Six Ways to Build Online Community
Building community will help you in several ways. It will make your end users
into your partners, instead of just your customers, it will increase the
knowledge in your company, and it will be a source of information for you to
know what you need to improve. Here are some basic ideas to encourage feedback
in your SharePoint Server 2007 community:
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Make the reason for the discussion board or wiki clear
Be very clear in your goal for the discussion board or wiki, and make any rules
of engagement very clear.
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Word-of-mouth increases use
Use your Super users or
other users to inform new users about the discussion board and wikis.
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Be prepared for surprises
Your users may not have the
same ideas and questions that you have. Be prepared to be surprised by the
questions.
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Develop ownership
Don’t feel that the IT department has
to answer every question or set the tone/rules. Encourage ownership by
highlighting the people who frequently answer questions.
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Make it easy to use and visible
Make it simple and easy
to find. Consider putting up posters to advertise the discussion board you’ve
developed.
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Handle rude comments quickly
Don’t allow co-workers to
berate each other. Make it clear in your rules that you expect professional
behavior and collaboration.