Strategic Communications ... ... in the digital age
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Building
Online Communities: Transforming Assumptions Into Success by Victoria Bernal, Community Building Associate, Benton Foundation Creating a successful online community is one of the most sought after and elusive goals in a Web strategy. Companies budget huge sums to perfect online community strategies as they seek to build customer relationships that create loyal consumers. In a nonprofit context, the "customer" takes the form of a constituent, advocate, grantee, funder, member, board member, or citizen. And the stakes are higher because usually the nonprofit's goal is to sell not a product, but a mission. In this context, an online community can be a powerful tool to bring constituents together to share their concern for an issue.
Nonprofits can use online communities in a variety of ways to:
This article discusses common assumptions about online communities that nonprofits can overcome and then lists resources for delving further into what it takes to build and maintain effective online communities. Four Common Assumptions of Online Communities Many nonprofits believe that if some activity is online, "it" will be cheaper, "it" will happen faster and "it" will be easier, no matter what "it" is. This often leads to mistaken assumptions that cause nonprofits to miscalculate the amount of planning and effort needed to build and sustain an online community.
Additional Web Resources for Online Communities
Assumption #1: Goals and expectations: Who needs them?
Connie Hayek, Project Manager for Nebraska Network for Children and Families , manages a state-wide online community for service providers, parents of children with special needs and foster families. She cautions organizations to define clear objectives for their online community:
Answers to the following questions will help you think through the goals and purpose of your online community. They are also helpful for creating guidelines for your online community. Guidelines are integral to any online environment because they introduce newcomers to the goals of the online discussions, help participants remain on-topic and provide promotional language about the community.
Assumption #2: Everyone will want to participate in our online discussion Many nonprofits eager to create an online community assume that everyone will want to participate. When the definition of an audience is too broad, it is difficult to direct conversation that holds all participants' interests. Carolyn P. Speranza worked with The Andy Warhol Museum to create a Web-based discussion to make the museum's Web site more interactive and to extend the Museum's Educational programs to a broader audience. Speranza discovered, however, that the people who attended the in-person education programs didn't necessarily visit the Web site or the online discussion. And feedback from the online discussions indicated that the topics were over the heads of the general Web site visitors. Next time, Speranza pledges to build a discussion more defined by the general Web site visitors' interests and needs.
Amy Jo Kim also stresses that it is very important to be considerate
of the audience's time. When asked, most people want to help
kids, the environment, the arts, third world countries. The reality is
that few people have the time, especially at work, to solve those
complex issues through an online community. In its first year, trainers
and access providers in the Benton Foundation's Open Studio program were
encouraged to engage in an online discussion every day. While this was
the desired outcome, most participants found it difficult to carve out
time for open-ended, multi-topic and ongoing discussions. Open Studio
staff modified their expectations and changed the format from on-going
discussions to a program that defined specific topics and time frames
for discussions. As a result, participants felt a sense of urgency to
participate, could contribute in a concentrated time frame and saw
immediate results. This focused approach led to greater interaction and
exchange of ideas.
An audience's level of technology access
and experience can also affect the activity in the community. Many
nonprofits want to use an online community to provide better support
to their constituents, but don't realize that the constituency might not
have Internet access or even adequate computer knowledge to participate
actively. In this case, alternatives for technology access should
be explored, including the use of community technology centers,
libraries and schools. Or not using an online
community at all of the bulk of your intended
audience does not have the technology capacity to participate. Building
in staff time may also be necessary in order
to provide technical assistance for those participants who
aren't familiar with engaging in an online community. (More information on
providing technical assistance to follow).
"Building
Online Communities" is an edited transcript from an event
sponsored by the Washington DC-based Netpreneurs. In this event,
leading thinkers in the region spoke about the many facets of
online communities. Read the comments of Mario Marino, founder of
the Morino Institute, that explain the importance of knowing your
audience. Kim Allen, of HandsNet, an online community of human service
organizations developed in 1987, and her colleague Alicia Newton, built
and currently manage "Working Families Online Roundtable," an online
community for direct service providers, advocacy groups, researchers,
policy makers and funders. Funded by the Ford Foundation, the Roundtable brings
together these participants to determine the most effective ways to help low-income
working parents. "Because we were dealing with the human service constituency, not
all of our participants had the same level of Internet knowledge,"
Careaway told us. "So we needed to make them feel comfortable
enough to ask for assistance, post questions and help them register their
account."
Answers to the following questions will help you better define your
audience and articulate the benefits for their participation:
Assumption #3: Building and maintaining an online community
doesn't take much time or staffing. Many nonprofits fail to budget sufficient staff time and resources to
build and maintain their online community. Staff members often expect
the community to flourish on its own once they launch the online
discussion forum. Overlooking the key role of the human facilitator is
perhaps the greatest reason that online communities fail to meet the
expectations of their designers.
The facilitator or moderator is responsible for the care and feeding of the online
community, welcoming newcomers, encouraging silent participants
("lurkers") to speak up, seeding the conversation when necessary and
connecting community members with news and resources that will keep them
coming back for more. According to Sue Thomas, Project Director of the
UK-based online writing community called trAce, "People respond to warm,
friendly, human contact to keep the community going." In trAce, several volunteer mentors
welcome newcomers to the community.
The moderator should have not only the
technology skills to help participants navigate the discussion software, but the
people skills required to coach participants in online protocol (or "netiquette"). Yet,
it can be difficult hiring a moderator with all these qualities. One
solution can be to designate these functions to more than one person
based on their people and technology skills.
The Nebraska Network for Children and
Families' enlists parent volunteers to provide offline technical
assistance in addition to online guidance to new and established
members. NNCF recruits parent volunteers across the state to
orient new participants in a one-on-one setting. Connie Hayek, the network's coordinator, reports
"we are very fortunate to have parents committed
to helping other parents and committed to this form
of communication." And, no matter what kind of staffing and technology you employ,
always build in time and contingency plans if the forum software goes
down. Nothing can stop a conversation more quickly than the
unintentional pulling of the plug.
Answers to the following questions will help you think through your
internal staff capacity for sustaining a vibrant online community:
Assumption #4: We don't need a promotional
strategy for our online community. When an organization builds a presence on the Internet, it competes with millions
of Web sites, discussion forums and other online distractions. Fortunately,
once a nonprofit has defined its goals and audience and committed
staff resources to growing its online community, most of the
remaining work involves developing proactive strategies to promote and
engage the community.
Jayne Cravens of Coyote Communications published these articles
to help nonprofits use the Internet for promotion:
"Advertise
Successfully AND Ethically on the Internet! (Communicate, Don't
Inundate!) " informs nonprofits how to market on the Internet
by avoiding sending unsolicited emails. "Outreach Via
the Internet for Not-for-Profit or Public Sector Organizations"
explains how to use the Internet for promotion.
In addition to promoting through existing discussion lists, Sue
Thomas of the trAce Writing Community sends out postcards that list her
online community's Web or email address. Other promotional strategies
include adding an invitation to join the community to email signatures,
issuing electronic press releases to post in newsletters and other
electronic discussions (when appropriate), and including links to more
information on your organization's Web site.
However, Austin Haberle of Listen
Up!, a network of youth media organizations, cautions against using
borrowed lists of email addresses for promoting your project:
Use these suggestions to promote your new online community:
Conclusion An online community should not strike fear in the
heart of nonprofits nor should it attempt to solve all the world's
problems. We live in a society that is constantly bombarded with media
messages that tell us to "move on Internet time," make decisions faster,
publish faster and communicate faster. Yet the Internet cannot build
human networks faster. In fact, the Internet cannot build these networks
at all. People must build them by investing time in planning and
managing. Fortunately, many brave souls have already taken the plunge
into the sea of online communities, sharing their lessons learned to
help other nonprofits harness technology to build a stronger and
thriving nonprofit sector.
Even MORE Resources to Research About the AuthorVictoria Bernal is Community Building Associate for Open Studio: The Arts Online, a joint project of the Benton Foundation and the National Endowment of the Arts. Most of her online community experience comes from building a national network of Open Studio local training sites. The Open Studio network convenes through the Internet, conference calls and face-to-face meetings. Victoria drew upon many of her own lessons learned for this article.
Please let us know what you thought of this article. mailto:communicate@benton.org Last updated: 14 May 2001 mlw www.benton.org/Practice/Community/assumptions.html |