’t find them to be very effective. Offer Also, if you’re looking for anything in particular by joining the group, let something first; give before you ask. Be specific– When you reach out to me know and I’ll do my best to help with any resources or connections. someone for the first time, make sure that you’re reaching out to only them… not to a Best, group of people. Then, make sure you have a specific reason for reaching out to them. Aaron Ask for their ideas or expertise, and keep the email short using open-ended questions to SecureNutriton garner a response. Do not close immediately – Do not try to NOTE: If you are planning an “invitations in waves” process, it’s important to target the right close on the first contact. Meaning: do not ask people. You can target people based on their position in the adoption lifecycle. You should be them to join your community the first time able to identify people based on your personal knowledge, from the personal knowledge of the you email. Establish the relationship first. Core Group, and from the audience interviews that you have conducted.
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Increase status (self-serving) People who want to increase their status inside the community People want to increase their status outside the community
EARLY ADOPTER FOLLOWERS LATE ADOPTER LAGGARDS Help people (altruistic) People who want to help people inside the community Figure 24: Early adopters People who want to help people outside the community Target early adopters after you have Regardless of how the referrals are recruited a Core Group. Early adopters will stimulated, word of mouth is the ideal source Tactics Based on Self-Serving join because they are by definition are keen of growth for most communities as it tends to Motivation and enthusiastic, and because they see the have the highest conversion rates. Core Group’s example and how community is The self-serving reasons tend to have the working for them. Even though they are the Influencing Word of Mouth Growth biggest success in driving referrals. least risk averse, there is also a lower risk of To influence word of mouth growth: Ranking and badging features can be set up adoption for early adopters as someone else Ensure that the content on your in accordance with word of mouth activities has tested the community already. community is easily shareable, and to motivate users to achieve them. You can
that it looks good once it’s been also give them areas of responsibility or Followers are the next group to target. They shared. increased involvement in the community, as will join only after seeing that the community this tends to drive referrals as well. Another Think of ways to feature or highlight is becoming popular and useful to others, so option is to have a poll or debate where positive word of mouth contributions. they will also want to try it. members can choose sides. Those involved in Community members love to see their the debate are highly likely to invite people Late adopters will join only after having seen words featured on the platform or from outside of the community to join their a critical mass (by the time the followers are featured in the newsletter. You can side. engaged, the majority of target audience has interview members, and add their joined). picture. Those who are interested in increasing their status outside the community are swayed Finally, laggards join only when everyone Direct Tactics to Stimulate else is there. by tactics that encourage them to impress Referrals others. For example, offering a limited amount of invitations to join is a common Word-of-Mouth Principles Let’s look at the direct tactics we can use to tactic used widely across the web, or stimulate referrals. There are 2 kinds of word of mouth growth: invitations to a specific event. fertilized and unfertilized. You can break the motivations for word of mouth into four distinct groups: Fertilized word of mouth – is what happens when you prompt the growth. Perhaps you ask your community members to tweet Figure 25: Direct Tactics something or write something for you, or encourage them to share an article. Unfertilized word of mouth – is purely Inside the Community Outside the Community organic, meaning, you didn’t directly Increase My Status • Recognition • Exclusive invites influence the growth at all. It happened • Responsibilities • Grant awards/interviews naturally. • Debates/Polls
Word of mouth is quite rare during the inception phase of a community, which is Help My Friends • Clear purpose and goals • Create shareable content why it’s so important to have a referral plan • Advance the cause • Tackle challenges in place once your community moves on to the next phase.
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Also, anytime someone is given a feature Slow and steady wins – It’s much better what the best sources of growth are, and or attention inside the community, they’re to have slow and steady growth instead optimize your time and efforts accordingly likely to share it externally with their family or of a large, viral explosion of growth. Large friends. Feature them in an article, newsletter bursts of growth are challenging for the or event. community to absorb, and they’re much more challenging for you as a community Tactics Based on Altruistic manager to convert into active members of Initiating and Sustaining Motivation the community. Converting someone into Discussions in a a regular, active member takes a lot of time Generally, having a clear goal for the and effort. With a large amount of growth, Community community that community members can you won’t have the same time available resonate with is often a sufficient motivation to convert these members, and you risk If you can successfully initiate and sustain for spreading the word. Also, it helps if you missing members that would have otherwise discussions, you will have higher levels of have a specific problem that you’re trying to converted because you don’t have enough participation, greater quantity and quality solve, or perhaps even a fundraising goal that time. of information being shared, and improved you’d like to hit. relationships and social capital development Promote activities within the community Additionally, if you want specific individuals between members. – Make sure that you’re promoting the from a certain field or background to join, activity that happens within the community It’s not as easy to initiate and sustain put that information out to the community. rather than the community itself. When a discussion as you might imagine. It’s Motivated individuals will invite their friends many people try to grow a community, they’ll common for someone to post a discussion to help. say “join the community for these special linking to an article and ask members Newcomer-oriented content is always useful things” and be done with it. And that really what they think of the article. However, in attracting members from outside the doesn’t put the community member in a that in itself does not lead to a natural community. Especially if the content helps participatory mindset. Rather, it’s smarter fluent discussion. It’s common for people them to solve some other problem. Identify to promote an in-community activity like an to participate once, it’s far harder to get common problems that community members upcoming event or discussion to someone someone to participate multiple times. The have, and then create a guide illustrating outside of the community. Ask them to following sections tackle the key challenges how to solve them. Publish the guide, and lend their opinion, or have them join the community managers face to generate and encourage community members to share. panel. By inviting someone to participate sustain ongoing online discussion in their communities, but the principles also apply Figure 25 (previous page) is an example of on a particular activity directly, you make to designing in-person conversations and activities and outcomes based on direct an appeal to their social needs. Once they activities, for example, at events. growth tactics. join and participate, they’re far more likely to continue participating, rather than forget Growing a Community - about the account they’ve just created. Discussions, Relationships, and Summary Optimize your time – When you’re Communities increasing the number of members that are Unfortunately, growth is often something Discussions build relationships, relationships joining your community, you’ll also need that is done wrong. Community managers build communities. Relationships develop to increase the time you have available tend to ignore the reasons why members along a fixed line. A relationship starts for converting these folks into active participate and join the community to begin with a common interest, then there will be participants. What good are your efforts in with in favor of tactics that deliver sheer some sort of interaction or spark. Through driving people to your platform if they don’t volume. Or even worse, they just hope that interactions, members will disclose some convert into active members? You’ll also growth will take care of itself. information about themselves. Perhaps it’s want to optimize the conversion process for an experience they’ve had, some attribute So when you’re thinking about growth, keep long-term members. (More about this later in that they have, or their thoughts or emotions these principles in mind: the Primer.) on a different but relevant topic. By sharing Grow for a reason – Make sure that you’re Measure and repeat – Measurement itself experiences through self-disclosure, growing for a reason. Take a good look at is such an important thing to community emotional connections start to form and your community and determine whether or growth: inputs, outputs, and outcomes. relationships begin to develop. not it even needs growth to begin with. What It’s important for you to measure (posts, is the real benefit from growth? comments, questions and answers, time to respond and so on), so that you understand
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popular, and point them what to participate in.