How to Build a Web 2.0 Community: The Secrets to Success

A thriving online community will provide you with significant increases in Web site traffic from your most passionate information-seekers, because once a user has posted content, they wants to see what happens next. But traffic from user-generated content doesn’t happen on its own (especially at the start). You will need to build in specific processes to ensure the quantity, quality and timeliness of the content. And, you’ll also need to use some simple direct-marketing tactics to motivate users to participate.These should be a part of a thoughtful, integrated plan across multiple disciplines, including IT functionality, editor participation and e-mail marketing. Here are some of the strategies you need to include. (For the sake of brevity, I’ll use a forum as an example, but these concepts apply to most Web 2.0 content.)Step 1: Create Visitor Retrieval “Hooks.”E-mail Confirmation. After a visitor has registered and posted their first message, send them an e-mail confirmation so that they’ll later remember where they posted their comment. Remember to include very specific calls to action to return to the forum. Also include copy in the e-mail that tells them about the rest of the site, and provide links to encourage further visits. Event-Driven E-mails. When a registrant has posted a comment, an e-mail should be sent to the person who posted the original item to alert them. Again, make this e-mail very action-oriented. For example, if the recipient doesn’t return within a pre-set time period, consider sending them a “last-chance” reminder warning that their posting may be removed from the forum unless they return.Formal On-Site and E-Newsletter Promotion. To drive more readers to the site, feature the most notable and popular postings in lots of places, including pages outside of the forum; in your e-mail newsletter; and inside your print publication. (Just be sure, when a visitor registers, to include a provision that, by registering, they are providing you with permission to re-purpose their content.)Step 2: Motivate Visitors to Participate. Editor’s Picks. Encourage your editors to feature forum postings in or near their own articles. Being an official “Editor’s Pick” is a big ego boost to the person who submitted the posting; it may expand that visitor’s usage and turn them into evangelists for the forum. In addition to providing you with added (cost-free) content sources, this practice also enables you to draw attention to useful posts that may otherwise go unnoticed.Member Ratings. Provide visitors with the opportunity to rate the quality of posted comments and answers. Automatically tie those ratings back to the registrant’s own record. Everyone wants to be an expert, and once again, this appeals to users’ egos. In addition to triggering return visits from the registrant to see how they’re rated, this enables you to feature the top-rated posts in a prominent place. This will then spur competition among your registrants to provide the best-rated quality and quantity—a powerful accelerant to your community’s content quality, quantity and timeliness.Provide Personal Profiles. A new trend in forums is to enable registrants to also post their own profiles, with their picture and more information about themselves, including their e-mail address, if they choose to provide it. This enables social networking to take place, without having to provide the functionality of a social networking hub in itself. Be sure to apply the same direct-marketing principles described in the section above to encourage new registrants to post their profile. You will also need to provide registrants with the ability to opt out of providing such details. Step 3: Populate the community.Got your functionality in place now? All ready to launch? Great! Now … don’t do it yet! Avoid the urge to start with a big splash, or you’ll soon feel the pain of a belly flop. It’s best to set expectations and ensure that, when visitors first go to the forum, they find something good there. Here are some strategies and tactics to make that happen:The Sneak-Preview Beta Test. Start with a “sneak-preview, early-access” promotional invitation to be a Beta tester. Send it to a subset of opted-in e-mail recipients from your e-mail newsletter, explaining that they are among a select few who are being provided free access during the Beta phase in return for their feedback. Most importantly, get your editors to invite their own contacts within the industry, and to also have editors post their own questions and answers as members. Category Management. Avoid creating a bunch of categories until there is sufficient posting volume. It’s better to arrive and find 20 different threads in a single, main forum versus two in each subsection. Over time, you can create subcategories.Appoint Forum Experts. These individual commit in to ensuring that postings receive answers, including one from them if no one else is posting. They can also act as your advisory board and content evangelists. Initially, these may be editors, free-lancers or other industry contacts. Once the forum has been adequately populated, their role can shift to that of a content monitor versus a content provider.Bill Baird is a subscription marketing advisor to publishers on the Web. His clients include ConsumerReports.org, NetDetective.com and EdWeek.org. He is also the creator of SPARKwatch, a best-practice research and advisory service for Web marketers. He can be reached at (203) 838-5444 or at www.BairdDirect.com.Editor’s Note: Don’t miss the 2008 Publishing Business Conference, March 10-12 in New York City, featuring nearly 50 educational conference sessions aimed at publishing executives including “Community-Building for Magazine Publishers: Beyond the Buzz.” Visit www.PublishingBusiness.com for more information.

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How to Build a Web 2.0 Community: The Secrets to Success

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