 Good morning virtual community members today. I will take some time to discuss how we go about building open sim communities some new ideas on how we can go about building communities and Innovated methods use using new and older resources But before we do that, I would like to identify who in virtual worlds is tasked with building communities Usually it becomes the role of the estate owner He or she may have some idea about what the world should be and what type of person should be there Or they will appoint some trusted volunteer to the role of sort of a moderator slash Social manager that recruits enforces policies and interacts But for the most part that method usually does not result in large enough numbers to create effective daily activity. I Defined effective daily activity in open sim as Activity that attracts new accounts to immerse themselves in the existing community This murky road a role I have just described over the last few years becomes More clear to the corporate world. We have seen development of the role of the community manager Community strategist Connie Benson defines the community manager as the voice of the company externally and the voice of the customers internally The value lies in the community manager serving as a hub and having the ability to personally connect with the customers and Provide feedback to many departments internally Some more key activities of a community manager are on the slide behind me as they are listed at Connie Benson dot com Large corporations usually can justify the funds needed to create a salary for a corporate community manager But usually there are no salaries available to open sim communities But as states and world owners can compensate an effective part-time community manager with free land or other incentives It's best to spell out the details of the bar to deal. So everyone is on the same page Now we know who should build communities, but what tools are available to the community manager to do so This is where social media comes into play Because we usually have a budget of zero available to us and open sim Social media is the perfect resource. It's free Massive easily molded to the user's ability and did I mention it's free? Let's go over the numbers 1,800 women ages 18 to 29 who use the internet were surveyed 67% of those surveyed use Facebook 16% use Twitter 15% use Pinterest 13% use Instagram and 6% use Tumblr One million websites have integrated with Facebook 23% of users check Facebook five times a day 34% of marketers have generated leads using Twitter Google's plus one button is used five million times a day and Over five million pictures are uploaded to Instagram every hour Keep information about your community on social media I like to publish at least three times a week using different mediums You don't want to oversaturate your social networks. Then people will tend to block you But you want to be visible Publish pictures on your community members activities on social networks using image sharing sites Sites like Instagram flicker photo bucket Pinterest and deviant art When you post the images be descriptive and always post links so people can access the content the idea is to draw people into your community Also set shared theme image groups that community members can add to Touch signage in world that takes people directly to the picture sharing site helps to get people involved in the image sharing Another idea is to turn those images into a curated in world exhibit It is a good way to thank those that shared their photos encourage others to participate in the future and once you advertise for the exhibit you will continue to market your community to your social network When you decide to publish on your social network at least three times a week You should map out your social network weekly plan I like to start up with a blog entry that includes some images from my community Then I move that on to scoop it scoop it is a great tool Because others outside of the social network may pick up your story and share it with their social network also But I mostly like scoop it because it makes your story look more like a legitimate news item Once you share it out to Facebook Twitter Tumblr or WordPress Some really good story ideas for your social network could be a new content creator joined the community a resident built a new attraction or There is an upcoming live performance It used to be that Facebook was the only social network that you could use an effective group for me But now Google plus has emerged as a very attractive resource that can help grow your group while out of world Once a year, it's a good idea to boost your visibility on your social network by taking on your own unique social media initiative Perhaps a fundraiser for nonprofit groups that help people or a music festival celebrating an anniversary of your community Something that requires some group planning and pulls in other community members to help is always a good thing This year, I'm developing a plan to help venue owners cover the cost of booking live musicians into their spaces I want to create a relationship between musicians and business owners where the business owner sponsors performances and Then those performances are placed in venues at no cost to the venue owner I want to create a win-win-win situation where the musician gets paid in advance for their performance The business owner gets marketing for their product before and during the performance and the venue owner receives a live performance That doesn't cost them anything. I feel that this symbiotic relationship Becomes the new norm as part of the live music scene and we will see a Re-emergence of some exciting new venues in the metaverse The more active social outlets and open sim the more people will be attracted to the global community But one community manager cannot do it alone You have to get some community members to step up and volunteer to help out also But how do you do that? Well, you just ask as the community manager You walk up to people individually and you ask them to perform a specific task at a specific time You aren't looking for an indentured servant to be at your beck and call You want a concerned community member doing their part to help their community flourish Don't burn people out and also show your appreciation. I don't believe that volunteers do what they do just to be nice I want to keep these great people. So I always have in volunteer incentive program in place gift bags gift certificates to go shopping for free award ceremonies Freeland any of these tools prove to a volunteer that you value what they are doing You can create a positive Growing online community without burning yourself out by tapping into the resource that you already have available to you daily Community manager social network weekly plan your own unique social media initiative and volunteers and incentives I Challenge you to try a social media plan for three months then step back and check out the results. I believe you'll be pleasantly surprised Thank you all for attending and have a great day