The boring bulletpoint version of my keynote presentation at the second Community Managers Meetup in Belgium (#CMBE). Contact me to come and present the funny-picture-version with some examples.

1. Kickstarting a
Community
Kristof Nizet
#CMBE 2

2. Let’s build a community!
nWho do you want to reach?
nWhat do you want to
achieve?
nChoose metrics to measure
your success

3. Different types of communities
n Interest.
Communities of people who share the same interest or passion.
n Action.
Communities of people trying to bring about change.
n Place.
Communities of people brought together by geographic boundaries.
n Practice.
Communities of people in the same profession or undertake the same activities.
n Circumstance.
Communities of people brought together by external events/situations.

4. Different types of communities
hardest type
n Interest.
Communities of people who share the same interest or passion.
n Action.
Communities of people trying to bring about change.
n Place.
Communities of people brought together by geographic boundaries.
n Practice.
Communities of people in the same profession or undertake the same activities.
n Circumstance.
Communities of people brought together by external events/situations.

5. Different types of communities
hardest type
n Interest.
Communities of people who share the same interest or passion.
The more communities someone has joined, the less they
participate in them.
Your effort would be better spent on casual internet users.
By far, someone that has never joined a community is more
likely to become an active participant.
The fewer communities someone has joined, the more
valuable they are.

6. Reality Check
Your audience is probably
busy, apathetic, lazy and
selfish.
Incorporate this into your
strategy

7. Different types of communities
n Make your community topic on a matter people are
very passionate about
n Appeal to basic desires like the need to be recognised
and feel important
n Keep the technology simple. Use a platform they
already know
n Don’t overwhelm people with boring messages

8. Finding your first community members:
Start with a small group
n Passionate employees
n People who contacted customer service
n Commentors on your site
n Commentors on news stories about your brand/industry
n Conference attendees
n Bloggers blogging about your brand/industry
n Regular visitors to your site
n Search Twitter for mentions
+ Their friends

9. Who not to approach
n All of your employees
n A-list bloggers
n All of your current customers
n Newsletter subscribers
n Existing online groups/rival communities

10. Contacting them for the first time
Do’s Don’ts
n Carefully select who, when and how to invite n Invite everyone indiscriminately
n Personalise every e-mail n Copy/paste e-mails
n Explain why you selected them n Cluster people into general groups, e.g. "farmers"
n Treat the e-mail as the beginning of a n End the e-mail without a question or an
conversation opportunity for them to consider
n Ask for their ideas to improve the community
n Offer to contact anyone else they know for them n Demand they "send this to everyone in their inbox"
n Name-drop people they know who have joined n Throw big numbers at them.
n Be informal n (Unless you're addressing formal groups)
n Try to strike an emotion or inflame an ambition
n Explain the dream/vision/purpose of the n Feed them high-level bullshit or objectives.
community
n Remember to explain who you are, and what you n Pretend to be anything you're not.
do

11. You’ve got your first members.
Now what?
n Make it easy to participate. Keep it simple.
n Ask questions.
n about your product
n about your fans (get to know them)
n Make them feel special
n Give a reward to most active members
n Want an active community? Stay active yourself!

12. Expanding your community
n All of your employees
n All of your current customers
n Newsletter subscribers
n People in similar communities
Give them a real reason to join.
Contests work, but attract a lot of wrong members
If you have a contest: give away something only a true fan would be exited about.

13. Your thoughts?
Kristof Nizet
http://twitter.com/c_concepts