Best Practices for Building a Community in SharePoint

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Mark Miller, founder and editor of EndUserSharePoint.com, built a community in less than 2 years that receives over 50,000 page views per week and has 13,600 email newsletter subscribers. He shares best practices for how others can build their own communities around Microsoft SharePoint.

Transcript of Best Practices for Building a Community in SharePoint

Real World SharePoint:

Build a SharePoint Community

Mark Miller

Founder and EditorEndUserSharePoint.com

Chief Community Officer and SharePoint EvangelistGlobal 360

Introduction

Mark Miller, Founder and EditorEndUserSharePoint.com

New York City

EndUserSharePoint.com

Community of SharePoint Authors

1,600 articles12,000 comments

50,000 page views a week13,500 newsletter subscribers

Global 360 Chief Community Officer and SharePoint Evangelist

Mark MillerCurrent Speaking Engagements• SharePoint Saturday – Denver, Baltimore• Best Practices Conference, Washington, DC• The Partner Conference, Dubai• SharePoint Techies User Group, Pakistan• The Experts Conference, Dusseldorf• SPTechCon, Boston• The SharePoint Conference, Australia• The SharePoint Conference, New Zealand

Agenda

What is Community?

The Building Blocks of Community

The Best (and Worst) Practicesfor Community Building

Q&A

What is Community?

Definition

“…. a social, religious, occupational, or other group sharing common characteristics or interests and perceived or perceiving itself as distinct in some respect from the larger society within which it exists”

-- Dictionary.com

“…. group sharing common characteristics or interests”

-- Dictionary.com

“…. perceived or perceiving itself as distinct”

-- Dictionary.com

Why do people join communities?

By Orion Miller, Age 7

“If you don’t know something, somebody else might.”

-- Orion Miller

“With one person, it’s hard to do a lot of things at once.”

-- Orion Miller

“The bigger the group, the better.”

-- Orion Miller

Why do people join communities?

By Mark Miller, Age <unknown>

Initial interest (Lurker)

Looking for an idea.

Initial Participation (Minor Participant)

Identifying with a specific idea so strongly, it breaks down the barrier to initial participation (the penny barrier).

Continued Participation (Evangelist)

Recognition for their ideas and contributions.

Types of Communities

External Internal

External

User GroupsSharePoint SaturdaysWeb SitesTwitterForums

Internal

User GroupsSupport GroupsPower UsersBrown Bag

Q&A

Building Blocks of a Community

Finding and Nurturing Followers

Get Started: Participate

“Community is built through participation and contribution.”

-- Mark Miller

Participate

Leave comments in existing communities

Participate

Ask and answer questions in existing forums

Participate

Join events as a speaker

SharePoint SaturdaysLocal User Group

Get Started: Your First Followers

External Forums

Dessie LunsfordChris Quick

Discussion Forum

Laura RogersEric Alexander

Comments

James LoveJason MacKenziePeter AllenMichael GreeneJay SimcoxAlexander BautzJim Bob HowardSara Haase

Pat Iovanella - Ruven GotzRichard HarbridgeJohn FerringerKerri Abraham

Types of Followers

99% .9%

.1%

Lurkers

99% of your community

Minor Participants

.9% of your community

Evangelists

.1% of your community

Building Blocks of a Community

Community Structure

Vehicles for Participation

Get Started: Blog

SharePointJoel.comJoel Oleson

Get Started: Wiki

SharePointDevWiki.comJeremy Thake

Get Started: Forum

SharePointOverflow.comAlex Angus (moderator)Nick Swan (instigator)Sam Dolan (branding)

How long will it take?

“If you have to ask, you can’t afford it.”

-- Anonymous

Worst PracticesWhen Building Community

Worst Practice

Build it and they will come

Provide new content…

Worst Practice

once a week

Worst Practice

Worry about ownership of content

Best PracticesWhen Building Community

Best Practice

Start with a party of one, and act as a content filter.

Best Practice

Provide fresh content… every, single day.

Best Practice

Consistently acknowledge participants, even for the smallest contribution.

Best Practice

Listen to the participants. Conversation will dictate when it’s time to expand the vision.

Conclusion

“I will never be Joel Oleson”-- Mark Miller

“Thank you for coming.”

Mark MillerFounder and Editor

EndUserSharePoint.com

Chief Community Officer and SharePoint EvangelistGlobal 360