Live notes from Blogher 2007 LIfe stages of Online Communities -- read on for great information and discussion about growing your online community, keeping up with the comment/flamer issues and keeping your site afloat financially.
Panelists:
- Jane Goldman
- Carol Lin
- Betsy Aoki
- Lisa Parrish
- Aliza Sherman (CyberGrrl)
To grow your blog/site community, is essential to connect with your readers and commenters by asking - what can I do for you? Why are you here?
Encourage lurkers to de-lurk --- COMMENT!
Betsy Aoki, Microsoft panelist, wrote a blues song about online community problems - similar to Schipul's own Bryan who wrote the Facebook song mayhaps? :)
When your community is in crisis (crashing servers, etc.), you must put yourself out there - stay up all night answering emails and making things work for your community members
Baby blogger mom -- promised to never delete comments, unless they are spam. This is hard, especially when there are personal attacks. When in doubt, ask your community -- do they want you to weed negativity out? Typically, they say no... it's all part of the community.
How do you deal with flamers? Comments remain findable in the future and your response shows how you deal with resolution. Index your comments in your site search, good and bad. That way users can find real discussion/conversation.
Another audience member says that her blog community is treated like her living room - you are an invited guest and you must be nice or your snarkiness is deleted -- silent death. Nothing is announced and no reason given. Doesn't want to provide space for voices who are so mean. Other sites (www.chowhound.com) also hyper-moderate their comments.
Deleting without explanation can be really bad - visitors don't know what they did wrong, so they do it again and might be increasingly angry.
IT IS CRUCIAL TO POST AND MAINTAIN A COMMENTING POLICY!!! This way there is no question or gray area in comment moderation.
If your community is making money what you're doing - spread it around. Don't always rely on volunteers and interns -- reward those that are passionate about your community and cause.
Transparency is essential. If your community self-moderates, let your group know how, who, when, why, etc. Make sure that everyone is on the same page - if your group has an agenda, share it!
Full disclosure is hard sometimes -- maybe not even easy to calculate as far as profitability goes.
Concept of 'the runway' - how long is your runway before people start writing checks to make your group profitable? Many communities charge b/c they want it to be self-sustaining and long-lasting. Organizers want people to pay for the privilege to know their members and access their toolboxes. You must say all this in the mission statement - in the beginning it is all about covering costs and keeping organizers afloat, but once it is running financially it becomes all about the community.
Interesting thought about drug company sponsorships for a cancer community site - evil they may be, these are the people who are ultimately finding the cure?
Audience recommendation: Relief.org - servant leadership // serve first and then be called to lead. Evolve your vision, mission and values - how do you manage the conversation to combine varied mission within your community.
Conflict - when communities start making money, the organizers can start seeming like bad guys. Being profitable is good, but perception is often negative (ie: Blogher gets bigger sponsors and people go freaky-freaky). Must work hard to keep your community members realize your community still has heart and soul - regardless of funding coming in.
Also must make sure that people are reasonable - just b/c your community is making money doesn't mean that all of your members / contributors will make money. Must set this straight in the beginning.
Must think ahead a few steps ahead to your community's success. Make sure things scale.
On death of community:
When you give people to build with you, you also give them the power to destroy - if something negative happens, some people choose to delete and destroy when upset.
Life span of communities? Varies - some never launch fully, others last 12 years +
