Flavors of Engagement

I recently kicked off the fall 2016 community manager seminar series at the #WorldBank in Washington DC teaching a bite-sized learning concept and showing how to jumpstart conversations with debate. The following is an excerpt from the presentation. 

Members Learn to Engage

Do you have to on-board and engage members in a social community?

Review the existing learning objects first. These can be generated by the vendor or other community members.

• Are they used? 
• Are they easy to find?
• Can they be broken down and made shorter?
• Can the same learning object be delivered in several formats?

Get feedback from your members as to which format they need and know why they need it. Frequent comments include lack of time or need to see it done. This would lead you to create short guides and videos or hold webinars.

http://tiny.cc/WorldBankCmty

Jumpstarting Conversation

I have two favorite ways of getting a conversation rolling; conflict and challenge.

Conflict

Ask members a question that makes them choose sides when they are not exchanging information; e.g., “Which is the better irrigation system in dry regions, sprinkler or drip?”

Challenge

I created a community on Facebook with the objective of gathering stories. I posted all the right images and questions. I @mentioned members and responded promptly yet still got a 25% reaction rate (likes) and a 10% rate of story development.   One day, I posted a very different (and quite funny) type of photo and issued a challenge. This garnered a story development response rate of 50%! 

Again, think about the end-user and what interests them and how often to they want to participate. Sometimes less is more.