RE: UKNM: How do they do that ?

[Sam Michel]

Hello Chris,


At 11:59 14/09/00 +0200, Chris Lewis wrote:

>much of the content on our site is Finance and New Technology related

>- perhaps a bit "too" broad actually. The idea is to filter users

>through to our other corporate and product sites. This originally was

>to be done covertly, yet the overt approach has worked far better.

>

>The idea for the forum is to persuade our users to discuss the issues

>raised by our content, but ideally to create a community that feeds

>on itself. This I know is possible as many members of the list have

>pointed out to me. We aim to attract finance and technology students

>and business execs that have use of certain reference materials,

>however the "hooks" available to me are as always particularly

>limited.


 From my experience with setting up the various mailing lists at Chinwag, I

reckon the key elements you need to focus on are:


- Recruiting members to your community, you can't beat viral/word-of-mouth

marketing (chose your phraseology), but don't forget the personal touch,

face-to-face meetings and gatherings at industry conferences/exhibitions

are usually good


- Getting people talking will involve seeding the discussion with

interesting topics and articles, controversial is good but the topics have

to strongly reflect the passions of the community. Ultimately, the best way

to get conversation cracking is to find two members of the community or

more) who have opposing views and are prepared to argue them. Look at UKNM

for examples of this...I'll mention no names!


- Supporting your community with tools, or a moderately high profile

facilitator to answer queries will also be very useful to keep the signal

to noise ratio at the right balance. A natural hierarchy of members will

begin to appear, and this should be supported, with those contributing most

to the community deriving reward from doing so in some form (money isn't

usually a primary motivator)


I tend to think that you can't build a community. It's a bit like a garden,

you can get the right conditions, plant the seed and then tend careful to

ensure maximum growth, but it won't always work. Chances are that if you've

chosen your topic areas carefully, you recruit the right kind of people,

the community will become self-perpetuating.


Beware though...communities may lead you in directions you didn't want to

go into and you'd be unwise to resist. I could go on about this for some

time, as you can tell, and there's a lot more to cover. There are numerous

tools and techniques to help things along, but be wary of offering too much

sophistication when you start off.


<declared interest>

Chinwag is helping develop community strategies for a number of clients at

the moment.

</declared interest>


Toodle Pip


Sam

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Sam Michel, Chinwag - Internet Community Specialists

    e:

samchinwag [dot] com

    http://www.chinwag.com

          t:07887 627 115 f: 07971 013 399


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