IMC #11: Online Communities

Paul Kulp
Online Communities

Is anyone tired about talking about "Community" online?

We are tired about it because we don’t have a clear definition of what it is?

Community is a good thing:

• People helping people
• Connections
• Belonging

Every day miracles
Online community is a miracle! God makes it happen.

Community is all about people

• groups, gaggles, schools, cabals, swarms, throngs & mobs
• If you build it… installing a forum + ? = COMMUNITY
• Phase 1 (Collect people)
• Phase 2 (?)
• Phase 3 (Profit)
   

Offline community example:

• Phase 1: build perfect worship center
• Phase 2: ?
• Phase 3: Filled with people!

Easy, right?

Soul Bucks

• Stories are the currency of online ministry.
• You need "soul bucks" to justify your ministry
• How else do you know you’re doing it right?
• Provide great info from users
• In order to get this… practice good story collection
• People like to tell stories…
• Can you have too many?
• Use it as an "umph" to launch a new feature.
• Are you actively soliciting stories?
• Are you keeping them?
• Do you keep a story book?

Show us your web face

• How do people look at your site?
• Is it a storefront?
• Is it a billboard?
• Is it a bullhorn?
• Is it a pulpit?
• Is it a line-up… people backed up to be served?
• What would a community site really look like? (People helping people)
• What would it look like as a community center? (People coming together to get fed)
• If you want to see community on your website, start seeing your website as a community.

A group of another kind
Your website hosts dozens of people groups… common place… common interests…. common interaction.

• Faces- Joe, Frank, Sally are regulars. The 37 different people subscribed to your podcast. 3500 people on your email list. 15 blogs that link to your site.
• Outlines- 30-35 yo’s that look at your site. Mac visitors. Spanish visitors.
• Shadows– People searching "weird terms" Show me something interesting!

You gotta look around
Offline we are good at this. Online we stink at it.

Use tools

• Stats analysis
• Feedback
• Questionnaires
• Polls
• Stories

What is the shape of your web community?
Who is visiting?

• Repeat visitors
• Search engines
• Forum users
• RSS readers
• Mailing lists
• IBLs (in-bound link)

Do you know your peeps?

• Little plastic people to play with (really! he gave us toys!

Run with the herd

• What do groups do? Faces go where they are served.
• Where do they go? Where do people in a demographic go?
• When people leave… you’ve stopped providing the thing they liked… they don’t fit. So poof they are gone.
• Where do they go from here? (Shadows go where they are seeking)

Keep reminders

• Figure out a way to keep faces in front of you…

Think with your community

• Suppose: You are www.discipleship101.com
• New game plan… you became www.find-jesus.com
• Do we just forward users?
• Do we turn it off?
• Do we "strangle" it?

People don’t expect an organization to just disappear.

Describe the person you wish were finding your website…. build some content/design for that.