Strengthening the network community A business and communication strategy

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Strengthening the network communityA business
and communication strategy
Zeist, 2004, June 9
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Agenda

• Background information
• Approach
• Objectives of Euforic
• The different targetgroups within the community
• Membership packages return

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The stages of community development
Maturity Authority and value
Constructive activity Respect and integrity
Break through Focus, roles and rules
Adolescence Battle for survival
Infancy Lots of ideas, little action
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Member lifecycle

• Community membership is NOT an event, but a
  process

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Member engagement

• The importance of member engagement is at the
  very heart of any online community.
• The participation by members is the lifeblood for
  any succesful community and can take many forms
  
• Contributing content
• Asking questions and responding to them
• Attending online and offline events
• Managing specialist zones
• Becoming a topic expert
• Making business contacts
• Promoting services
• Writing editorial opinions
• Responding to surveys ...

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The value of community
Member engagement

• Within commercial prof. websites, community
  members accounted for one-third of all visits,
  but two-thirds of all transactions of the site
• Active members made nine times more visits to the
  site, on average, than 'passive' members or
  visitors
• Active members are twice as loyal to the site as
  other users, and this loyalty is reflected in
  their promotion of the site to others.
• McKinsey and Co, 2001

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Its all about content
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Techniques

• Push
• Electronic newsletter
• Alerting options
• Pull
• Member directories
• Comments and ratings
• Polls and surveys
• Contributed content
• Member reviews
• Personal spaces
• Online events
• Topic experts
• Member meetings

• Peer-to-Peer
• Any Questions
• Member moderators
• Special Interest Groups
• Wants and offers
• Business exchanges
• Business storefronts and malls
• Project collaboration

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Important pitfalls

• Realizing a community its all about PEOPLE and
  not about technology !!!
• People who startup and manage the community
• People who are part of the community
• The factor People
• The critical mass is not great enough
• The hardcore is not great enough
• Management teamplayers
• Factor Time
• Community building is usually underestimated
• Long term strategy
• Factor Capital
• Most part of the time we dont think in terms of
  earnings out of the community

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Approach for the further development of the
Euforic community
Objectives Targetgroup
Strategy
Earnings
On- Offline act. ser
Organisation / Parties
Tools Media
Sponsoring
Community
Skills
Processes
Forecast / Potential
Planning
Actionplan
Budgetplan
Timeframe
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Two main objectives

• Building the Euforic community
• Funding the Euforic community

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1. Building the community

• Define the targetgroups that could be interested
  in the Euforic platform
• Know better the people within the community
• Provide the different targetgroups with relevant
  information
• Improve the information flow to and between the
  different target groups and to provide the
  possibility to the members to share experiences,
  methodologies regarding International Cooperation
• Activate the community and bring the members of
  the community together via the mix of on-and
  offline activities, and to create a certain
  interaction between the members
• Strenghten the sense of belonging

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2. Funding the community

• To generate more new income by defining a
  strong and consistent acquisition program towards
  
• existing members
• new members in countries where Euforic is present
  
• members in new countries
• users
• sponsors

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Targetgroups
Users
Members
Sponsors
Identify
Differentiate
Customize
Interact
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Scheme
Relation
Reputation
P
C

Reaction
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What we did so far

• Definition of a user someone who is visiting
  the website and is interested in the content
  offered by Euforic and members
• List the different types of users (
  segmentation)
• Establish priorities
• Define activities tools

Users
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Scheme
Relation
Reputation
Guests
Users

• Notoriety of Euforic
• Attract new users
• Credibility to partners, sponsors, members, ...
• Generate traffic

• Profitable users

• Know them
• Make them active

Reaction

• Conversion of a guest into a user

Users
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Different types op users priorities
Users
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Planned activities tools

• E-mail grabber profile gtgtgt identify
• Who is visiting the website ?
• Why, when and what for ?
• Survey gtgtgt identify
• Listen to the users
• Know their needs
• E-newsletter gtgtgt customize interact
• English template
• French template

Users
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Why gathering all this information ?

• Get to know the users
• To communicate with them and build a relationship
• To improve the services products
• To attract potential sponsors

Users
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Income possible ?

• Phase 1 content for free (no income)
• Phase 2 content not for free (limited)
• Phase 3 participation fee (important)

Users
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What we did so far ?

• Make an overview of the existing members
• Qualify segment the existing members (member
  matrix)
• Criteria member since, country, language
  content, type of organisation, degree of
  engagement, (potential) project, financial
  potential
• Discuss the acquisition retention of members
• Define different formulas
• Define activities tools

Members
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Members
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Scheme objectives
Non Member
Relation
Reputation
Members

• retention
• improve contact with members
• more interactive communication with members
  (Liaison officer within Secretariat)
• insight in needs expectations of the members

• acquisition
• research group
• NGO
• Government per country
• Francophone Scandin. org
• new member countries (Hungary)
• EU Presidencies

Reaction

• Some figures
• 38 existing members
• 7 members who might not renew their membership
• 31 members

Members
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Membershipformulas

• Offering gtgtgt different formulas
• Basic service package
• Premium service package
• Tailor made offer
• Different fee for Southern based organisations
  (lower)
• Different fee for donor agencies (higher)

Members
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Membershipformulas

• Possible return
• Visibility
• Website (logo, profile, highlights, events, ...)
• Content
• Online publications (newsletter)
• Offline visibility (flyers, events, ...)
• Networking
• Tools (internal newsletter, intranet,
  mailinglist, ...)
• Content (joint project opportunities)
• Management (AGM, Board, Advisory Panel)
• Website tools

Members
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Targetgroup sponsors

• Sponsors could contribute (financially) to the
  Euforic community gtgtgt but first focus on the
  members and the users
• Sponsors
• Structural partners
• Associated with Euforic on a yearly basis
• Return of a fixed fee
• Visibily (on offline)
• Information on the targetgroups they want to
  reach
• Possibility to promote their products services
• Provide Euforic with relevant information
• Ad hoc sponsors
• Bannering
• Newsletter
• ...

Sponsors
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Next steps

• Set-up action plan towards users
• Questionaire / survey / reporting
• E-newsletter website development
• Set-up action plan towards members
• Communicate new packages
• Acquisition of new members
• Strengthen relationship with members
• Development of activities tools
• Sponsoring (2nd phase)

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Discussion

• Getting agreement on main questions / issues for
  the discussion.
• What are the 2 most relevant activities of your
  organisation?
• What do you need from the Euforic network?
• What are the 2 most desired services
• Indicate the 2 most relevant ideas / plans for
  2005?
• Suggest at least 2 new member organisations
• In couples answering the questions, to be written
  on a flipchart poster
• Informal market place by walking around
• Plenary discussion what are the main issues and
  action points for the next 12 months?