Scaling community by nurturing leaders

My talk from Open Source Bridge 2012

Transcript

1. Scaling Community @meghanpgill
2. Agenda   What you will learn
3. •  Why  invest  in  leaders?     – Pragma4c  Reasons   – Psychological  Reasons   – Economic  Reasons   – Sustainability  Reasons   •  So  how  do  you  do  it?  Prac4cal  lessons  from  10gen.   – MongoDB  User  Groups   – MongoDB  Masters   – Finding  leaders   Agenda  
4. About  me,   MongoDB,  and   10gen   Hello!
5. •  Director,  Community  Marke4ng  at  10gen,  the  MongoDB   Company   •  1st  marke4ng  hire  at  10gen   •  Grew  the  MongoDB  community  from  10,000  downloads  per   month  à  150,000  downloads  per  month   Who  am  I?  
6. •  NoSQL  database   •  Document-­‐oriented   •  Flexible  and  scalable   •  Go  see  Sean’s  talk  “GeTng  Started  with  MongoDB  and  Scala”   at  11am  in  B301!   About  MongoDB  
7. •  Fostering  community  is  one   of  the  core  things  we  do  at   10gen!   About  10gen   Set  the   direc4on  &   contribute   code  to   MongoDB   Foster   community   &  ecosystem   Provide   MongoDB   management   services   Provide   commercial   services  
8. Why  should  we   invest  in  leaders?   Pragmatic Reasons
9. •  Geography   •  Spoken  language   •  Cultural   •  Technological   One  person/en4ty  can’t  reach  everyone  
10. Broadcast  vs.  Mul4plier  
11. •  Go-­‐to  group  of  community  leaders   •  Early  feedback  on  features,  news,  and  other  developments   •  Amplify  news  across  their  social  networks   •  Ambassadors  to  communi4es  we  couldn’t  reach  otherwise   Example:  MongoDB  Masters  
12. Why  invest  in   leaders?   Psychological Reasons
13. •  Always  more  powerful  coming  from  other  community   members   •  Allows  you  to  reach  those  communi4es  that  you  can’t  reach   Develop  ambassadors  
14. •  Spend  4me  empowering  and  encouraging  users  to  share  their   experiences   •  Present  on  their  use  case  at  a  meetup  or  conference  (and   record  it!)   •  Organize  blogging  contests  to  encourage  people  to  share   stories   – Submission  deadline  mo4vates  people   •  Interview  users  on  the  10gen/MongoDB  blogs   – Q&A  format  gives  people  a  framework  for  sharing   their  story   Example:  Highligh4ng  user  stories  
15. Why  invest  in   leaders?   Economic Reasons
16. •  Inves4ng  in  community  can  be  less  expensive  than  tradi4onal   marke4ng  methods   •  …but  there  is  no  playbook  for  execu4ng  a  community  strategy   Return  on  Community  Investment  
17. User  Groups   Item Cost Meetup.com fees $150 T-shirts $1,000 Stickers $375 Pizza 1x/quarter $1,000 Speaker Travel $1,000 Total Cost $3,575 Trade  Shows   Item Cost Sponsorship fee $5,000 T-shirts $1,000 Stickers $375 Bag insert $350 Staff travel $2,000 Booth labor $1,000 Total Cost $9,725 Example:  Comparing  investment  on  user  groups   vs.  trade  shows   Return: engaged user group with several hundred members talking about your technology every month Return: a few hundred unqualified leads
18. Why  invest  in   leaders?   Sustainability Reasons
19. •  Investment  in  community  con4nues  to  provide  dividends   – Trade  shows,  SEM,  and  other  tradi4onal  forms  of   marke4ng  tend  to  be  “one  4me  only”  investments   Community  is  a  long-­‐term  strategy  
20. •  Upfront  investment  is  big   •  Over  4me,  the  group  becomes  self-­‐sustaining   •  Invest  in  forming  new  groups   •  Or,  let  the  establish  leaders  who  can  show  new  MUG   organizers  how  to  do  it  successfully   Example:  MongoDB  User  Groups  
21. So  how  do  you  do   it?   Some practical examples
22. •  MongoDB  User  Groups   •  MongoDB  Masters   10gen  key  programs  
23. How  do  we  educate   users  in  regions   where  we  don’t   have  a  physical   presence?   MongoDB User Groups
24. 10gen  organizes  lots  of  conferences  
25. •  Started  first  MongoDB  User  Groups  in  NYC  and  Bay  Area  two   years  ago   •  10gen-­‐coordinated  experiment   How  can  we  con4nue  the  conversa4on  ader  the   conference?  
26. •  Started  approaching  speakers  and  enthusiasts  ader  10gen   conferences   – Momentum  high   – Cap4ve  audience   – Leverage  social  media  conversa4ons   Can  we  scale  this  through  the  community?  
27. •  Financial   – Meetup.com  fees   – Food  on  an  annual  basis   – Swag   •  Logis4cal   – Finding  venues   – Connec4ng  with  speakers   – Best  prac4ces   10gen  supports  the  groups  
28. •  Leader  TLC   – Anyone  can  request  to  start  a  MUG   – Kick  off  Skype  with  organizer   – Regional  community  managers   •  Docs   – Guides  for  running  groups   – MUG  leader  blog  posts   Establishing  best  prac4ces  
29. •  Meetup.com  global  account   •  Mailing  list  for  organizers   •  Swag  kits     •  Docs:  hhp://www.mongodb.org/display/DOCS/Your+Go-­‐to +Resource+for+Running+a+MongoDB+User+Group   Tools  
30. •  50  MongoDB  User  Groups  worldwide   •  8,000  members   Results  
31. How  do  we  scale  in   other  areas?   MongoDB Masters
32. •  Inspired  by  Microsod  MVP  Program   Organizing  the  Leaders  
33. •  30  people   •  Mailing  list   •  Discussion  of  new  releases  and  features   •  Feedback   •  Community  of  organizers   Started  Small  
34. •  Let’s  meet  face  to  face   – MongoSV  (Silicon  Valley)  is  our  largest  event  and   many  Masters  were  coming  any  way   •  Inspired  by  Community  Leadership  Summit   – One  day  unconference   Masters  Summit  
35. •  Lots  of  enthusiasm  ader  the  summit   •  …but  was  hard  to  ride  that  momentum  for  the  rest  of  the  year   •  Oops!  We  hired  5  of  the  Masters   Results  
36. •  Constantly  invite  new  members  to  keep  ideas  fresh   •  Organizing  sub  groups  over  Google  Hangout  and  other  tools   •  Regional  events  and  mee4ngs  of  leaders   Lessons  learned  
37. How  do  you  find   community   leaders?   Where to start
38. •  Contribu4on  is  a  broad  term   – Code   – Docs   – Transla4on  of  docs   – Blog  posts   – Speaking   – Organizing  an  UG   – Support  forums   Look  for  ac4vity  
39. •  Empower   •  Encourage   – Give  specific  sugges4ons  (“please  test  the   development  release”  vs.  “please  test  x,  y,  and  z”)   •  Appreciate   Turn  Followers  into  Leaders  
40. •  Say  thank  you!   •  Send  swag  if  you’ve  got  it   •  Public  recogni4on   – On  their  blog  or  your  blog   – Twiher   – Mailing  list  or  forum   Appreciate  Your  Contributors  
41. Thank  you  for  your  4me!     @meghanpgill   meghangill.com   My  blog  on   community   management   meghan   @10gen.com