Enterprise Social Media

10 ’secrets’ to a successful online community

Posted on 10. Jul, 2008 by Tom Diederich in Community Management, Measurement, Social Media

The following are 10 “secrets” to a successful online community. Note that they are not “the” 10 secrets.

And I suppose that technically they are not secrets … I just like using that word because it sounds scandalous.

The list below is from a presentation I did with Joe Cothrel, vice president of community management at Lithium, last year at an online community conference in San Diego. I was at Symantec at the time and used Lithium as the backbone of the Symantec Technology Network, a online community I launched in 2007 for the functional IT folks whose companies deployed Symantec’s enterprise products.

Here’s the list (drum roll, please):

1. A business owner who oversees budget and sets direction.
2. A community manager who conducts planning and day-to-day decision-making.
3. A moderator who sets the tone, enforces rules, and helps users.
4. Defined roles for staff and users, and software that supports those roles.
5. A set of comprehensive guidelines.
6. Rules for action when violations or other issues arise.
7. The proper structure and atmosphere to engage users.
8. A well-managed group of “superusers.”
9. Measurement processes.
10. Ensuring your company “learns” from the discussions (especially product teams and support).

If you have other “secrets,” please spill them!

In related news, I’m in the midst of launching another online community for Cadence Design Systems. We are in countdown mode and things are busy and hectic (just the way I like it!). I’ll have more to report when we pull the switch in a few days.

Tags: Cadence, Lithium, online community, secrets

Did you enjoy this post? If so, please subscribe to our RSS feed