Seattle’s famous Fremont Troll

One of the challenges every community will eventually face…if not continuously face… is the disruption of "trolls."  Trolls are a particularly disruptive force in online communities.  You could probably create some categories for types of trolls in online communities (those with a grudge against you, those with a grudge against a group of other community members, those with a grudge against everything, those who are just plain obnoxious, etc).  Thinking through the categories could be fun and I might think on that more for another day.

Communities that don’t force authentication offer uniquely harder challenges with trolls as pure anonymity and difficulty of consequences (banning) embolden some of the worst behaviors.  Given the option, a community without some sort of registration and authentication (at least in order to post/comment) is not the best practice.

In general, trolls will hi-jack conversations with off topic and often outrageous claims on controversial topics.  In the end, the single best tactic for managing trolls (and hardest to do it seems) is ignoring them.  Keep in mind the following principles:

• The Troll’s goal is to draw you into debate and argument - a single response from you is victory for the troll.
• A troll is a troll is a troll is a troll is a troll - you do not have the power to bring them from the dark to the light.
• If you must, type out your response to the troll, save it for 24 hours, and then delete it - that process of writing was your opportunity for therapy!  Posting it will not help.

So…some do’s:

• Ignore, ignore, ignore (to a point)
• Moderation is important, especially to new forming communities (we have not always done this - and still don’t in many cases)
• Moderators who have credibility/status in the community are critical (no "drive by moderation"
• Post guidelines for your community and be consistent about them
• Consider providing tools to your top contributors to handle some poster problems
• Use authentication and no anonymous posting
• Consider providing a "wild west" forum - a place where off-topic and random is ok. 
• Do NOT get confused or drawn into a "freedom of speech" debate - make no mistake, if your community is hosted on your servers, that is your property, you can be held liable for what happens there - freedom of speech is a brilliant principal, but does not apply here.

What had me thinking about this is that we recently had some issues in some private communities with some of these kinds of problems.  It was in a private/"walled garden" community and while I’m not a moderator, I am a pretty well known participant in the space - I guess it helps to mention that I run the program that ultimately entitles the members to be in that community.  Now, I’m pretty pro "letting things go" in this scenario, but there comes a point where lines are crossed and a stand has to be made.

I consider part of the purpose of this blog to share practices (they may not always be the best practices…but they are examples from my experience).  In this case, I had hit the wall and writing and deleting my post was not the right response (given it was a private community).  So, for sake of sharing, here was my very personal post to the community.  I have only made minor to preserve some people and program privacy.

Thinking out loud - NOT making a policy decision.  I chose this part of the
thread as I like what says here.

I’m not inclined to create more private NGs - don’t think it will help
really.
I don’t want to moderate - seems a horrible waste of resources to me
I can’t ban users from the private NGs the way they are configured - you are
either a and have access or you are not a and don’t have access.

I like the notion of values/principles.  As a leader and as a person, I have
to ask myself every day if I am living my values - what do I value?
#1  My family (this is both my home and my work family)
#2  Integrity/honesty/respect
#3  Accomplishment - I like getting things done

These aren’t all my values, but they are core to me and they have to apply
in both my work and my personal life.  If I don’t feel like I’m living them,
then I am failing - not someone else, but failing myself.  So, I work hard
to live these values in everything I do and I feel pretty good that I do it.
However, that said, when I look at the kinds of conversations that seem to
occur at times in the , that is where I do feel like my values are out of sync with what is happening around something that is part of my work and "family".  I don’t think I can continue to allow these values to be out of sync.  I don’t know what to do about it and I’m quite certain not everyone will like any decision I make, but having everyone "like" my decisions is not on my list of values.

What would I like?  Everyone treated by default with dignity and respect.
If you can’t do that…don’t be here.   If you can’t resist, then I guess
ultimately you’d be making the decision mine - and that decision is not
likely to be one that treats a person differently, but one that says that
person is perhaps not aligned with the values of this as embodied by the current leader of the program.

sean

This is probably one of the strongest and certainly most personal posts I’ve made in my history with community - reminder here - when I post in that community it is as an official representative of my company (and myself).  On the whole, I think this response was very necessary and overall very well and respectfully received.  It was a turning point as well for some recent troubles.  Whether the turn lasts or not is to be seen, but either way I have stated where I stand and communicated that action would be taken.

This aside, it’s an exceptionally important reminder that I am a very present, visible and credible (at least I think so:)) individual in this community.  If I was just another corporate representative who suddenly took a stand I would have been chased off and thoroughly dismissed.  I have authority in this community not because of my role, title, employer or responsibilities - but because of my consistent, open and honest presence there.  Turns out online respect is earned just like offline respect.

So, I hope this example is of some use.  Good luck with your communities and don’t forget to share your stories.  I suppose if there is one take away here, it’s that no matter the situation you need to address in your community, you must be a credible and respected presence there…so go engage!

Sean

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Ok, true enough, I’m actually titling Part 5 here as "Ugly Baby."

What’s another reason why it is so important you engage with your users in your communities?  Well, I’ve talked before about several ways to build this case - links below.  Many authors and speakers who are more elegant than I like to to talk about "building customer loyalty."  Well, what does that really mean?  In a session last week I described this as the act of building a sense of maternity or paternity for your products, content, company - a sense of ownership by your users - nothing is more powerful.  It’s a simple and sticky idea (hint: book review coming soon):  Everyone has seen an ugly baby, but nobody’s baby is ever ugly.

 

For reference…links back to first 4 parts:

Part 1:  The Analogy

Part 2:  Fear by Example

Part 3:  Data / Evidence approach

Part 4:  Assumptive Close

Sean

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At the end of "Your Community already exists," I promised a follow up on segmentation.  So much has been written about this that I hesitate to add my own spin, but I’m resisting re-researching the topic to pick who I think did it best.  My goal here is not to create the "industry standard" taxonomy, but to set a framework for how I’ll discuss it overtime here at Community Group Therapy.

If you really want to explore this topic fully, it is likely well worth exploring my blogroll for others points of view on this.

So here goes.  This is essentially how I think about online communities from a segmentation standpoint:

• Internals:  Often forgotten in the taxonomy - but CRITICAL.  Who are the internal employees in your company that are participating (or need to participate).  What are their roles?  Do their roles reflect your community goals (Do you have aspirations for product improvement insight, but only marketing participating)?  Are they "volunteers" or is it their job to be in the communities?  Are they there because they want to be or because they were told to be?  You’ll have all of this - map it, plan for it, reward it if necessary, negotiate for it as needed (carrot and stick), develop your pitch to convince as needed - Just make sure you pay attention to it.  Your community without participation from across your company will not achieve its potential.
• Moderators:  These are sometimes employees and sometimes community volunteers.  They’re critical to the tone, manner, health and managing the "norms" of the community.  They need to be empowered, but very cautious in using their power.  Moderation is part art, part science.  Consistency is key.  They need to be a very well known and respected participant in the community.  Oh..and some personality helps:)
• Elite contributors:  NOT to be confused with Moderators.  These are your most active 1% of unique users (or even less in Microsoft’s case).  This is the steep part of the curve where a small percentage of users are massively…even shockingly active in your communities.  Reminder, I’m very biased, but to me, this is job #1.  This is the segment that you have to deeply engage.  (For Microsoft, these are the MVP’s).  Their reasons for their level of activity are largely their own, but it is never (or rarely) about helping you…it is about helping other users.  Their "ROI" could be described as learning, socializing, helping, "Pay it Forward," or simply as altruism.  Misunderstand the motivations of this audience at your own peril!!
• Active Participants:  Often described as the next ~20% of active participants.  They represent the next most active (though significantly different than elites)group of participants.  They are predominantly "askers" but are also "answerers" and some % of them will someday be your Elite contributors.  These are your "regulars" - they come back because it was good last time. 
• Lurkers/Consumers:  These are the masses.  They probably found you via search.  They may or may not come back.  In the end they have utilitarian needs from the community.  This is over-simplified to be sure - in fact I’d love your input on how to break down this group a little further.  Somewhere in this group are participants I’d call "curiosity seekers."  They are circling the pool and looking at all the fun…building up their courage to jump in.  The tone/manner/approachability of your community will determine how much courage it takes.  This group I think is particularly critical to the long term vitality of your community.
• Non-Users:  Well, all of the above are probably a small percentage of all your users…so you have A LOT of work to do.  It is equally important to consider your non-users.  Why are they non-users?  What can you do to attract them?  If you attract them too fast, might they damage your community.  What are you doing to drive awareness of your community resources?  Ease of discoverability?  Re-use of the content?  Remember…Field of Dreams was just a movie!

Now that you have a taxonomy (mine or another you like)…what to do.  Just ensure you check your plan, end to end, against this taxonomy.  If you design your community with lurkers in mind, will elite answers dislike your design.  If you design for elites, will curiosity seekers ever get in the pool?  Are you differentiating services and/or benefits by segment?  Let’s face it, you will have budget constraints.  Some services may have cost you can’t scale beyond your 1%.  Consider the currencies ("coined" by my friend Lee at Commoncraft) that benefit each segment.

Whatever you do, don’t go and build your community strategy without considering segmentation.  Even if you get some things wrong, having the context will allow you to identify and troubleshoot your errors much more quickly.

Sean

 

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Lee Lefever recently posted Online Community Lessons from SXSW and Community 2.0.  It’s a nice summary and well worth reading.  One piece jumped out at me in particular:

Your community already exists: Know that your customers are already a community. You have an opportunity to offer something to customers that other web sites can’t: access to the people and news that have the power to change the products and services they care about. Serve the community that exists and offer them access to things they cannot get elsewhere. This was partly a point from John Hagel’s keynote, well documented by Patty Seybold.

I really like the simplicity and the depth of this quote and wanted to explore my interpretation just a bit:

1)  Know that your customers are already a community. 

I liked this in particular because it acknowledges an often missed core principle of community development.  Take a look at the shear # of posts and discussions about "building an online community" (here are 3.7m hits on search.live.com).  The point here is that you are not building a community because your users don’t have one…they do.  In fact, I’d say by definition, a group of individuals who have purchased your product/service are a community.  They may have very loose ties to one another (and you), but they do share something in common - they use your stuff.  Your opportunity is to explore how deepening those ties between them AND with you creates a win/win situation.  Remember, they don’t need you to commune with fellow users - those communities already exist.

Test yourself here:  Does your company see 3rd party community sites about your products as "competitive" to your own community plans/desires?  If yes, why?  This is a warning sign you should explore more.  Imagine why those sites developed - someone was SO passionate about your products that they built a destination to gather and discuss with other users - they should be your best friends!  Yes, it’s independent content and may not always reflect positively on you - but that is the point…that’s part of why it is good - and be honest, not everything you do is a good idea.  Caveat: Some 3rd party communities morph into something more like journalism than users helping users.  This is a topic for a future post - these situations require additional consideration. 

2)  You have the opportunity to offer something to customers that other web sites can’t:  access to the people and news that have the power to change the products and services they care about.

This is where you have the opportunity to deliver on the win/win.  The formula here might be different based on your business/product/industry - or maybe not.  But you need to write down what you get from developing your community and what your users get - the old give/get framework - and if it looks out of balance - you have a problem.  If it benefits you too much - your users won’t stay.  If the balance is too much towards your users, you may not stay.   If you have a home run on your hands - you’ll see some of the same things written on each side of the balance sheet.

To me, the ultimate destination is to earn an emotional connection with your users (recommended reading:  Kathy Sierra).  Of course, this is much easier said than done, so I’ll apply my translation.  You have to participate.  You have to listen.  You have to embrace criticism.  You have to accept input.   And maybe most importantly, you have to be a PEER in the community.  Bottom line:  You have to demonstrate respect - when you’ve done this, you earn trust and the community grows.  This won’t come from a good speech or blog post, but is only earned by the actions you take in supporting your community.

How do you know when you’ve won their hearts?  They recommend you.  They stand up for you.  They offer solutions or suggestions with their criticisms.  You’re talking "with them" vs "at them." They are no longer "them."  In other words, you know their names, interests and specialties and they are learning yours.

In the end, it’s not really that complicated.  What you uniquely have to offer your users are relationships - bi-directional connections that listen, respond and make changes based on the conversations.  They bought your "stuff," so isn’t this the goal.  Yes, we are all afraid of the scale challenge - you can’t have a relationship with everyone - but there are ways to manage this once you’ve decided on your intent.

3)  Serve the community that exists and offer them access to things they cannot get elsewhere.

Remember, don’t look at those 3rd party communities as the enemy…look at them as part of the portfolio of options that exists for your users and decide what you can add to the portfolio?

• Specialized content
• Access to experts
• Escalation to formalized support
• Pre-release (beta) access
• Feedback systems connected to the decision makers
• Indemnification - this one is tricky - but some advice in some situations will require you stand up and assure your users of the advice they are getting.
• Aggregation:  Of all those 3rd parties we were talking about:)

Coming soon:  We need to talk more about "segmentation" of community users.  Much has been written on this, but I think it’s an important follow-on topic as it can help you with scale and may dictate how you structure your give/get framework as well as the add on services I described in #3 above.

Sean

 

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Convincing the unconverted on communities

One of the issues that has challenged community enthusiasts inside traditional corporate structures is over-coming the lack of understanding of the implications of the shift from the publish/browse web to a participation web.  Let’s face it, most of those that control prioritization decisions, investment decisions, risk management decisions and strategy decisions are at this point inexperienced in the “social.”  A colleague of mine even suggested they were “too old” to even get it…and by too old I think he meant over 25!!  Ok, I’m 37 (very soon) so maybe I should take some offense, but at the same time, I’ve made a big effort to understand it…the exaggeration might not be that far off. 

So, given that we can’t roll back their clocks, a common challenge is how to make it visceral for them.  You have to accept that this is not their problem, but your problem.  Realistically, no single approach is always successful, but I thought I’d share some of mine in hopes you might share some of yours – all can be effective, the edge is in knowing how and when to use each based on your audience or the type of resistance you are experiencing. 

There are several approaches I use and over the next several days, I’ll try to explain them here.  I’ll start with what I call “The Analogy.”

#1:  The Analogy:  I use this one A LOT, especially in scenarios where I know the gap is really pure understanding.  Nearly everyone has benefited from community, but we often try to talk about it so specific to our area of business interest, that it just doesn’t resonate.  I have 3 examples I use a lot.  They are each specifically designed to appeal in different ways (hobby, personal transactions, and a non-standard selection).

·          BBQing (hobby) – This was really the first example I ever used.  One of my hobbies (obsessions according to my wife) is BBQing.  I won’t get into the passions that surround debate on this subject here, but be assured they are as strong and deep as any topic I’ve ever seen.  So, here’s the story – and yes, it is 100% true (these must be for it to work).  A few years ago, my wife bought me a BBQ for Christmas, technically a smoker (www.cookshack.com).  One of the first things I did was go online to register the product.  I immediately discovered an online community hosted at the site.  By the end of the day, I was reading post after post from a guy named “smokin’ okie.”  I was lurking like crazy all the time (and slowly starting to post).  As the months went by, I didn’t really give this a lot of thought relative to my day job on communities at Microsoft.  But, one day it hit me.  I was using this BBQ WAY more frequently than the average person uses a BBQ.  I was buying accessories for it.  I was recommending it to others (I can name 5 people I recommended it to who now own one).  I was using it in non-standard ways – things you won’t read in the manual (by the way, this really builds loyalty as you’re not sure you could do it with a competitor.)  It also dawned on me that my motivations for being in that community were very diverse.  I sought recipes, trouble shooting, tips and tricks, product recommendations, social connections, and on and on – I was really forming relationships.  Since then, that cookshack has become a center piece of a full outdoor kitchen (see flickr photos in sidebar) I had built to extend my addiction to bbqing.  So, how did this relate to Microsoft for me?  Well, let me tell you, software and computers are not a lot different than BBQing.  What does every company want?  They want you to use their products more.  They want you to use a richer set of its features and capabilities.  They want you to add onto it.  They want you to recommend it and they want it to become a focal point in your life.  It’s really the dream scenario – if communities could do that for me with BBQ, couldn’t we do the same with software – another topic with massive passions!!  Now, don’t use BBQing (unless it’s true for you), but do figure out what your “bbq story” is.  What you are trying to do is create a vivid story that helps others discover their own story – then you’ve got them.

·          Buying a camera (personal transaction) – This one is simpler, but I think equally effective as most people can relate to the process.  Here’s the story.  10 years ago most people bought cameras the same way.  They went to the camera shop and the person behind the counter was an “expert” (relative to you the shopper) and that sales person held massive influence over what you bought.  Actually, many manufacturers spent lots of money on channel training, shelf placement, spiffs, etc to help move their products.  Yes, we had consumer reports, but on the whole, I think the approach above is true for the masses.  Today, how do we buy a camera?  Well, if we go into a store at all, we likely know as much or more as the person behind the counter (high quality/specialty stores not withstanding).  We already went to www.amazon.com or www.cnet.com or … and we read user reviews.  We’ve been to communities to read and listen to others.  We trust the voice of other users far more than the mfg or channel – other users are like us after all and they are unbiased (we assume).  Often time, we better understand our peers as well.  What did I hate about my last digital camera?  When I pushed the button to get the picture, the delay often meant I missed the shot.  Do I even know about shutter speed?  If I go to the camera web site, I just see performance data – no context really that I can understand.  Nothing like reading posts from other users who hated the same thing with their prior camera and now are happy with .  In fact, it’s in this scenario where I wonder why we go to a manufacturer web site at all?  Don’t I know what it says without going (easy to use, low cost, flexible, powerful, fast, great support, etc, etc, etc)?  Isn’t that roughly what all web sites say?  What’s useful for me is the conversations with other users.  In fact, “why would anyone build a website without hosting user to user conversations” would be my close to this example? 

·          American Idol (non-standard) – I admit, I’m sucked into this show a little.  I also admit it is the first several weeks when everyone is terrible that I really like it – especially the ones who actually think they are good and are really brutal.  But, isn’t AI just another type of “community” delivered through network television (definitely managed – but none the less true I think).  It is all about user generated content and participation in the voting.  Imagine the relative cost of producing a 1 hr episode of AI vs a 1 hr episode of 24 or Lost?  What a great idea!  Not to mention, they just monetized what was once an immensely expensive process – talent discovery.

What are your favorite analogies??

Next technique: "Fear by example"

Sean

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