Offline Communites to Online Tribes Notes:
How do you make this easy
Go where the people are
Many people just start throwing changes out there without coordination or strategy, and they do more damage than good.
How do we tap into disparate communities, both on and offline, and bring them together?
How do we reach user groups that don't know about us yet?
- persona modeling - what are your core audiences? who are the exemplars? what are their audiences, what do they do, where do they work?
- partnership model - how do we build partnerships to establish new networks?
How do you get people involved? How do I reduce the lurk (i.e. just the readers, who don't contribute?)
- Incentives through social capital (e.g. role/title, additional responsibilities, permissions, etc.)
- What will engage non-contributing community members?
Responses
- Free content converts people - offer a freebie to entice people to become a part
- Call and connect with your members - establish a direct, personal link
- Find your leaders/community evangelists in place - hash out the parameters of a community leader role offline, then take it online
- Return to your vision/intention for the group - are you meeting the need of that group?
- Don't bring the offline community online - create a new online one! It may have/need a different structure that is complementary to the original structure