Plethora

Issue 1 | Volume 1 February 21, 2011

Growing Your Online Community

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Inside
Growing Your Online Community
Recaps
Week One
Topics
Don’t Just “Jump In”
Define your Product or Service
Understand Your Target Audience
Identify the Segments within Your Audience
How this Helps Your Web Strategy
Discussion
Define your Product or Service
Define your Target Audience
Announcements
Thank You!

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Growing Your Online Community

Recaps
Week One
This was our first week of activity, so we focused the most on learning about each other. This
is something that will hopefully continue as we talk more and more about our businesses and
what we want to accomplish through the Internet and social media.
Here are some of the posts:

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Topics
Don’t Just “Jump In”
There is a common conception among business people that time moves faster on the Internet
and in Social Media than in real life. In many ways, this is true, judging from the rate at which
technology changes or websites rise and fall in popularity. A common fear is that you need
to “jump in” and catch up with your competitors who are already using Social Media to grow
their business or risk being left far behind.

In other words, “evolve or die.”

Internet technology has also made it easy to “jump in” and get started in only a matter of
minutes. Consider, for example, that I was able to launch the “Grow Your Online Community”
group on Facebook in only a few steps. Was this the most efficient way I could go about
starting that group? Were there steps that I should have completed beforehand?

Well, I have my answers to those questions, but instead of giving them I need to defer to you,
my audience. Because everything that I write here in this document, or post in the group, is
meant to help me serve you and hopefully attract additional participants who are interested in
growing their community. I need to meet your needs or expectations. Failing to do that would
reduce my chances for success, and probably scare everyone away from the group.

So, my answer to those questions is that I did the wrong thing when I started this group.
Instead of beginning with the technology, I should have sat down and tried to determine my
strategy. I would do this by asking questions about my product or service, and then asking
questions about my audience.

Define your Product or Service

The good news is that you most likely understand the service or product that you are offering
to your client or customers. Or, if you are a new business you might have written a business
plan which defines what your mission and goals are. For me, this group is a little harder to
define because I am planning on letting your questions shape the nature of what I cover.

Here are some questions to ask about your business:

1. Name your business’ most unique service or product.
2. How does your business differentiate itself from your competitors (or comparators)
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Understand Your Target Audience
This is the step that a lot of people skip as they are “jumping into” social media. Even if you
do understand who your audience is, and how you can best serve them, its important to try to
understand how they are using the Internet. This has a lot to do with customer behavior and
demographics.

Here are some questions you can ask about your audience:

1. Describe one or two of your most loyal or best customers.

2. Pick one of the customers from the above question. Why do you believe that this
customer has remained so loyal?

Identify the Segments within Your Audience

No customer is exactly the same, but when you closely its possible to identify
similarities which allow you to group them together into groups of like-minded customers
called “segments.” Within your different industries, you can probably identify the different
reasons why your customers stop by your businesses or clients call your number. But, can you
guess what they were thinking?

When my wife and I were planning our wedding, we worked together to make some very big
decisions about the centerpieces and the entre, but there were some choices that I didn’t
worry about as much as my wife did. The businesses who understood that would know that I
was interested in the just overview, and that they could save the details for my then-fiancee.

How many of your customers come ready to learn everything about your business, and how
many are simply window shopping or passing through? Knowing the answer to this question
can help when you getting ready to build up a community on the Internet.

How this Helps Your Web Strategy

When you understand your audience, you are able to develop a website or social media
strategy which appeals to every possible type of web visitor in your segments.

Discussion
Here are those questions again. Think about them, and then post your responses on the group
in Facebook.

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Define your Product or Service
Here are some questions to ask about your business:
3. Name your business’ most unique service or product.
4. How does your business differentiate itself from your competitors (or comparators)

Define your Target Audience

Here are some questions you can ask about your audience:

3. Describe one or two of your most loyal or best customers.

Pick one of the customers from the above question. Why do you believe that this customer
has remained so loyal?

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Progress Report
I’m using a service called Remember the Milk to track the tasks that I assign to everyone
on the group. Within my account, I’ve set up one list for each participant where I store
copies of the tasks I set up. You are encouraged to sign up with an account at http://
www.rememberthemilk.com and update your task list whenever you respond to a question or
complete a group activity.

Here is the list of activities so far:

● Post Introduction into Facebook Group (21 Feb 11)

● Define your business's Product or Service
● Define your Target Audience

You can view this list inside Remember the Milk by going here.

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Announcements

Thank You!
Thank you everyone for joining me on this journey of learning and exploration! I hope that I will
be able to help you with your endeavours out on the Internet, but suspect that you might also
teach me a thing or two about social media. The Internet is so new and undefined that no one
ever really feels like they understand the “rules” for how things should work.

So, thank you for sticking with me and participating in the discussions this week.

Everything stays so busy in everyone’s lives that I wanted to find a way to pull back a little bit
and keep the pace at a uncomfortable level. I’m hoping that by publishing this newsletter once
a week I will give everyone something to chew on and maybe spark some discussion in the
Facebook group. Remember that my thoughts or opinions are not the end all or be all of the
Internet--in fact, I could possibly be wrong about everything that I write! So, its important to ask
questions and dissect anything that you feel the need to dissect.

Although I’ve taken up the role of a leader, my plan is really to let you guys lead by following
up on your questions or discussions with helpful commentaries or suggestions.

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