The proven path

The Proven PaTh
The most successful and reliable approach in the history of building online communities.
by Richard Millington

Start small.
That’s the secret to developing a successful community. If you remember nothing else about this book, those two words can get your budding community out of a lot of difficulty. Of course, some people claim to already know this. They nod their head andwonder why they bothered hiring us in the first place. Yet, when the moment of truth arrives, when they’re at the dawn of their community building efforts, they freak out. Instead of taking the only proven path to building successful communities, they go for a big launch instead. This eBook will stop that. This eBook aims to persuade both you and your boss about that the big launch will result inan expensive failure. This eBook will prove that starting small is the best approach to developing a community. Perhaps most importantly, this eBook will explain how to get a community started and then grow your small community into a huge success.

The Proven PaTh
by Richard Millington

Section 1: The Proven Path To Failure
1 4 7 8 9 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 27 29 31 The $2,000,000Launch The Story of the Internet’s Ugliest Online Community The evil Big Launch Brigade “It’s the Critical Mass, Stupid” The BLB’s Trail of Devastation A Closer Look at the Big Launch First Impressions that Kill Great Expectations The Problem with Successful Communities Losing The Game Of Risk The BLB Will Suck Your Blood Budget Dry The Power of Simple Platforms Community Building Experience Tacklingthe BLB Every Big Community Began as a Small Community Moving the Goalposts Arguments Against the Dreaded Big Launch

The Proven PaTh
by Richard Millington

Section 2: The Proven Path
33 34 37 45 47 49 54 61 63 64 85 87 Welcome to the Proven Path: Starting Small The Start Small Philosophy Starting Small: Your First 50 Active Members A Spark of Community Genius Building Your Contacts BeforeYou Build a Community From 50 to 500 A Cunning Plan to Stimulate Referrals Starting Small and Growing Too Big High Level of Contact With a Small Group of People From 500 to 5,000 From 5,000 to 50,000 Where it all began...

The Proven PaTh to Failure

The $ 2,000,000 Launch

In 2009, I received a call from the European marketing manager of a multinational organization that sells well-knownconsumer products. It’s a big company; about half of your will have purchased a product of theirs. Their community, he said, had been launched to much fanfare several months ago but was now floundering. It was the usual problem. They had persuaded lots of people to join, seeded initial conversations and watched as the initial flurry of activity faded within a few weeks. I flew out to their Europeanheadquarters the next week. When I arrived, I was brought into the office of the marketing manager to discuss the project. He was worried he might have half of his huge $ 4m budget on a community that was going to fail. I know what you’re thinking, ‘how do you spend $ 2m and still fail? The budget included: · · Hiring a leading social strategy firm to come up with the plan to develop an onlinecommunity. Spending a high six-figure sum to develop a state-of-the-art community platform. This platform included every modern social networking feature developed to bespoke specifications.

The Proven PaTh

The Proven Path

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The $ 2,000,000 Launch

· · · ·

Hiring a PR agency to promote the community upon launch. Hiring a small team of community managers/moderators to manage theactivity. Hosting a major contest to attract people to sign up for the community. Hiring one of the world’s top legal firms to draft the terms and conditions for the community (this was my favorite!). Hiring two journalists to create content for the community. Paying a low six-figure sum to a translation company to translate the community content into every language the company operated in, nearly...