Bill Johnston: Online Community Strategy

Many of you know about the One Laptop Per Child project. What you may not know is that until 12/31, you can “buy one, get one”. Meaning, for ~$400  you can buy one for a child in the developing world, and get one for yourself or your family.

With the $200 tax write off (depends on where you live), ad the free T-Mobile hotspot access for 1 year, this is a really easy way to do good, have a bit of fun (if you are a geek), and score wifi from T-Mobile.

I ordered 1 last week after checking out Raines XO, and getting the info about the buy one, get one program from him.

Check out laptopgiving.org 

Hello xo

Originally uploaded by redplasticmonkey

Raines’ olpc xo

Jeremiah Owyang did an interview with me a couple of weeks back about community “ownership”.

You can watch the video below, and also check out Jeremiah’s blog post with the video, which has a lot of good conversation around this topic.

Click To Play

I blogged about this several months ago, and it seems like the discussion is heating up as organizations try to figure out staffing and funding for 2008. Looks like we will have another interesting year in the community and social media space
Where does the community team belong in a commercial organization?

I posted the following content in the Online Community Report newsletter this morning, but I wanted to blog this as well.

The Big Ideas of 2007

The following are, to my eyes, the “big ideas” that emerged in 2007. I feel these ideas set the stage for the meaningful activity that will play out in 2008.

The “New New” Online Community
One of the most cogent and comprehensive points of view on the emerging opportunities and challenges with online communities is John Hagel’s. The following post expands on the keynote he gave at Community 2.0, and is one of the best thought pieces written about online communities this year.
Community 2.0 - Edge Perspectives with John Hagel

The Explosion of Social Networks
If Time’s person of the year in 2006 was “You”, perhaps 2007 will be “Us”? Ok, they would have to call it “persons of the year”… 2007 is the year social networking went mainstream. Facebook dominated the headlines, but there were tons of smaller, innovative players attracting attention as well. Controversy spun up around privacy, network portability, and the sheer number of similar experiences available.
Are Social Networks Just a Feature? - GigOm
The Chess game of social networking - Marc Canter
All your widgets are belong to Facebook - Jeremiah Owyang
Video: Social Networking in Plain English - Common Craft
Facebook vs. AOL, redux - kottke.org
Thoughts on the Social Graph - Brad Fitzpatrick & David Recordon
Open standards for social networking - CNET
PeopleAggregator and Open Social Network Systems - Read/WriteWeb

Marketing to Online Communities
The reality is, large portions of marketing budgets are shifting from traditional marketing and into online communities and social media. Marketing activities are driving a lot of the experimentation, innovation and controversy. There have been several very visible “social marketing” disasters, and very few “big wins”, at least that marketers will discuss. Look for the experimentation with different techniques to continue at a frantic pace in 2008, as more marketing dollars shift to online activities.
Would You Let These People Friend You?- Advertising Age
Real World Marketing Through Social Networks - Digital Influence Mapping Project
2011: Net Replaces Papers As Top Ad Medium - WebProNews
Will closed networks hurt themselves or lead to Web 3.0? - Marketing Conversations
The New Advertising Outlet: Your Life ? New York Times
How to Identify & Target The Right Niche Social Media Sites- Search Engine Land
Why Wal-Mart?s Facebook Strategy is Like the I-Rack - Get Elastic
Beyond the Hype: The 10 Most Asinine Trends Online and Why You Should Ignore Them - Advertising Age
A Marketer’s Guide To The Social Graph - Twist Image

Talent & Organizational Design
Many organizations are struggling with organizational design and online community talent acquisition. The bad news? Talent is going to get harder to find in 2008, and most organizations will need to experiment with where community and social media staff belong.
The evolving role of the Community Manager - Online Community Report
Where does the Community team belong? A follow up - Online Community Report
Who Owns Community? - Matthew Lees

Metrics & ROI
Two of the hottest topics our Online Community Research Network studied this year were Online Community Metrics and ROI. Most organizations’ community activities will become less experimental and more disciplined in 2008. Quantifying value (including morphing the concept of ROI) and collecting the best mix of quanatative and qualitative metrics will be key issues. Both the ROI and Metrics report are available free of charge via the links below (requires registration) Highlights from the ROI report include:

• Only 22% of respondents could clearly articulate ROI on community efforts
• The majority of respondents gave a high priority to establishing an ROI model in the near term
• 49% were reporting some dimensions of value back to management on a monthly basis
• “Value” of online community efforts are contextual to an organizations goals and objectives

Online Community Metrics 2007 Report - Online Community Research Network
Online Community ROI Report - Online Community Research Network

What’s coming up in 2008?
The OC Report staff has their own ideas, but we would like to hear yours. What’s in it for you? A $25 itunes gift certificate. Simply fill out the short survey here and tell us the ONE Online Community wish you have for 2008. You may win the $25 itunes gift certificate… and who knows, your wish may come true! Best response will be judged by the OC Report staff, and the winner will be announced on January 2nd.
Take the survey here (less than 5 minutes, I promise).

Earlier this week, I published the “Identity, Reputation and Ranking” research study to members of our Online Community Research Network. The study was designed to discover best practices for content rating and ranking, and to establish a baseline of current practice for supporting member identity and reputation.

I inititated the study in early November, and sent approximately 250 survey invitations to online community professionals in our network of executives and practitioners.

Over the course of the research, we 54 completed surveys. Participants (who respond on the condition the results remain anonymous) included community managers, strategists and executives from large software companies, large community destination sites, niche community sites, consulting organizations and platform providers.

We asked 21 questions that explored member identity in the community, member reputation, reputation systems, content ranking, and moderation. We also explored current attitudes about member profile portability and universal login / ID.

In particular, I thought the data we got back on member profile fields was interesting. The graph below shows profile fields broken out by % of communities that require the field, ask for the field an don’t require it, or simply don’t ask for the field.

The research results uncovered several other interesting findings, including:

• New members typically don’t fill out non-required profile fields (> 25%)
• Slightly less than 1/3 of the respondents (32%) have, or plan on making member’s profiles portable in the next 6 months;
• Slightly less than 1/3 of the respondents (32%) have, or plan on implementing a universal ID solution in the next 6 months;
• The majority of respondents have, or are developing a reputation system for their communities.

We plan on releasing the full report to the public in April of 2008. For the list of currently available research reports, please check out the Online Community Research Network home page.

Cross-posted from the OC Report.

OK, I have to admit, I’m a little tired of talking about Facebook after attending last week’s Web Community Forum in Seattle. The conference focused on community building with Facebook, and we spent two days exploring topics ranging from FAcebook usage basics to best practices in B to B marketing.

The event content is partially captured on the Web Community Forum site, which has a running blog and some twitter feeds. Most of the sessions were lecture-style presentations.

The key takeaway for me is: that, in spite of the hype, Facebook is something you should be paying attention to if you are charged with community management or strategy at your organization. I wasn’t convinced 6 months ago, but I am now. Why? Aside from my increased usage of the site:

• It’s the best online social experience available. Facebook has nailed the social networking experience, in part, because the system is structured to start your experience with your real world networks and contacts. Once you start using, it’s *addictive*.
• It has hit critical mass, and it’s growing (57 million members and growing)
• Though still very “V1″, social ads and fan pages will morph into something meaningful. We are seeing the initial, crude offerings to create a marketing and advertising presence on Facebook. This is a make or break issue for the company, and they will continue to experiment until they nail it. A vocal and visible community will keep them honest (see Zuckerberg’s apology about Beacon), and Microsoft’s investment (among what are sure to be other upcoming investments) will push the company to develop creative sources of revenue.

Some of the key highlights from the conference (and speakers) can be found here:

Jeremiah Owyang’s keynote
http://webcommunityforum.com/2007/12/slides-from-jeremiah-owyangs-presentation/

and Jeremiah’s key takeaways
http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2007/12/07/8-key-learnings-from-the-web-community-forum-two-days-of-facebook/

Lee Lorenzen Says Facebook is Worth $100 Billion–uh huh prove it. - Tris Hussey / blognation
http://ca.blognation.com/2007/12/06/lee-lorenzen-says-facebook-is-worth-100-billion-uh-huh-prove-it/

Zuckerberg Apologizes for the Mess that was Beacon Rollout - Nick ONeill / All Facebook (recomended)
http://www.allfacebook.com/2007/12/breaking-zuckerberg-apologizes-for-the-mess-that-was-beacon-rollout/

B2B Marketing - Facebook Tips and Tricks - Mari Smith / Why Facebook
http://whyfacebook.com/2007/12/07/b2b-marketing-facebook-tips-and-tricks/

Thanks to Jeremiah for the link:

http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=7584397130