In the social space, Carnival has cruised to the front of the Twitter line. They have a brand evangelist, @CruiseSource, tweeting live from a Carnival cruise that is currently underway. His current bio reads “Your Source for Everything related to Cruising. Live from CCL Destiny 10.16.08.”
CruiseSource.us is a blog about cruising, not Carnival persay. My clients in the travel industry tell me that they enjoy perks from cruise lines and destination resorts in exchange for bookings and promotion. Presumably, that arrangement exists for CruiseSource, and it’s a good way for Carnival to dip their toe in the social ocean.
What is notable about this case is how effectively brand evangelists utilize micromedia to generate buzz and online PR for brands. This is also a good example of small businesses being nimble with social strategy and engagement.
Best Practices in Social Media Strategy & Engagement
CruiseSource is using Twitter to establish themselves as experts in their niche. Rather than just constantly link back to their site, an early mistake they seem to have overcome, they relate with their audience in meaningful ways. Examples:
They spent weeks building excitement about this cruise.
They invite cruise-related questions and follow-up with answers.
Apparently their efforts have led a major cruise line to invite CruiseSource to participate on a web 2.0 advisory board. If this is Carnival, then kudos for building a smart partnership and generating inexpensive online PR. As long as CruiseSource maintains an air of industry promotion and authentic human interaction, Carnival will benefit from the company’s peer recommendations.
For any travel brand, I suggest a few more tips in establishing a genuine social presence online.
Be more personable. CruiseSource has found a voice on Twitter and its blog, but it still hides behind the company name on all posts. Even using a first name (Tucker?) would cut through informality and lend credibility to their recommendation.
I’m interested to see what travel brands develop on other social platforms, both in external marketing and within the company’s internal organization of staff, partners and sales channels.
As a member of the Sam Houston Rifles, we had to memorize and practice the 11 Leadership Principles and 14 Leadership Traits taught by the United States Marine Corps. These principles and traits merit occasional reflection by business & online community leaders.
Develop a sense of responsibility among your subordinates.
Make sound and timely decisions.
Set the example.
Know your Marines and look out for their welfare.
Keep your Marines informed.
Seek responsibility and take responsibility for your actions.
Ensure assigned tasks are understood, supervised, and accomplished.
Train your Marines as a team.
Employ your command in accordance with its capabilities.
The 14 Leadership Traits
The acronym JJDIDTIEBUCKLE helped us memorize the 14 Leadership Traits.
Judgement The ability to weigh facts and possible solutions on which to base sound decisions.
Justice Giving reward and punishment according to merits of the case in question. The ability to administer a system of rewards and punishments impartially and consistently.
Dependability The certainty of proper performance of duty.
Integrity Uprightness of character and soundness of moral principles; includes the qualities of truthfulness and honesty.
Decisiveness Ability to make decisions promptly and to announce them in clear, forceful manner.
Tact The ability to deal with others without creating offense.
Initiative Taking action in the absence of orders.
Endurance The mental and physical stamina measured by the ability to withstand pain, fatigue, stress and hardship.
Bearing Creating a favorable impression in carriage, appearance and personal conduct at all times.
Unselfishness Avoidance of providing for one’s own comfort and personal advancement at the expense of others.
Courage The mental quality that recognizes fear of danger or criticism, but enables a man to proceed in the face of it with calmness and firmness.
Knowledge Understanding of a science or an art. The range of one’s information, including professional knowledge and an understanding of your Marines.
Loyalty The quality of faithfulness to country, the Corps, the unit, to one’s seniors, subordinates and peers.
Enthusiasm The display of sincere interest and exuberance in the performance of duty.
Where can you improve? How can you apply these skills to your online community?
Online Communities Are Rich Opportunities for Brand Managers
Has your online community become stagnant? Are you struggling with “resource poverty?” Perhaps you don’t have the capital to upgrade your forum software. Or your mods are burned out wasting their time fighting spam, breaking up flame wars and banning trolls for a dwindling group of participants.
101 Ways to Destroy Your Tribe Ed Welch’s PDF on Seth Godin’s blog shows CEOs, bloggers and site managers how to wreck their brand’s base support by not properly supporting communities.
Some forums should be closed. But before you decide to eliminate your online community, reconsider its benefits, even if it is struggling. Reinvestment may be justified.
Forum Participants Are Personally Invested
People freely give their time to participate here. Knowledge is shared, there is a sense of community and authentic friendships are formed. Removing this data wipes out that collective investment.
People will be pissed when their investment is cavalierly wiped out. If you are determined to close your forums, at least make them read-only.
Deleting Forums Weakens Communities.
You may notice that parts of your community swarm to new platforms like Twitter, Plurk, Ning etc. You will always have early adapters that dabble in new platforms, but chances are, you have regular participants + lurkers in stagnant forums.
We decided to take down the SQPN forums when they got overrun spam and one bad apple troll because the volunteer mods didn’t have enough time to deal with them. A few people migrated to other related communities, but the vast majority of members just went *poof*. In hindsight, we should have made those forums read-only until we had the chance to properly devote resources to them.
Deleting Forums Alters Culture.
Building a new community is much more volatile than maintaining one. Salvaging a stagnant community with a safe inviting culture preserves the voice and culture. Creating a new community risks losing a notable asset. Read more about this group dynamic in the Online Community Lifecycle.
UGC Is Gold.
Companies are knocking themselves out to encourage user generated content. Even a stagnant community has nurtured a rich garden of UGC goodness. The personal investment of individuals strengthens bonds among like-minded people and presents opportunities for promotion, search marketing and higher advertising revenue.
SEO Opportunities
Your current forum content could easily translate to 100,000s of pages indexed by Google and other search engines. Every page, every keyword, every phrase, every misspelling, every link represents a long-tail opportunity to optimize free organic search results. SEO from your forums is a powerful way to attract more visitors.
Lurker Conversions Forrester Research has found that 80% of community members are lurkers. Most new members are naturally reserved. They want to discern the benefits of a community before they commit themselves. Once they become active participants, your brand gathers more free UGC.
Some community managers force registration to fight spam and keep trolls at bay. However, this policy misses tremendous SEO benefits. If this is your policy, you can assume that a large swath of fresh participants are dissuaded from ever participating.
Donation Opportunities
If your website accepts donations, there is almost certainly a direct correlation between unique site visitors and contributions. All of your forum pages serve both as point of new visitor attraction (SEO) and a point of donation awareness.
Advertising & Sponsorship Opportunities.
Each forum page represents an impression for which advertisers are willing to pay. This is a lucrative revenue opportunity that can cover the cost of forums. People will tolerate tasteful ads in forums if they know it supports the community and your brand.
A Fresh Start
Resetting your forum is a good time to strengthen your moderator team and help alleviate their workload. A new forum is also a good reason to reach out to lapsed members to invite them back.
Today’s forum software has smarter ways to fight spam, can handle massive traffic loads & integrate advertising. You can almost certainly find a flexible, stable solution that allows you to migrate data from your current forum and preserve all of the rich conversations and connections of your community.
You probably have a good idea about how you’d like to steer the early stages of your web community. Ponder these questions to see if you’re on track and where you might adjust.
What is the goal of your group expressed in a single sentence? What objectives serve that goal?
Have you defined how your community will operate? Have you published forum rules or comment guidelines? Do you have a privacy policy? Do you have a plan for dealing with spam, trolls and other abusive elements?
Will you allow members to self-promote in early stages? Will your leaders and mods be able to distinguish between natural self-promotion and spam posts?
What attributes reveal your management style? Approachable? Hands off?
Which best describes your approach in forming your group?
» Ready. Aim. Fire.
» Ready. Fire. Aim.
» Ready. Aim. Aim. Aim. Aim.
Who do you know that counterbalances your style and approach? How can they help?
Are you participating in your community? What are you doing to foster group participation? What are you doing that inhibits participation?
Who is emerging as a potential leader in your community? Are there any brand evangelists? Consistent contributors? Natural mediators? Do they get along well with others?
Stage 2: Storming
Reflection: Online Community Growth
As your community vision extends to others, you inherently sacrifice messaging control. Learn from the mistakes of others, and look at the many brands handling this change successfully. Read these questions to help articulate new and persistent problems and suggest possible actions you can take.
Do new ideas serve the group’s goal? Do these ideas need to be abandoned? Or should they be drafted within a new set of objectives?
How do you welcome new members to your community? What would a new member experience when they join your group?
Do you have infighting among members of your group? Is it healthy debate or destructive bomb-throwing?
Do you have a Troll Watch List? How will you deal with troublemakers? Which is an appropriate course of action: a public rebuke? A gentle reminder of the rules? Or do you cut to the bone and ban them from the community?
Do you have arguments spilling over from other communities on the Internet? Can you find resolution from past history? Do you accept personality clashes as inevitable?
Do “know-it-alls” squash discussion? Are they truly knowledgeable, but lack interpersonal soft skills? Can you help them add value without pissing everyone off? Or are they just jerks? Can you call in support from senior members to chastise, clarify, defend or attack?
How do you oversee member contributions? Are avatars offensive? Are you overrun with spam or offensive material? Do you invite self-policing or do you have a team of responders actively patrolling for issues or both? Do you have clear path to moderators so members can notify you of problems? Are you aware of technologies that can help you control unwanted and malicious material?
Do you have strong diplomats that value peacekeeping over healthy debate and disagreement? Are they allowing an argument enough time to play itself out? Do they send fighters to their corners too quickly?
How is your leadership personality? Can you be a bit overbearing or needy at times? Too timid? How do you respond to the ideas of others? Do you have a “brain trust” that can give you honest feedback of your performance?
Stage 3: Norming
Reflection: Habit & Tone in Your Online Community
As your community matures, you will recognize healthy attachment among its members. Your community may operate fine in this stage with minor maintenance and attention. Or you might want to tighten cooperation and press for higher performance.
What is your group’s current dynamic? Is it collaborative? Combative? Active or passive?
Can you identify sub-groups within your community? Which are good, bad or ambiguous to your goals & objectives?
Do you have any individuals that tend to cut across cliques or rise above the fray? Might they become leaders, moderators or brand evangelists for you?
What tools and methods can every member hook into? What areas need stronger collaboration?
What good habits does your group have? How can you foster them?
What bad habits does your group have? What actions or lack of action leads to those habits? What attitudes, beliefs and past “baggage” contribute to those ongoing actions?
What ideas and practices are deeply ingrained in your community? Do they really serve the purpose? Can you identify any that are harmful or inhibit performance? Are you part of the echo chamber or do you have enough distance to recognize it?
Are you transitioning from a role of director to a role of working supervisor? Are others assuming roles of leadership?
Do you need to return to a new Forming or Storming stage to shake up your community? Who can you recruit to help?
Stage 4: Performing
Reflection: Sustaining High Performance
Congratulations if your community has achieved a level of high performance. Take some time to think about how you can keep it going.
Is your community financially solvent? Is it monetized via ad revenue or paid content?
Is your software keeping pace with your level of community activity?
Which social networks target your membership demographic or psychographic? Where else do your members hang out? Can you forge mutually beneficial partnerships?
Can use social media networks and user generated content platforms to expand services to existing members? Can you use these tools to boost membership?
What tactics do you see working in other high performing communities?
Post Mortem: Transforming and Mourning
Reflection: Changes and Death of an Online Community
Your community may be on the verge of temporary or permanent transition. Consider these issues to decide if you should embrace change or pull the plug.
Has your group achieved its goal? Are people wondering “what’s next?”
Have key influencers or core leaders left the group?
Are you facing burnout? Do you have time to continue leading?
Are you stuck in a perpetual Storming stage? Would it make sense to transition back to Forming or press on to Norming?
Who could potentially take over community management? Is there a stand-out leader or sub-group?
Is your advertising campaign approaching EOL? Is the community still flourishing? Do long-tail benefits justify continued community support, even without actively promoting it?
How can your community celebrate its accomplishments? Who deserves acknowledgment?
Final Thoughts
Community Managers that want to work on their community, and less time in it should study Tucker’s model of group dynamics in the context of a Social Community Lifecycle.
A couple years ago I took a 10-month leadership course on small group facilitation to learn about how new groups form and achieve sustainability. The lessons were geared for physical offline groups, but my experience as an online group facilitator, including one of the largest social networks on Ning, convinces me that offline group models remain intact in the realm of social media as well. Web communities are comprised of real people, so we can expect basic human behavior patterns to permeate regardless of the medium in which they communicate.
In 1965, Bruce Tucker proposed a model of group dynamics popularly known as Forming, Storming, Norming & Performing. In a nutshell, Tucker’s model encompasses several distinct stages, beginning from a group’s creation through its maturation and ultimate evolution or extinction.
Online community managers will find that Tucker’s work is still relevant today. These same stages of creation and growth are evident within all types of social media. If you moderate blog comments, forum posts, product reviews, news feedback, podcast networks or participate in social gaming or virtual worlds, Tucker’s model should be of interest to you. This is especially useful if you want insight into how your community can achieve sustainability.
The Lifecycle of Online Communities
Let’s look at each stage in sequence and consider how Tucker’s model applies to today’s online groups. As you read the descriptions, try to identify within which stage your online community currently exists. Is your community flourishing? Do you need to shift your community toward a later stage? Or retreat to an earlier one?
In the early stages of group development, individuals rally behind a leader or core steering committee under a banner of broad challenge or opportunity. Enthusiasm is high, friendships form easily and people begin working on tasks. Everyone tends to be on their best behavior, but founding members operate independently with sense of autonomy and tend to be self-focused.
Successful groups leaders claim a position of authority by virtue of their experience, maturity, availability or simply because they are the ones laying the ground rules. Leaders frame guidelines on how the group will function and how its members will interrelate. This may be expressly written or socially implied through mission statements, codes of conduct and “leading by example.” Sharing the principles of group dynamics among group leaders and moderators can be very helpful in preparing people to encounter situations. (wink wink nudge nudge: share this article with your social media managers…)
In the Forming stage, group leaders should also watch for early emerging leaders. When I instructed ROTC cadets in various drill camps and leadership schools, we closely observed individuals in order to fill positions as squad leaders and flight commanders within the first few hours of training. Extroverts tend to rise because they naturally make themselves known to others, but introverts are just as capable of leading if they are prompted or invited to do so.
Reflection: Online Community Formation You probably have a good idea about how you’d like to steer the early stages of your web community. Read these questions to see if you’re on track and where you might adjust.
Stage 2: Storming
Ideas and Personalities Compete to Be Heard
Every group encounters a period of identity & self awareness, where members debate essential objectives and problems and how they should behave individually and within groups. This is also a stage where leadership authority, knowledge, style and capability is most apt to be judged as either appropriate or unsatisfactory.
Groups can pass quickly through this stage or they can collapse for a number of reasons. If a leader abdicates their early role as guide, role model and referee, then stronger personalities are poised to set the behavioral tone. If purpose and objectives are muddled, then people will argue or undermine others to prove that their ideas are superior. “Good” people that were initially motivated, engaged and participating will leave the group.
Another common community “soul killer” is the mouthy member that cannot help themselves from yapping. You know these people. They speak too often, for too long, and usually about issues that are irrelevant and self-serving. They overemphasize the minutia and obfuscate meaningful issues. They can make others uncomfortable by being too personal or act insensitively to others. They are not invited to speak by others, rather they tend to chime in on everything to imply deep personal wisdom, even if they just want to point out that they have no opinion on the matter. They moan, whine and grind their opponents. At the same time, these people can be overly welcoming and kind to new group members in an effort to win them to their side. Their immaturity is so evident, one is surprised to learn they aren’t a teenager (perhaps they are in netiquette terms).
If group leaders do not want to lose control of their group at such a critical stage, they need to act decisively to stifling, filibustering and flame wars. A good community manager brings a big bag of tricks with tactics in nuance, creativity, subtly and force. Like a good parent, group facilitators need to be ready to discipline, lead and teach. By applying a little parental love to your community, you can present an example of nurturing behavior amid disagreement and discord and move quickly past an otherwise painful growth spurt.
Reflection: Online Community Growth As your community vision extends to others, you inherently sacrifice messaging control. Learn from the mistakes of others, and look at the many brands handling this change successfully. Read these questions to help articulate new and persistent problems and suggest possible actions you can take.
Stage 3: Norming
Purpose, Cliques & Team Habits Form Groups that reach the Norming stage enjoy clarity about their goals and objectives. That clarity helps to draw its members into service of the group, so harsh infighting and sabotage tends to fall away before this stage.
Individuals promote themselves less, unless the group’s objective involves self-promotion like business networks, alliances and chambers of commerce. Even then, members support each other through introductions into spheres of influence beyond the group.
Members in this phase naturally attach to sub-groups of similar interests and tasks. Teamwork is stronger within sub-groups and sub-groups work more seamlessly with each other. Trust is built as people get to know each other and as the group accomplishes objectives. Collaboration is built through agreement on rules and the sharing of methods and tools.
Groupthink is a hazardous risk in the Norming stage, where new ideas and creativity are stifled in favor of process and status quo. Community leaders need to caution against group denial and echo chambers by recognizing their symptoms. They can avoid groupthink by remaining neutral and inviting fresh POVs when appropriate.
Hierarchy tends to flatten out during Norming compared to earlier stages. With a clear mission, collaboration and interpersonal issues worked out, leaders are able to assume more production tasks. Conversely, team leads may be established with more authority and control passed down and shared from Forming and Storming managers.
Reflection: Habit & Tone in Your Online Community As your community matures, you will recognize healthy attachment among its members. Your community may operate fine in this stage with minor maintenance and attention. Or you might want to tighten cooperation and press for higher performance. Reflect on your community to see where it is healthy and where it needs attention.
Stage 4: Performing
Teamwork & Efficiency Prevail
A few groups will achieve the Performing stage where everyone seems to be firing on all pistons. Milestones are accomplished and objectives are routinely met. Experience is high, so communities become a rich knowledge base.
Teams become interdependent and work together fluidly without the drama borne from unnecessary conflict. Dissent does exist as long as it is channeled in a manner that is acceptable to the group. Supervision is minimal as people are held accountable to each other. Decision-making resembles more of a populist democracy than a dictatorship or republic. Community leaders tend to be highly participative.
High performing teams may face circumstances that thrust themselves back to early stages. For example, the void left when early leaders leave a community can trigger a new Storming phase. I’m also reminded of the downtime caused by an explosion in the Planet’s H1 data center in Houston, an experience that sent its support forums into overdrive. Communities can experience these cycles of life over and over.
Browse the Big Boards to get a sense of what some of the largest communities on the web are doing. This is an outstanding resource for guerrilla social marketing.
Reflection: Sustaining High Performance Congratulations if your community has achieved a level of high performance. Take some time to think about how you can keep it going.
Post Mortem: Transforming and Mourning
Dealing with Change and Coping with Demise
Online communities are like living organisms that either adapt to internal and external changes or they will die. Think back to the big events in your life and they were almost always precipitated by change. Leaving home, starting school, starting a career, leaving a job, getting married and having kids all involve a death of sorts. One ceases to act or exist in one way when they change in another way. The same kind of death and renewal applies to groups.
I have seen leaders “kill” online communities and the reaction is not unlike real-world death. Feelings may not be as severe as losing a loved one, but members do experience a sense of loss like seeing your favorite TV show get canceled or saying goodbye to a friend that move’s away. This experience in virtual communities is not surprising considering the personal investment and real formation of human bonds.
Brand managers should consider this effect when transitioning campaigns or taking down social microsites at the end of a media flight (aka End of Life or EOL). If maintenance costs are truly inhibitive to effective ongoing community support, then the community should probably be taken offline. A diseased community can actually be harmful to a brand.
On the other hand, if long-tail benefits are evident and the group is operating at a strong Norming or weak Performing stage, the community may merit a plan for transition and ongoing maintenance, even if it only provides minimal support.
If you decide to maintain a community because participation and impressions justify the cost, then turn to your vendor partners for help in this transition. Good providers like Mango Mobile plan for EOL at the beginning of a campaigns. They are very flexible in either extending maintenance agreements or handing all assets back to the client for perpetual hosting. Another example is Blockdot in the advergaming space. They continue to support several widgets, social gaming and community applications well beyond the original EOL campaign schedule.
The life and energy of a social network benefits from early planning in the Online Community Lifecycle. Likewise, it benefits from planning at the end of life. Leaders can use Transforming and Mourning stages as an opportunity to publicly praise the group’s accomplishments. Individuals can be recognized, relationships can be acknowledged and achievements can be praised. People celebrate the birth of children and they gather to celebrate the life of those departed in death. The same kind of celebration can be introduced to the life and achievements of an online community.
Reflection: Changes and Death of an Online Community Your community may be on the verge of temporary or permanent transition. Consider these issues to decide if you should change or pull the plug.
Final Thoughts
Community Managers that want to work on their community, and less time in it should study Tucker’s model of group dynamics in the context of an Online Community Lifecycle. Just as a sapling needs light, nutrients, water and fresh soil, an online community can be groomed for healthy sustainable growth.
