Question regarding drivers for participation and communities

1. Defining your project’s audience
   1. How do you know if your audience will use what you build?
   2. How do you determine the actions you want your users to take?
   3. How do you reach the audience you think exists?
2. When your audience arrives…
   1. How do you get viewers to take an action?
   2. How do you respond or change to reflect an audience you didn’t expect?
   3. How do you anticipate a change in audience?
3. After your audience has come once…
   1. How do you get them to come back?
   2. How do you maintain engagement in return users?
   3. How do you track or measure that? (see metrics group)

Potential solutions

Defininig your project’s audience

How do you know if your audience will use what you build?

Early stage A/B testing

Reach out to your potential audience via email using AB testing

Surveys

Digital using tools like SurveyMonkey or in person/on the street surveys to ask very directly what they need and whether they would use tools you build.

Needs assessment

Related to surveys, look at existing solutions that overlap your own. Why are they successful? What are they lacking? Is your project addressing those?

How do you determine the actions you want your users to take?

Before you answer this question, you need to know what longterm success for your project looks like. Is it facebook likes? link shares? form entries? potition signatures? physical activities?

Next, create checklists or step-by-step instructionals for leaders or members so they know what they can do to ensure further action happens.

Ways to report back their successes or failures.

How do you reach the audience you think exist?

Target communities

Look for overlapping community and do targetted outreach. Google ads, on the street outreach, mailing lists, exit poll. Google has grants for AdWords

Digital research

Be creative, What is the google autofill for some subjects related to your field? Try Google Trends search

Cross promotion

Target the leaders of existing communities and ask them to share your work.

When your audience arrives…

How do you get viewers to take an action?

Hold their hand once

Many websites ‘stick’ a lot better when a user is walked through the first stages of engagement. This can be done through clever HTML or just by having step by step videos places carefully to guide the user through the early stages of your actions.

Forums are useful tools

Forums allow your users to create questions or generated conversations that promote actions. They also allow people to define new motivations or calls to action.

How do you respond or change to reflect an audience you didn’t expect? And how do you anticipate a change in audience?

• TODO

After your audience has come once…

How do you get them to come back?

Communicate new content

1. Visual and content changes to your webste.
2. Newsletters, Twitter, and Facebook activity
3. Smaller groups may have more direct email feedback.

How do you maintain engagement in return users?

Rewards

1. Metrics of site use. How many times have you been here in a row?
2. Badges?
3. Competition?

Maintained interaction

Give you users tools but also let them know that you are there to help them in the process of doing good things. Ways to promote their actions. Highlight their conversations (from twitter, facebook, forum). See Nir Eyal