Monthly Archives: February 2014

Corporate Communities: from offstage to centre stage

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Corporate Communities: from offstage to centre stage

What would your company be like if the customer community was at the heart of your business?

Instead of community management being an extra thing that you do, what if the company empowered the community and was core to everything you did? A small company from San Francisco does exactly that and their example holds lessons for companies of all sizes.

LyftCommunity

The Lyft Community

Lyft is a realtime ride-sharing service that’s grown its business via community building. According to Lyft co-founder John Zimmer:

Building community is what drives me and makes me so happy to work on this… We’ve really invested in this sense of community.

It is this community focus and the distinct characteristics within the community that is setting this company apart from its competitors.

As Director of Community Engagement, Emily Castor acts as the linchpin in the Lyft community. Reading through Lyft’s blog and social media channels, you’ll find the usual content: customer feedback, press articles, safety information. Mixed in though, are photos of people, fun games, and lots of visual links (pink is big and there are moustaches everywhere). These visual identifiers and overall sense of fun connect the community and create an identity that people want to be part of.

And their customers see it too as evidenced in this quote from Nithya Anantharaman.

I have both Lyft and Uberx installed on my phone but I think of Lyft first when I need a ride.

Lyft’s passionate and loyal customer base is also starting to be very handy.

Fending off the competition

The collaborative ridesharing industry is a competitive market and the company with the largest share is Uber. (NB Look out for Uber in NZ soon.)
With a current valuation of more than three times that of Lyft and backers such as Google Ventures and Jeff Bezos, Uber has the funds to take on Lyft and engage in competitive tactics. Tactics such as anti-fistbump Facebook campaigns, poaching of drivers via mobile billboard ads and offering customers free rides.

Uber founder Travis Kalanick is happy to state he thrives on this competition:

Competition is fun…You have to be a fighter, you have to be a warrior, and if not, you should go do something that is a little less disruptive. I’m bringing it, I’m not sleeping.

Zimmer’s response?

By focusing on community, we’re able to attract the highest quality drivers. It makes sense that our competitors would try to recruit them as they try to catch up in peer-to-peer…What we are doing with community, the peer-to-peer model, and sitting up front is resonating.

To compete against companies that have more resources or more market share, you may need to do things a little differently. For Lyft that means promoting their secret weapon, their community.

Celebrating Lyft drivers

Lyft has recently launched the “Lyft Creatives” initiative that highlights the individuality of the Lyft drivers themselves. Meet some of the drivers in the video below to see the passion.

Organising for a purpose

It is not just other ride-sharing competitors that are threatening Lyft’s livelihood, regulations and the risk of being outlawed are serious concerns too.

In August 2012, the CPUC (California Public Utilities Commission) sent Lyft and other ride-sharing companies cease and desist letters. Emily Castor wrote to her community and asked for help and the community responded with community stories, campaigns and pep rallies. When things got really competitive, it was the community that fought back.

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As the battle with city officials continues for both Lyft and Uber, these loyal evangelists just get stronger.

Transparency and Safety

Aside from the competition and the threats, the community also helps with something more fundamental – promoting an element of trust and safety. At the core of the Lyft platform is a two-way review system which allows customers to choose the driver they want and drivers to choose their customers.

Thanks to our two-way rating system, our community stays safe and positive for everyone. Just as passengers are able to rate drivers, drivers are able to rate passengers at the end of every ride. You can give a five star rating to great passengers, and reserve the lower star ratings for passengers you want to flag in the system. If you rate someone three stars or lower, you’ll never be matched with them again.

With everyone accessing the service through their Facebook accounts and the transparency of the review system, people are able to decide for themselves how “safe” someone is. Add that to the very visible pink moustache on the front of the car and the breaking of the ice with a fistbump when entering the car, each of these elements and rituals add to a feeling of safety and one of belonging to the larger community. For a ridesharing company designed to connect strangers, this community vibe becomes vital to their survival.

These are just a few examples of how Lyft has embraced their community as the core of their company. While some companies view their customer community efforts as just another support channel, Lyft shows how a broader view of community is good for customers, good for employees, and good for business.

What would your company be like if the customer community was at the heart of your business?

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Influencing your community to go from good to great

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Posted by in Community Building, engagement, New Zealand, Social Networks

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In my previous blogpost, I wrote about KEA (the Kiwi Expat Assoc) and their mission to turn brain drain into “brain circulation”. It’s a group of 200,000 expatriates from New Zealand and I’m proud to be among them. But while I like the success stories and the sense of connections to home, I always thought such a group could do even more. Here are some examples.

Tapping into the 6 sources of influence
The book “Influencer” by Kerry Patterson, et al.  explains how, by focusing on 6 sources of influence it is possible to change specific vital behaviours in a way that scales.  This approach has been used in a number of very different applications, from eradicating Guinea worm to changing behaviour in prisons. And in the case of KEA, I believe it can be used to transform 200,000 expats into a powerful network of ambassadors that can help each other and the country as a whole.

Sources_Influence

Applying this to KEA
Each one of KEA’s members has the ability to “bring work home”, connecting their personal networks and skills to people and organisations in New Zealand. Whether that is promoting NZ people and products, assisting with the growth of NZ start-ups or partnering with NZ firms.  We want every member to connect their networks and skills to ties back in New Zealand.  By looking at these 6 sources of influence, we can start to create a strategy for linking members to contributions and increasing the brain circulation of New Zealand.

1. Source: Personal Motivation
Ask: Do I want to?
Action: Make the undesirable desirable.  How: Consciously connect to value

This is where we look at someone’s personal motivation for contributing.  Why would somebody want to connect their networks or skills back to New Zealand? What intrinsic motivators can be called upon to motivate people to do this?

The obvious motivation in this example, would be to tap into each members want to keeping their connection with New Zealand strong.  Linking this action with a person’s sense of self – of who they are and who they want to be.  A kiwi, a New Zealander.

2. Source: Personal Ability
Ask: Am I able?
Action: Surpass your limits.  How: Demand Deliberate Practice

Are Kiwi Expats able to link their networks and skills back to New Zealand? Have we made it easy in this network to connect these dots?  Often we assume that we just need to motivate members to connect, however we also need to ensure that members know how.  This involves breaking the behaviour down into smaller chunks and ensuring every member has the ability to contribute.

With an organisation like KEA this could mean breaking down the businesses/people to promote in easy to target chunks.  e.g. KEA could provide targets by industry.  Do you know people in small businesses?  Here are the top ten New Zealand products for small businesses. Then make it easy to share this knowledge within my network.  By providing members with a simple structured way to connect their network or expertise, you enable every member to contribute.

3. Source: Social Motivation
Ask:  Do others motivate?
Action: Harness Peer Pressure  How: Pave the way. Enlist the power of those who motivate. Seek the support of those who motivate

Are other members just like me doing this?  Who are those in my network that would encourage me to participate?  Highlight these people and recognise them.  Sharing stories of successful New Zealanders giving back to the network is a great start to modelling this behaviour, but we also want to show that every member has something to give back. Share stories of a range of expats and use peer comparisons. e.g 3 out of 10 expats like you do X.   People are more likely to change their behaviours if people in their peer group are doing the same, not necessarily their leaders and if people feel praised and encouraged by those around them they are more likely to contribute.

4. Source: Social Ability
Ask: Do others enable?
Action: Find strength in numbers. How: Pave the way. Enlist the power of those who motivate.  Seek the support of those who motivate

Where can members go to get support from their peers to contribute? We know that peer groups can help reinforce and guide people.  e.g. Lean-In circles or weight loss groups.

With KEA there are already networking events in each country, and these could be altered to more purposeful and focused on support for contribution. These gatherings can be a place where members are able to help each other and vital provide support mechanisms.

5. Source: Structural Motivation
Ask: Does the environment/Do “things” motivate?
Action: Design Rewards and Demand Accountability.  How: Link rewards third and in moderation.  Link rewards to vital behaviours. Use rewards that reward.

Using rewards is something that should be done in moderation. The focus instead should be on the intrinsic motivations.  If rewards are to be used, it is important that they are linked to the behaviours rather than the results.  This may seem strange, but the results will take care of themselves.

A shout-out from an influential New Zealander for a number of contributions from a member, or a free flight home for someone wanting to start a business or creating a successful connection are some example of rewards that could be used for KEA.

6. Source: Structural Ability
Ask: Does the environment/”things” enable?
Action: Change the environment. How: Use the power of space. Use the power of data and cues.  Use the power of tools.

Finally, does the environment help or hinder members? What is the physical environment like?  What reminders or visual cues are there?    Changes to the environment could be physical changes, online changes, policy or structural changes.

With KEA, this could involve changes to the online presence or community spaces, or changes to the structure of the organisation, or the networking events.  Look at the biggest barriers to expat contributions or to brain circulation and start from there.

Taking a successful organisation like KEA, that already has 200,000 members wanting to be a part of “home” and giving them purposeful things to do as a part of that community, creates a very powerful network of relationships and ambassadors.

But what applies to KEA applies to other communities too.  Whether that be your own community, organisation or alumni. Connecting your members together is a good first step, now what?

 
To read more about the Influencer model the following two blogs provide more indepth information.  

The journey to becoming the most globally connected nation in the world

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My social media feeds were all a buzz recently with the success of Lorde at the Grammys.  People I am connected with were proud to see another NZ success story. For such a small nation, I find that New Zealanders have a strong sense of belonging and pride.

In a recent survey it was found that expats are just as included in the pull of “brand New Zealand” as those back home. So how can New Zealand as a country benefit from this want from people across the world to be a part of the New Zealand success story?

KEA

One organisation that aims to help New Zealand become the “most globally connected nation in the world” is KEA (Kiwi Expat Association).  And with 1 million expats you can see why they would want to.   KEA was founded by Sir Stephen Tindall and Professor David Teece in 2001 and has quickly grown to be a vital link for expats to “home”.

 The vision we developed at KEA was for New Zealand to operate as a globally connected nation of 5 million people, rather than a geographically isolated country of 4 million.  It’s a vision that favours the “brain circulation” over the “brain drain” argument where expats are concerned; that an engaged network of expats could be part of the “soft infrastructure” on which New Zealand builds a globally competitive economy.  And there was always a belief that embracing our expats in this way would help bring many of them home sooner rather than later, with a good number of highly productive years left in the tank.

Ross McConnell
http://www.kinfolk.co.nz/blog/a-battle-for-the-ages/

The organisation hopes to reach and motivate expatriate Kiwis to increase their contribution to New Zealand.  And why wouldn’t they?  Just as alumni of large Ivy League universities work together to benefit each other – why not a country?

The upside for New Zealand as an alumni network, as a country, if you like, is that there are hundreds of thousands of Kiwis that have done incredibly well overseas that really do want to help the country, want to help these folks that are trying to network into different parts of the world.  We really need to reach out to them more and do the Yale, Harvard thing and use the power of our networks.

Craig Donaldson (Current KEA Interim Global CEO)
The power of networks transcript

But how do you engage such a large community?

In the KEA report in 2009, it was interesting to see that initiatives such as mentorship and job boards did not have the impact that was anticipated.  What would influence people to move beyond passive participation in an online network, to active participation?

Since the report, KEA has been actively using the power of social networks to increase their membership. Increasing their numbers from 30,000 members in 2012 to over 200,000 in 2014.  And with the search for a new CEO, the focus of the organisation is shifting too; moving from adoption of members to more commercial outcomes.  It is all about the “possibilities of harnessing the strength of a globally connected New Zealand and achieving Kea’s greatest imaginable challenge: 1 million Kiwi advocates, champions and story-tellers by 2016.”

Having this expatriate advocate network connecting through storytelling is very powerful.

…storytelling is not just about the transfer of knowledge; it is also a movement designed to amplify the voice of a community (Burgess, 2006). Everyone can participate because everyone has a story to tell.  http://librarydigitalstorytelling.wordpress.com/what/

Celebrating success stories is one way to foster “brain circulation” and limit brain drain. But it’s just one small step. In the next post, I’ll suggest ways that KEA can connect and empower their huge network to do more than just celebrate from afar. By focusing on specific behaviours and tapping into all 6 sources of influence, KEA can turn expats into a powerful network of ambassadors that can help each other and the country as a whole.