Whether you’re a newbie group creator or an employee of a brand, growing an online community and maintaining a healthy level of activity is always a major challenge

In any budding community, its growth or stagnation depends on its members and their unique characteristics. This also means that your community’s growth will depend on how well you understand your members.

Here, we identify the common five types of members in your group and how you should best engage them to keep your community alive and thriving!

Early members

As the name suggests, early members are the first few hundred members or so who join your group when you first create it. These members will make or break your group, depending on how you handle the group (no pressure though).

It’s also fun since you’ll be able to remember who these early members are, given the small size of early communities.

These people will also be the ones who invite more of their friends, so be nice! They are also good barometers of change in your group as they’re most likely to be the first ones who lament that “things have changed” in the group. Hence, it is common for early members to leave eventually due to changes in the group. Be sure to listen to them.

How to engage:

Engage early and engage often. There are reasons why they decided to join and subsequently stick around your online group and you should know exactly what those reasons are. You should manage your group such that they get what they came for. For example, if you’re running a dog-lover group, no point allowing cat content to appear.

Lurkers

Lurkers are those who simply ‘hang’ around in your group. They’re primarily here to consume your content. While they do not subtract anything from the overall experience in your group, they do not add significantly as well. However, don’t underestimate their powers! These people form the bulk of your members and are the silent consumers of whatever activity present in the community.

Also Read: A guide to wading through the organic reach demise on social media

How to engage:

It depends on what you want to do with them. If you want to convert them into non-lurkers, you’ll have to talk to them to find out what motivates them. However, chances are that they take a more passive role in terms of participation, and that’s totally fine!

Supporters

Supporters will tell every single one of their friends about your group. Supporters typically love something about your group, be it the content, purpose of the group, or hell — it might be you whom they love.

How to engage:

They already love you, so the next important thing is to make sure they do not stop. Find out why they love your community so much and see if you can scale it.

Leaders

Think you’re the leader of the community? Well yes, but no. You’re the manager, who manages the members and their energy. Leaders, on the other hand, are easy to identify. They are the recognisable members in the community because they drive a lot of activity in the group. You need a few of these Leaders in your community, or you’ll be stuck with a lifeless group.

How to engage:

As mentioned, you’re a manager and manage you must. Harness the leaders’ energies! Join in whenever there is a spike in activity to ensure that the activity is relevant. Initially, you’re the leader since you’ll be driving a lot of the activity initially but when Leaders emerge, it’s time to take a step back and let them shine.

Toxic

We’ve covered the good, so now let’s talk about the bad — toxic members. There are two kinds of toxic members in your online community: the obvious and the hidden.

Traits of obvious toxic members include being excessively argumentative, not playing nice with others, mocking managers’ moves, etc. Toxicity may also occur when leaders are not well managed. In general, they bring the overall atmosphere down in the group, making it unfriendly for not just newcomers but other Supporters and Lurkers.

The more dangerous of the two is the hidden toxic members. Like a snake hidden in the grass, they strike at members of the community and out of your sight. A very common case would be sales-based people sending unsolicited messages privately to your members. When left unchecked, your members will leave the group after being harassed.

How to engage:

How do you engage hidden toxic members then? This is where you need to engage the community to speak up and report the offending member to you. It’s important to signal that you’re on the community’s side and that you would punish/remove offending members.

Also Read: Retail-targeted image recognition startup Trax close to being next Singapore unicorn

Not all hope is lost for these hidden toxic members. Is there a better way to win the hearts and minds of the community without being a pest? The right approach, which is also the hardest, would be to add value to the community by sharing your knowledge. This way, not only do you get to position yourself as a leader (and thus securing potential clients) but the community benefits from your sharing as well.

There you have it, five common types of community members in any online groups. By understanding these members’ types, hopefully you’ll have an easier time managing the community. You’ve got this!

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e27 publishes relevant guest contributions from the community. Share your honest opinions and expert knowledge by submitting your content here.

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How about trying a “Pizza Day” every month for starters?

If you run a business or work in a management role, you have probably heard of employee engagement and its role in a company’s long-term success. But what is it exactly, and why is it so important?

To answer that question, we must first understand the distinction between employee engagement and job satisfaction.

Despite popular belief, the two aren’t the same thing at all. It’s entirely possible to be satisfied with your employment situation while not being engaged. If an employee is engaged however, odds are they are more than happy with their job.

Key difference? Productivity and performance.

Why engagement matters

There isn’t one generally agreed upon definition for employee engagement, but the one that works best in our mind is defined as “the extent of people being personally invested in the success of a business”.

That definition encapsulates the essential components of engagement while highlighting its primary benefits – personal investment and improved performance as a result.

Engaged employees identify with their company’s values and mission on a personal level, which drives their motivation and the desire to see it succeed.

Engagement directly affects employees’ performance, and employees’ performance directly affects your bottom line. Even if we look at it from just a financial perspective, the tremendous effect engagement can have on the success of your company is impossible to ignore.

According to the 2013 State of the American Workplace report by the Gallup research firm, poor employee engagement costs US companies more than US$550 billion in lost productivity each year.

Further research indicates that companies with higher employee engagement outperform their competition in several key categories on a consistent basis. So if you want your company to be in the former category, consider taking steps to develop your own employee engagement strategy.

Strategic elements

Employee engagement is an intricate matter that requires many different elements in order to work well. From good communication to a healthy work environment and opportunities for growth, among many others. All of them are absolutely vital if you want your engagement strategy to succeed.

1. Establish core values

Why does your company exist? That belief or a cause that motivates you and pushes you to move forward. That is what your mission statement should represent – a clear and concise articulation of your company’s vision.

The core values of your company should be an extension of that vision. They serve as the basic principles that help define your company’s purpose and the practices that are used to achieve it.

Also Read: Malaysia Tech Week 2019 brings together the best of the country’s tech ecosystem

Core values form the foundation of your company’s culture, and as such should be reflected in all aspects of your organisation: visual esthetic, dress code, communications, workspace, down to your hiring process.

An authentic and consistent company culture that constantly reinforces its core values inspires employees with a sense of purpose and creates a strong emotional bond between them and the work they do at the company.

2. Improve communication

The sheer number of systemic problems that can usually be resolved with better communication speaks volumes to its importance.

Good communication with proper and constructive feedback helps everyone feel included and appreciated, while also helping establish trust between management and employees.

For best results, your company communications should be frequent, consistent and in line with your established core values.

Regular daily or weekly team meetings for smaller companies or quarterly all-hands meetings for larger organisations are all great ways to provide updates on the state of the business and make sure that everyone is on the same page.

Holding regular CEO open door hours where anyone can drop in and ask senior management questions or suggest changes is also a fantastic way to collect feedback while promoting an atmosphere of transparency and accessibility in the company.

3. Create ideal workspace

Since your mission and core values are at the heart of the company it stands to reason that they should be reflected in the workspace as well.

The ideal space is one that is fun and easy to navigate. It should inspire collaboration and the feeling of community. In short, it’s a place where employees will want to spend their time.

Think about what matters most to your business and build your office space around that. Do you put teamwork above everything else? Maybe creativity? Or innovation? Use the answer as your starting point to create a workspace that is unique to your business.

Show your employees that you care about them by providing free snacks and beverages in the break room. Maybe add other cool perks like foosball or a video game corner. Small things like that can go a long way in creating a space that people will simply enjoy being in, keeping them more engaged.

4. Implement health initiatives

Since employee health and well-being directly influence their performance, including them in your engagement strategy is just as important.

Providing health benefits to employees is no longer just a nice perk. It also makes a lot of financial sense. Investing in health programs allows companies to save money in the long term by reducing costs related to absenteeism and lost productivity caused by illness.

In addition to that, health programs with group activities or competitions are a great way for employees to bond and work as a team.

The best part about this is that you don’t really have to go all-out to implement a successful health program.

You can start by simply encouraging your employees to have more health-conscious choices like walking or biking to work. Set up regular fitness classes with a hired instructor, or offer to subsidise gym memberships. If you’re willing to go a step further, you could even set up your own gym on site!

As an extra incentive, consider offering free healthy meals and beverages for employees who choose to take part in the program.

There’s really no wrong way of doing this, as long as you keep it voluntary and allow employees to choose their own level of participation.

5. Promote appreciation culture

Without a doubt, money plays an important role in how an employee feels about their job. However, great salary or regular bonuses are hardly the deciding factors when it comes to our motivation and productivity. The emotional element is what by far matters the most.

Our desire to be appreciated, to feel like our contributions are being recognised and to belong to a larger whole are perfectly human. For your employees being recognised helps them feel like a valued member of a team, creating that emotional connection that keeps them engaged.

To do this successfully, you’ll need to implement recognition activities that contribute to a larger culture of appreciation in your company. It can be weekly recognition activities where individual team members are commended for great ideas or creative solutions to specific problems, or quarterly/yearly company-wide awards for outstanding performance.

You can take it a step further and introduce profit sharing programs or equity options for your employees, further promoting their investment in the company’s future.

Over time, recognition should become an integral part of your internal culture and all daily interactions, where everyone can feel like their contributions to the success of the business actually matter.

6. Encourage work friendships

It’s fair to say that expecting everyone to be friends at work is a little unrealistic. However, research has shown that companies where friendships among colleagues are common benefit from better employee engagement and are more successful overall.

Not only does promoting work friendships boost employee satisfaction, it also helps reinforce the sense of community and loyalty that further contribute to their engagement.

While you can’t force people to become friends, it is in your best interests to create an environment where friendships and personal connections in the workplace are encouraged.

You could start by setting up a game room in the office, where employees could unwind and connect over videogames, board games or foosball.

Another great way to cultivate social interaction in the company is by organising regular off sites or retreats where coworkers can participate in fun bonding activities together or simply work outside of the usual office setting.

Even something as simple as a pizza day once a month is a great way to inject a little fun into your company’s day-to-day proceedings and allow employees to take a break from work to socialise and connect.

Just make sure not to push it onto your employees. Remember that you’re not trying to make friendships mandatory but to create a context where friendships can grow organically.

7. Facilitate personal growth

Great talent is your company’s most valuable resource, so not investing in their growth and development is something you simply cannot afford. Having a personal growth program for your staff should be one of the key elements of your engagement strategy.

To stay engaged, employees need to feel that they are constantly growing, and it’s your job to provide them with the necessary tools. Otherwise, you risk having high turnover where stagnating and bored employees will simply leave to pursue other opportunities.

There are multiple ways you could provide your staff with different avenues for development. One of the most accessible ones is holding regular company seminars hosted by your senior staff and field experts where they could share their knowledge with the rest of the team and answer their questions.

If you’re willing to invest a bit more, consider subsidizing tuition programs or online courses for your employees to help them gain new knowledge and pick up skills adjacent to or outside of their field.

Also Read: Malaysia Tech Week 2019 brings together the best of the country’s tech ecosystem

Another great way to promote growth in your employees is to allow them to work on their passion projects. Something they’re personally invested in that falls outside of their regular job scope. They’ll appreciate the freedom to work on something they really care about, and your business will only benefit from their increased motivation.

Make it work

It’s a fact – engaged workers increase performance, drive innovation and help companies grow. So if you care about the success of your business, chances are you already utilise some of the elements of employee engagement that we have discussed here.

Now, it’s time to take it to the next level and turn it into a comprehensive engagement strategy that will help make your company the dream job for your current and future employees.

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e27 publishes relevant guest contributions from the community. Share your honest opinions and expert knowledge by submitting your content here.

The post Creating an employee engagement strategy that works appeared first on e27.

B2B marketing is undergoing a significant transformation

Typically, the sales team is bestowed with the responsibility to drive sales. You might be already familiar with the folks from the sales team making countless cold calls and generating leads. In most cases, B2B decisions rely heavily upon the information and intel provided by the sales representatives.

However, times are changing.

Today, B2B vendors are bidding farewell to old-school business practices. At present, it is impossible for businesses to flourish in the absence of technology. It is something that forms the heart and soul of a contemporary business house.

The idea behind embracing newer sets of technology is quite simple. Businesses want to target consumers and vendors across geographical boundaries. It goes pretty much without saying that technological advancements make it easier for parties to interact with consumers and businesses.

Here are a few monumental changes that have taken place in the world of B2B marketing in the past five years.

Sales reps have taken a backseat

Of late, B2B buyers have realised that going personal can yield better business results. Today, companies are investing heavily in order to conduct product research and create a B2B content strategy. Also, firms prefer conducting online searches before asking the sales reps to step in.

To be honest, the number of businesses indulging in online discussions have increased by leaps and bounds. Forums such as Quora are being used extensively to get recommendations and suggestions.

Also Read: A guide to wading through the organic reach demise on social media

According to a report, around 60 per cent of the B2B buyers prefer not to get in touch with sales representatives. Well, going online and getting yourself accustomed to the various developments taking place in the B2B sphere is way easier than getting in touch with a sales rep. over a phone call.

So, it can be said that sales pitches and sales representatives have taken a backseat. Contemporary businesses rely on research validations through peer networks before asking the sales guys to take over.

The number of decision makers have increased

Recently, the Harvard Business Review reported that, on average, approximately seven people involved in making B2B purchases. The number was under six until a couple of years ago.

Content strategies are being overhauled

Moving on, it certainly would not be a hyperbole to say that the B2B content strategy has also witnessed some monumental changes. Over the last few years, video marketing seems to have taken the front seat.

Reports show that around 80 per cent of B2B buyers prefer watching a video before purchasing anything. Furthermore, the report also states that video content consumption has increased by almost 50% in the last few years.

Some food for thought

Content has to be at the heart of all of your operations. The contemporary B2B marketing strategies cannot provide you with a favourable output if the content you prepare is not in tandem with the needs and requirements of your target audience.

Content is the undisputed king

Content forms the heart and blood of contemporary B2B marketing strategies. More often than not, it is noticed that content is prepared and uploaded. After it’s uploaded, it’s read by audiences.

What happens after that? The readers find many interesting pieces of content and start reading them. Your content is eventually forgotten.

In order to ensure that the content you’ve prepared stays with your target audience, you need to practice you should try upcycling your content.

What exactly does upcycling mean?

Upcycling helps you build on the previously-published posts. For example, You can reblog a post that was shared three months ago. This way, you’ll be able to enhance the shelf life of a blog post that was written long back. The readers who have already read the post would have some sepia-tinted memories about the post.

Also Read: Malaysia Tech Week 2019 brings together the best of the country’s tech ecosystem

You can also post the same message (content) on various types and kinds of media channels in order to widen the visibility of the post. You can prepare a PowerPoint Presentation and upload it on Slideshare. The same blog post can go on Linkedin as well. You can even post the same content in the form of a video tutorial on Youtube. Add an infographic to it. This way, you’ll be able to add an element of freshness to the content that has already been used.

Conclusion

The bottom line is this — we’re living in the digital age now. Everybody is connected. You can share a post on social media and it gets viral overnight. Everything is happening in real time.

Content is the driving force behind each and every B2B marketing strategy. Keep content at the heart of everything you do and consumers will relish in an interesting story. A story they can relate to. Give them a story and they’ll be hooked.

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e27 publishes relevant guest contributions from the community. Share your honest opinions and expert knowledge by submitting your content here.

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To foster effective growth in the blockchain sector, there is a dire need for these various blockchain companies to collaborate with each other for a properly developed and organised framework

Our generation has witnessed quite a number of technological developments that have rattled industries and disrupted our everyday life in a seemingly positive manner. One of such technologies is the development of blockchain.

Since the advent of Bitcoin in 2009, the technology behind the cryptocurrency has grown in leaps and bounds. The distributed ledger tech came with its capacity to offer a decentralised framework ladened with transparency and security. Several sectors including finance and healthcare have, in one way or another, explored the many potentials blockchain has to offer.

Blockchain came around at a time when there’s a yearning for transparency in transactions and online dealings. Internet users and online transaction dealers clamour for a platform that will provide transparency in transactions carried out to enhance confidence and trust. Also, the desire for freedom from central control especially in online transactions where most power lies in the hands of central authorities has become stronger.

Blockchain technology brought along its purely decentralised framework which gives all parties equity in control of information. The level of security details involved with the technology makes it quite difficult to tamper with.

These solutions and capacities offered by blockchain is what has earned the technology a steady growth in adoption. As of 2018 over 85% of banks in Europe and North America were already exploring blockchain technology to enhance their financial systems. The financial sector has already spent over $550 million on blockchain with intention to still continue investment.

Statistics also show that there has been a steady rise in the adoption of cryptocurrency and blockchain wallets, as there are currently over 25 million blockchain wallet users globally. Countries like China and Malta rank highest in interest in blockchain on a massive scale. Major corporations like IBM and Facebook have also expressed interest in integrating blockchain technology with their operations. It is safe to say that blockchain technology is steadily in an upward movement and its only a matter of time before it becomes part of our everyday lives.

The Need for Collaboration

However, despite the increased adoption rate of blockchain, the situation could be far better if blockchain organisations adopt a symbiotic relationship or endeavour to collaborate with one another.

Several blockchain organisations have developed and are developing their own blockchains, e.g. Ethereum, Ontology, EOS and many more — with different standards and protocols. However, to foster effective growth in the blockchain sector there’s a dire need for these various blockchain companies to collaborate with each other for a properly developed and organised framework.

When these companies focus on their core competencies and work or complement each other, the rate of blockchain adoption globally will experience a major boost. For instance, in the financial sector, a recent proof of concept collaboration between IBM and CLS for LedgerConnect – a blockchain-based platform that allows service providers to build blockchain solutions for ease of access and consumption in the marketplace aims to boost the financial sector. Another example also, is the we.trade collaboration.

One way blockchain platforms can also work together is building interoperability bridges between two different protocols which allows smooth operation of digital assets and cryptocurrencies across the different platforms. Another is building better platforms for business end users to easily deploy services and not worry about the technical complexities.

Also read: 10 crazy blockchain ideas for Facebook

Furthermore, when many different protocols are being concurrently developed, standardisation within the blockchain industry becomes a challenge. Industry standardisation for security is a must to prevent double spending attacks, such as the one suffered by Ethereum Classic. Thus, auditing source code becomes important and requires collaboration among developers to identify and secure blockchain solutions.

Public blockchains such as Ethereum and EOS make source codes openly available where developers worldwide can collaborate for technical review. When companies and developers help audit source codes for public blockchains, it also invariably enhances the blockchain industry as a whole.

Recently, Ultrain, a high performance public blockchain, demonstrated its willingness to work with industry peers to improve infrastructure security and promote healthy development of the industry. Their technical team recently discovered an EOS bug – an underlying implementation with a fatal security vulnerability that can cause the EOS network to be completely paralysed — and suggested solutions for the EOS team.

Ultrain is public blockchain optimised for commercial use which would help to construct a robust blockchain ecosystem that empowers a vast range of industries. The company extending a hand of collaboration to other players in the industry goes to show their acknowledgement of the importance of synergy in the blockchain industry.

In another exemplary move of collaboration by Ultrain, they recently partnered with Yoho!  The company, a leader in consumer experience, highly aware of interests of sneaker-lovers recently- to deliver a blockchain-powered sneaker authenticity solution for the state-of-the-art UFO (Unique Fashion Object) platform. Ultrain serves as the Blockchain-as-a-Service choice for the Chinese streetwear leader, Yoho!, which launched an online sneaker trading platform, UFO. The collaboration creates an avenue for the digitization of sneakers thus providing an advanced technical system for tracking product authenticity.

It is quite important to create real business partnerships and collaborations as in all the examples above. These will help enhance the blockchain industry as a whole and continue to foster growth and an increased adoption rate globally.

Blockchain technology indeed offers a lot of of capabilities and solutions. However, for a faster and effective global adoption rate, the need for collaboration among the various platforms and organisations cannot be overemphasised. There’s no telling the end possibilities achievable when players in the industry collaborate.

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Photo: Unsplash

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Ampotech’s system goes beyond dashboard reporting to detect energy waste and alerts facility managers when equipment is not operating normally

Ampotech, a Singapore-based IoT startup that develops next-generation power monitoring solutions used in commercial and industrial buildings, has raised S$1 million (US$726,000) in seed funding, led by Silicon Solution Ventures, a fund managed by startup incubator Silicon Solution Partners.

Enterprise SG‘s investment arm SEEDs Capital, as well as existing investor and Indonesian telco Prasetia Dwidharma also co-invested.

With opportunities ahead in international markets such as Australia and Indonesia, Ampotech plans to use the funding to support its operations and expand its product range.

Also Read: Why you shouldn’t share your goals

Ampotech, which spun out a University of Illinois and A*STAR research centre in Singapore, specialises in the collection and analysis of electricity usage data from the built environment. Its products and software provide real-time visibility into power and energy consumption of spaces and equipment at a facility while offering a simple installation process and wireless connectivity.

The company claims its sensing hardware and cloud-based analytics platform allow its monitoring system to go beyond dashboard reporting to detect energy waste and alert facility managers when equipment is not operating normally. Its devices operate on a completely wireless architecture.

Ampotech claims its data has been used by companies in commercial real estate, retail, and oil & gas to identify energy efficiency improvements, conduct remote asset monitoring, and obtain business insight into operational and activity patterns.

“At this point, we have our core product, a number of early customers, and several significant partnerships. This funding will enable larger scale manufacturing and allow us to expand the team to support our growing sales pipeline,” said Ampotech CEO and Co-founder William Temple.

By the end of 2019, the company expects to enter another regional market. “There are a number of exciting new partnerships that will be announced over the next few months,” Temple added.

Image Credit: Unsplash

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