Revision #15

There are many ways we can all make a difference in technical communities as individuals and as part of a team, interest group or company. This article provides top recommendations -- actions you can take -- to make a difference in community.

Start now - by making at least one addition to this article today! Continue participating by selecting other activities and then sharing your experiences (and activities)!

Recommendations

Microsoft is active in many different types of virtual and physical communities all over the world and reaching thousands of individuals. To explore Microsoft communities, begin with a visit to Microsoft Technical Communities (on Microsoft.com).

Spend time listening in community

Communities are complex entities. The Active Directory community that coalesces on Microsoft Forums can be dramatically different than the one on Twitter tweeting with the Active Directory hashtag. To effectively participate and understand the landscape, you must listen to the conversation and learn key topics, community norms, communication style, key individuals who "knows their stuff" and who may not, and a host of other clues that will shape how you engage.

Here are some concrete activities you can do to listen (or listen more effectively):

• Catch up on a week of activity in the top forums visited by your community. One great place to start is in the Microsoft Forums, but there are many, many others hosted by different individuals and organizations.
  • The RSS feed folders in Outlook 2010 are great for this, because you can write rules on the folders that will, for example, flag messages with keywords you select.
• Find the top blogs for your areas of interest and allocate time each week to read new posts and comment. Note popular topics and personalities, both author and individuals providing commentary.
• Identify the important #hashtags for your areas and spend 15 minutes a day monitoring *buzz* in the Twittersphere. Begin with search on Twitter and then graduate to more sophisticated tools as needed. For example, bing twitter search.
• Find out where your community has roots in Facebook. Visit community/technology pages and keep up with events, buzz and the community network. Join and friend to get additional buzz.
• Read top articles about your technology on Wikipedia, the TechNet Wiki, and other collaborative authoring sites to understand different concerns and perspectives. Review article history to get see how the content improved (or not) and who were contributors. If these sites have RSS feeds, you can use the RSS Feeds folder in Outlook to archive/filter these posts.
• Subscribe to technology-specific distribution lists. Email may be old-school,  but many interesting discussions there can be a rich source of information.
• Spend a day listening in on support calls for your technologies (if that is permitted in your organization). Or spend a few hours reading the support forums.

Monitor and respond to customer and community feedback

Technology provides many ways to engage. Customers can leave comments, rate material, update assets, or provide direct feedback via email, chat or other mechanism. But even the best technology and most conscientious feedback means nothing (or worse, hurts your reputation, product adoption, or community health) if it is not addressed.

The following activies focus on finding and acting on feedback to your contributions, your areas of interests and/or products, and the community:

• Act on six feedback comments per month by providing new content or updating existing content
• Lead by example, and thank the person who provided the feedback, letting them know the action you took
• Engage in two-way conversation to more deeply understand three pieces of feedback per month

Manage your reputation and the reputation of the host, community and interests

According to the Pew Charitable Trust, reputation management has now become a defining feature of online life for many internet users (Reputation Management and Social Media). Without sufficient reputation, it is difficult to win trust and therefore less likely someone will use/act on your contributions.

• Update your key profiles (including Microsoft community profile). Letting users see your activity in your profile contributes to community and platform reputation (and trust).
• Trim spam from "your site" -- blog, web site, etc.
• List a means to contact you in your profile, an e-mail address for example. Which would YOU trust more? A user id that includes an e-mail address, or one that doesn't?
• Choose a username that identifies you. Which would YOU trust more: the user named EricB or the one named SomeGuy?
• Allow comments, and respond to them, if that is an option on your blog/web site.

Integrate community platforms into product and content strategies

Community is not an afterthought. Weave community into your current activities and make them an integral part of your future plans. Be bold!

Many of the activities below applies to the content publishing / information experience discipline but can be adopted to other scenarios:

Be a trusted source of information

Join community governing councils, advisory boards, and other bodies -- or create one!

Get to know the MVPs and other community influentials for your areas of interest

Support students and other future influentials

Spread the word