How to foster online communities
for small business and entrepreneurs

Thanks to Jen Granito for taking notes!

Key Takeaways:

• Promotion of business is a strong motivator for participation
• Matching business with similar need to discuss common issues
• Privacy, safety & trust are huge issues
• Contest w/ relevant prizes are great

Questions

1. How do you accommodate different levels of users?
1. Technology
2. Levels of business (size)
2. Getting high level businesses involved
1. Grow communities with more involovement from key playser
3. How do incentives work for small businesses
1. How to engage super users
4. What kind of voice do you use when you are talking to business users?
5. How to avoid self promotion within groups?

Answers

1. Avoid abuse
1. TOS
2. Remove abusive users
3. Give them an avenue to advertise properly that fits into community vibe
4. The groupery
1. Collaboration across school groups
2. Allows people who use the product to advertise their small business. Encourages ability for local advertising.
5. Role of moderators for small businesses and entrepreneurs
1. Moderators should ask the right questions
2. Focus content around relevant areas
3. Incentivize for quality instead of activity
6. Small business education is difficult. They don’t have time to find the best way to do all of the small things
1. How to help the small businesses you work with from getting scammed.
2. Community building when there isn’t a community
1. Small business workers do that because it is their life and passion which serves as a good filter
2. Small businesses are usually local and can leverage the existence of a real community around them.
3. Align motivation for the goals of the business with the community online
4. Barrier = “People don’t think of the internet as local”
5. Understanding from owners that you may experience problems.
3. Marketing for small businesses
1. Referrals via viral marketing – put that online also
1. Case studies and stories
2. Working the neighborhood
3. Having a daily conversation online as a small business
1. Putting your daily conversation/marketing sound bites/specials with customers online as part
2. Make it easy to add things their site.
4. Opportunity to be more responsive as a small business than “the larger guys”
4. How to overcome the hurdle that small businesses don’t want to indulge information
1. Company profile
1. Indulge and get better SEO
2. Trust that the publisher doesn’t have an agenda
3. Need to put them in an environment where they feel safe
4. Don’t have time for anything
5. Asynchronous community environment is easier to work with when you have very busy participaters
1. Email is the one thing they still check everyday
5. Promotion ideas using social networks
1. Have a “carrot” at the end of the contest to get people motivated to contribute content.
1. Finalists of contest became marketers for the site
2. Contest to create a page and have community rate the best page
3. Use employees to publish site within their personal networks