Common pitfalls of Communities of Practice

When addressing how best grow communities of practice (CoP) it’s wise first to consider what type of communities we are talking about. Typically these communities are by definition common professional, situational or vocational groups, for example professional trade and industrial associations. They are often relatively small in size, especially in comparison to large consumer-driven sites where the social ties are much looser, but the number of members far greater.

Typically members of such communities get together online (and offline) motivated by the desire for business kudos, networking and practical advice; so as well as being smaller in size the social ties are stronger, and there is a higher degree of trust. (This is why we recommend such communities put effort into the profiles of individual members, as a key tool in member to member networking, and measure success in this respect).

The expectation underlying CoPs is the ability to access information and knowledge from fellow skilled members, particularly when it’s set up in-house, and part of day-to-day work. In theory then this is all pretty cut and dried. But at Sift we have a tried and tested approach to setting up such communities it’s by no means plain sailing. Consider the internal challenges faced by member organisations who used to the benefits of a captive audience can struggle to launch an attractive CoP faced with increasing competition from LinkedIn, Facebook and diy platforms like Ning, not to mention the lose of control over their brand with conversations on blogs and in Twitter. So what can you do to help grow your community and avoid some of the pitfalls?

Actions speak louder than words?

Connecting together the needs of your prospective community members with internal requirements is a clear agreed objectives, and agreed performance indicators. In setting metrics for a community it’s easy to fall into the traditional website mindset, where size matters before all else. The success of a community is determined not by size but value, and value is created through conversations. "Actions will always speak louder than words, and in the online [community] world, our words are our actions", to quote Angela Connor in '18 Rules of Community Engagement'.

A great example which shows the value in crystal clear terms is one taken from the international mining company Rio Tinto. In this case the problem of expensive bulldozer which was out of action and without an obvious repair option, was solved thanks to the issue being posted on the company’s CoP. A query from the Australian operation soon unearthed experience from the other side of the world where engineers had spent nearly a year with the same problem before fixing it. Thanks to the 'collaborative forum' the information was exchanged and the machinery swiftly brought back into service.

What's especially relevant about this example is the clear cost saving that was made from being able to share an issue using the community. However, value is not solely measured in terms of financial cost saving, indeed the balanced scorecard approach Sift uses in setting key performance indicators explicitly balances financial measures with those revolving around customers, businesses processes and your internal learning and growth. Take for example the common objective is to increase the number of engaged users. It’s easy to see that this would have a straightforward financial measure, for example in terms of number of membership renewals. But consider also that the value to the member, as opposed to the organisation which leads to the renewal is expressed in a different way. So measuring this may need to be captured differently, say in the form of positive feedback which the community manager can record, or collected through marketing research in a survey of members’ satisfaction with your community offering.

Questions raised, and answered

A simple set of measures which helps to focus on this issue of growing value in communities of practice is one which focuses on both the number of questions raised, and the numbers answered. On the one hand this is a great simple indicator that one the one hand members of the community are taking an interest actively and asking questions. And as a member organisation you have the community sorted out that either a member of staff or a member of the community is ready to contribute an answer. In other words, the best contributions to a membership-based community will be those that publicly impact on content, processes or products.

It’s about moving from a relationship with a captive membership grounded in transactions to a new approach to membership based much more on relationships, both in aggregate terms and just as importantly with individuals online. Achieving this might sound an ambitious task but if you build these aims into a set of performance measures from the outset then as long as they are aligned with the business and responsibility is taken for the results then you are taking the necessary practical steps to achieve this long term change in values/change of value.

Avoiding the pitfalls

To put this in context of the day-to-day presssures of launching a community site I wanted to conclude with some examples of common mistakes, borrowed from ‘How to Kill A Community in 10 Easy Steps’; with my notes on positive ways to deal with these common errors of judgement:

1. Launch your community without testing it properly
If you’ve done it right you’ll have created member personas which will help guide the kind of content and design that will work best. Otherwise you may find a few months down the line that you’re going to need to spend money on a focus group to find out why no one’s engaging with it.

2. Throw feature-spaghetti at the wall and hope something sticks
Professionals are time-poor so don’t overload your community of practice thinking that the more features the better, keeping it simple allows members to find what they want all the easier.

3. Don't 'feed' your community once it is open
Simply importing your member database into your community isn’t going to work in building a community. If there’s an existing web 1.0 style community then you may have a head start but it’s wise to make sure as community manager you re-double your behind the scenes efforts to make sure the new environment makes people feel at home.

4. Don't use off-line outreach and engagement techniques
The role of the community manager is to reach out to community members. Don’t make the mistake of thinking it won’t take dedicated community management to generate engagement. Without that it will soon become a ghost town without a proper engagement strategy.

5. Assume size is THE critical differentiator
It sounds obvious that quality not quantity counts but if your organisation is inexperienced in the ways of community management it’s easy to fall prey to the temptation early on to get numbers before anything else. T hat’s really just another example of web 1.0 thinking. Sure you need excellent content to attract members, but there’s really only going to be vertical engagement and little member-to-member connection if you’re not careful.

6. Try to monitise the community at every opportunity
It’s important to get these issues of making the site pay from the outset otherwise you can find the community being pulled from every direction by ill-thought out commercial imperatives. Set clear objectives and KPIs is the way forward.

7. Hire any staff who are on-the-bench to moderate the community
If you don’t do the workshops at the outset to carefully consider what you need from a community this is all too easily the result; then you’re left having to persuade budget holders after launch to create a budget community management which will be professional and valuable.

8. Don't have a newsletter or steady, predictable communication to members
We live in an information overloaded world. Make sure you find a way of keeping members in touch which doesn’t add yet another email to their in-box for the sake of it; ideally provide fresh content for e-bulletins in addition to community content. Otherwise you are in danger of being ignored.

9. Don't evolve the community based on member feedback and suggestions
You need to walk the walk, as well as talk the talk; if you say you value members’ input demonstrate this with practical action. Follow through on advice and let people know what has been changed as a result, both individually and collectively.

10. Measure meaningless metrics that make you look good
To reiterate you need metrics which value the community both in terms of the quality of conversations as well as traditional analytics.

As your community evolves so too your metrics will evolve to include precisely who your top contributors, influencers and commentors are. Armed with this information your community manager can feed and nuture the conversations that matter, while at the same time encourage new members into your community of practice. A successful community, like a cultivated garden, is the product of careful planning, nurturing and harvesting; supported by good metrics will help ensure the fruits of your efforts are amply rewarded and sustained.