In this session we discussed ways to integrate your community into your decision making process, even when they're mad/sad/frustrated that things are changing (or, you're shutting down a product). For our case study we used the recent shut down of Yahoo! 360.

Context

The community was told that they would be transitioned from the established 360 system to a new profiles system over a duration of 2 years. This presented a major issue as community members were given WAY too long of a lead time before the product shut down. This allowed for new account creation and shorts in communication as new members didn't know the future of 360.

Before announcing the official shutdown date of 360 we worked internally to review user feedback and, solicited new feedback from the community through the blog. (Including posts where we asked them to prioritize their needs for profiles). In addition to asking for feedback before we migrated users, we encouraged users to actively participate in the discussion (and product design process) when we did announce the official closure of 360. By doing this, we've been able to turn a lot of the negativity into constructive comments, and, have in turn, engaged the newly melted community by having them think critically about their product. By giving people ownership of something and allowing them to influence their product, they are more likely to stick with the product and have a positive impact.

These are the combined notes from the 360 discussion, as well as additions from a variety of other Community Managers and Community professionals who participated in the discussion throughout the session. These reflect a collective discussion on "managing the mob" from a variety of case studies. The 360 case was used as a springboard for the conversation.

Discussion

Why don't you leave it up?

When we announced the closure 2 years ago, the product went into "maintenance mode" (this was communicated to users via the blog) but because of this, 360 was ready to be shut down two years later.

Tip: Peanut butter manifesto-- Rather than creating lots of similar places on the network for people to do close to the same thing, you should finding sticky places for customers that they like, and centralize these places. That way you have a more cohesive community (and not nearly as segmented) and, it makes fixing things easier as you don't have to fix it both here and there. (Don't find multiple points to fix-make one big wheel and fix it.)

What was the user solution?

Shutdown included the migration of blog content, comments. However, this wasn't as seamless for some users as it was for others, as 360 allowed mature content-- profiles does not. This proved to be frustrating for users who wanted to port over their mature blog and couldn't. However, users were allowed to fully export their blogs (mature content or not) from 360 and take them to any other blog that supports the moveable type format. We suggested WordPress and used our partnership with them to create a transition page/landing page on WordPress.

Tip: When shutting down a product, provide users with lots of options, including, options to take their data and leave your service completely. On a larger network, this prevents users from completely shutting down their account as they're likely to continue using other services and just change part of their experience.

What have you implemented as a result of user feedback?

Blogging, preview connections before accepting (Guest Pass), connection categories, more in the works. A major hurdle from the user perspective is that these changes have taken a little while (users would love to ask for something and see it the next day-- unfortunately the process at a big company is a bit longer than this :) )

Tip: By communicating timing with users as often as you can, you can alleviate the frustration of "waiting for a feature" some.

Tip: When you implement a new feature and it's based on user feedback, tell them! "New to XX, XX feature. This feature was added as a result of feedback from users like you!"

Tell people looking at new product, ask for suggestions (look or don't look at it), then when relaunch say "This is what you wanted" Carl Watson

What is the typical churn rate for a community in transition?

Roughly 5% or less. When you lose users, try following up with an exit survey. I personally email a lot of the users on the blog who say "I'm going to XX because you guys stink!" and ask them "what would have made you stay?" This helps people feel their opinion has been heard, and, provides you with valuable feedback to share with your product team. (Ex: this is what our users who are sticking around want, but this is what our users wanted that left and how we could have kept them).

Tip: When transitioning a community, expect a 200% increase (or so) in comments/feedback. Two weeks later, comments should stabilize and return close to normal with a slight increase (roughly 15-20%).

How much of your day is dedicated to answering blog comments?

When we are launching a product, closing a product, or making any major product change we use an intense engagement strategy where I spend close to 70% of my day responding to comments (either on the blog, via email, or following up with team members regarding issues presented by users). I typically respond to 40% or more of user comments publicly (see a lot of duplicates which is why it's not more), but during a launch I respond to at least 50 or 50% of comments, or more. I track all feedback and report it back to the team in weekly intervals (Community Pulses).

Tip: Ensure your comments (as a staff member) stand out-- on the blog, staff comments stand out with a dark background and a Y! so that users can scan and see that Y! employees are responding, it's not just users venting. This is a tremendous help and feature when managing a large group and earning community trust.

What do you do when mob is silent?

Address people individually, via email or solicit feedback modules (What do you think of X feature? What's the one feature you'd change?) When reaching out to silent users via email, keep them safe by protecting their privacy. If responding to individuals via the blog, be sure that you heavily monitor aggressive comments so people hiding will feel safe when they come out and speak- no dogpile on dissenters, supporters.

Tip: use an alias email account when responding to users to prevent spam/attacks/your corp email from being shared. Users tend to share email addresses when they have a positive (or negative) experience with a staff member.

If you have an "angry mob," quiet people often go and post on their blogs, Twitter. (Y! profiles doesn't do Facebook at this time (as we eat our own dogfood and use Y! properties instead, but we do passively monitor). By monitoring third party sites, you ensure you have a broad perspective of user sentiment. Reach out to users where possible, and, where they're comfortable. BUT don't over extend yourself as users will expect you'll continue this behavior.

Y! has the luxury of being able to track people across the network- use answers, blog, stopped using community...Notice when usage changes, ask them what would bring them back.

How are you leveraging community leaders?

Early Adopters: When we shut down the Yahoo! Messenger client for Vista, we turned our group of Vista users into innovators by creating an early adopter program. We periodically solicit feedback regarding the product from this demo.

All-Stars/Power Users: Yahoo! Messenger also has an "All-Star" program which is comprised of around 90k users (opt in process). Here, we provide tips and tricks to this smaller demographic of users. This extra information allows users to help other users, and, makes them look smart. :) Power users/All-Star users are also given a "crown" by their name when they use the Windows version of Messenger. This sets them apart from their other contacts. Power users are also able to preview new features, provide feedback on these features (and established features) and provide a fairly consistent perspective on what they'd like to see.

Roundtable programs: Small group on NDA, typically we have 15 users per product. Users are flown out once a year (group refreshes annually) and participate in brainstorming sessions with product managers, get to see new features, potential features, etc.

Tip: When having one-off communication with users (either via email or the blog) and a user isn't under NDA, be cautious about what you write, as anyone else can grab what you've said and blog or talk about it. While this is usually a good thing (word of mouth) it can backfire. When writing, always think "would it be ok if this was in the news? Would I want to be quoted?" If you're unsure, don't say it.

Time management: How much time do you spend managing happy vs. angry users? (General group discussion)

70-80% time on blogs/message boards and emails during a launch. Issues escalated appropriately.

Normal time- 30% time

10% post 1% post freq 80-90% post infrequently. Focus on those who aren't extremely frustrated-- work on the frustrated bunch as these are the people who can become thought leaders. (Extremely unhappy users will often remain so, despite your valiant efforts). If you're able to turn around a few users and they continue to post, this not only enhances their reputation (as they become an advocate) but it also enhances your reputation within the community. Don't worry so much about silent people.

Community Tip: Tell power users you appreciate them defending your company. Send swag. Do whatever you can. Post on forum- hey, thanks X user. Thank you goes a long way. :)

How do you raise this info to management? Report?

Every week I produce a weekly report called the "Community Pulse" which includes a link to the blog posts for that week, highlights unique users, hot topics, new issues, and pulls in critical profound or useful comments. Encourage team members to reach out to you regarding questions, ideas they want to bounce off of the community, and more. Promote internal discussion.

Tip: When producing a report that includes user feedback, don't just send it to your immediate team, but send it to everyone who could be impacted. I send my report every week to the entire product team for each product, the marketing leads, my boss, and for some, an extended product team. I figure email is easy enough to delete, but if the feedback is valuable to the team member, it could be an invaluable email.

How would you define your role?

This varies from company to company, team to team, but my role at Y! is a hybrid role-- it's part corp comm, part product management, part marketing, and a snippet of customer care.

I work with lots of groups/teams-- by working with several teams you ensure that you have as much information about the company as you possibly can, and, are able to share information across teams.

How do you convey sentiment?

Rachel Makool (formerly of eBay) uses a sentiment barometer. scale 1-10. subjective call on their part. Top level for execs. Created expectations for what is normal. People would notice- what's bad this week- and read deeper into report.

At Y! we use a variation of this, but instead of using numbercal values as these are subjective, we use words (ex: frustrated, excited, etc.) as these are more broadly understood.

How do you separate your feelings about the site from your comm mgr role? (General group discussion)

Sometimes you agree with user. Let them know you're sympathetic. Mob appreciates it, but be careful you're not crossing the line and bashing your own company or product.

Being neutral is hard. Re-reads emails to make sure emails don't sound terse or bitchy. Ex: I understand, this is a great suggestion, I'm right on board with you is still fairly neutral vs. Thanks for the suggestion (flat).

Ensure you communicate your sentiment with higher ups- you're slightly sympathetic but will agree w/company line.

You ARE a user. At some point you become part of the community. Separate out when you're speaking for yourself vs. community.

How do you handle conflict?

Conflict can bring in traffic. As long as you can manage the conflict and find ways to fairly present both sides.

Tip: Have community guidelines everyone is familiar with. Try not to call out specifically what they said because they add fuel to the fire. Instead, remove offensive posts and follow up via email citing the guidelines so they're aware of the error.

Constructive negativity is OK as long as users use their manners, a seemingly pleasant conversation can be tense. Ensure that you understand the community as yelling/caps can be normal for one community but totally abnormal for another (and, comes off as offensive). Your job as a CM is to manage the tone of the community as best as you can. Pull comments when necessary.

Tip: Put offensive users on moderation after you've warned them that their comments are offensive/violate your community guidelines. This way, when a warned user tries to post, they won't be able to. After a week or so of moderation and once they've toned down, take them off of moderation and give them another chance.

What is the group's sentiment on hidden comments from moderated/offensive users?

Comments hidden on some sites for certain users- causes weird threaded conversations. Some users see some, others don't. Only time this is beneficial is when you add in spam words like Viagra or Cialis to comments auto-screened- other users can't see but not deleted. No one would mind not seeing these. :)

How do you manage brand consistency when the communities are different?

Rules are generally the same from community to community but the way users are communicated with (ex: Flickr vs Profiles vs developer community). However, all still include the Yahoo! voice and speak similiarly when products launch.

Google - Picasa vs blog forums. Diff personalities of forum and shifts over time. Comm leaders' personalities trickle down. Try to leave comm alone and only step in to police occasionally.

How do users understand the personality of a forum?

When you visit Flickr you immediately notice fun tone, short posts, greeting in mult langs vs. Proflies- neutral for users. Personality is also expressed in the product blogs (longer posts vs shorter posts), instructional, need to understand features, product.

Is that culture being reflected back to new users?

Yes-- all products have a different look and feel, and the frontpage for each product expresses this. (Ex: Groups vs Shine vs Flickr vs Delicious). Colors, look and feel diff.

Users have reported that they can tell the culture of a community/product by looking at blog, # of comments- level of user engagement. Color of diff products.

Scott Moore- when worked for nonprofit, set org principles up front to set expectation. Modified over time.