Critical Success Factor 5: Ownership

I like writing occasional blog posts about the critical success factors in our social media implementation rather than sitting down and trying to come up with a definitive list all at once. The fact is, our online community is still evolving -- and I hope it always will be -- so our critical success factors will continue to evolve, as well. Right now, of course, we're largely in the discovery phase. The critical success factors are emerging and we just have to be observant so we notice them.

Critical success factor number 5 (simply in the order I'm uncovering them, not in importance) is ownership. I almost called it local ownership, but decided it's broader than that.

Ownership means taking responsibility. Our most successful communities have one or more owners who take responsibility for the appearance, organization, quality of content and level of interaction in their communities. In a small community, that's not a lot of work at all, but it makes all the difference. You see it immediately when you come to the community's overview page and find a welcoming message along with helpful directions and links. There are index and directory pages to help people navigate. And in discussions, the owner is helpful and encouraging.

My role is to oversee the entire community, but it's the individuals taking ownership in each little corner of our online world who are making it vibrant and sparkling with energy.

The other aspect of ownership that's been critical to our success is structural. We've assigned a space in our community to each division and given them control over it. I don't know about your company, but ours is full of competitive people, and they're proud of their divisions and so want their space to be and look the best. I use this strategically, of course!

And it's working. I highly doubt that we'd have the level of engagement that we do if I'd designed every division's spaces for them. Instead they were given, literally, a blank slate filled only with potential. I spent my energy in getting them excited and educated about that potential, guided them as they learned and experimented, but always stood behind them and let them pick their own paths.

And that trickles down, it turns out. As the individuals in charge of each divisions' space create sub-spaces or communities, they hand off responsibility and expectations to local owners. And when those people create new communities, they do the same thing, and so on and so on. It's a classic example of a virtuous cycle of behavior.

So, we've definitely found ownership to be a critical success factor in our online community. I recommend developing ways to encourage and enable ownership within any social media community -- it's the way to make it grow into something great.