There is a lot of instruction on the web on how to grow your community, add followers and readership online. But is it all about the numbers? Instead the focus should be about engagement and conversation. The value you’re providing your readers in terms of fresh content that is helpful or actionable. Creating not just a resource – but a forum for debate and communication. Matt Mullenweg, the founder of WordPress recently created a post on his site highlighting what not to do in being successful in building your online community and web presence.
I thought I’d write a guide for how to increase the number of comments you get by 400-1,000% and ruin whatever shred of community you had on your site.
Wikis are a collaborative web based tool that allows users to share in not just reading information but adding and amending content as a group process.
“Wiki” (English pronunciation: /wiːkiː/) is a Hawaiian word for “fast”.[4] ”Wiki” can be expanded as “What I Know Is,” but this is a backronym.”
A recent study of “Why Businesses Don’t Collaborate” by Stewart Mader and Scott Abel highlights the fact that employees rely heavily on email to communicate and collaborate and most feel inundated and overwhelmed with the sheer volume of messages and attachments. Frequently those attachments are less than 2 pages long and could be easily added to a wiki – adding value to the overall group collaboration and shared knowledge-base. As it is, 82% of those polled received dozens of emails a day and found that due to the volume important information was often lost or overlooked, adding it to a wiki would solve not just for the reduction of emails sent but key information being skipped over or deleted.
Has your business moved away from emails to a collaborative wiki for knowledge management? How smooth was the transition?
If you’re ready to get started with a wiki, there is a great open source option called Twiki. You can check Twiki out here at their website twiki.org .
You may think that there is little difference between the two terms facilitation and moderation. However, when it comes to managing online communities – the difference can be striking.
Moderation is the act of monitoring communication in an online community and editing/changing the tone and flow of conversations to fit within the excepted norms of a given community. Whereas facilitation is the enhancement of communication and conversation through guided interaction. One can be seen as exclusive and the other inclusive.
A community manager facilitating an online community knows when to be visible in the debate and when to lay back and let it unfold. This is a skill – that some are born with and many learn, in knowing how to get the best discussion going, new ideas germinating and conversation flowing around a topic.
Think of the online communities that you belong to – are there any standout moderators/facilitators that you’ve noticed?
Have you been thinking about starting a blog or new site but not sure where to start? WordPress is a great tool that can help you get started in no time. I’ve created a brief WordPress startup guide and tutorial to walk you through the process of getting your blog up and running today.
Sure you may already have a Facebook page/profile – but have you ever wondered how to set up a Facebook Group?
Facebook Groups are a great way to organize a community around a cause. From the group page you can then add events, meetups, post links, have discussions and more. Once you set it up you’re the administrator, but you can always add other administrators who will also have access to help you administrate your new group.
Here is part 1 of the series of How to Start and Customize a Facebook Group. (Customization will be in the next video.)
Teresa Ging is Founder of Sugar Bliss Cake Boutique, located at:
115 N Wabash Ave
Chicago, IL 60602-1907
(312) 845-9669
Open Weekdays 8am-7pm; Sat 9am-6pm; Sun 10am-5pm
www.sugarblisscakes.com
Sugar Bliss is a premium, Chicago based bakery specializing in gourmet cupcakes. Watch the video to see how Teresa launched her business as a woman entrepreneur.
The internet has allowed for user groups, colleagues and new partnerships to form without the necessity of face to face time. How do we stay in synch on a project if we’re not working down the hall from each other? There are some great options available for online collaboration of work teams and projects.
Of the paid solutions one of the most popular seems to be Basecamp by 37 signals. While I enjoy this product – there are so many other free solutions available they definitely need to be considered when evaluating a collaboration tool or platform that’s right for your project or business.
To keep the conversation flowing two great tools are Yammer and the WordPress P2 Theme. Think of Yammer as a hosted solution and WordPress P2 Theme as your own white label, self hosted solution.
Yammer is a tool for making companies and organizations more productive through the exchange of short frequent answers to one simple question: ‘What are you working on?’
As employees answer that question, a feed is created in one central location enabling co-workers to discuss ideas, post news, ask questions, and share links and other information. Yammer also serves as a company directory in which every employee has a profile and as a knowledge base where past conversations can be easily accessed and referenced.
Anyone in a company can start their Yammer network and begin inviting colleagues. The privacy of each network is ensured by limiting access to those with a valid company email address. Information is never shared with third parties.
The advantages are that the basic Yammer service is free and it’s a hosted solution so updates and upkeep is performed by Yammer. The disadvantage is that to become an administrator or have control over the group or information companies need to pay to claim and administer their networks.
The WordPress P2 Theme would be installed on your own site. Access can be controlled by modifying your privacy and user settings. The advantages are that as it’s on your system you’re in total control and can truly customize this installation. The disadvantages would be that you need to purchase or own your url and pay for hosting fees.
PS Theme is a ”group blog theme for short update messages, inspired by Twitter. Featuring: Hassle-free posting from the front page. Perfect for group blogging, or as a liveblog theme. Dynamic page updates. Threaded comment display on the front page. In-line editing for posts and comments. Live tag suggestion based on previously used tags. A show/hide feature for comments, to keep things tidy. Real-time notifications when a new comment or update is posted. Super-handy keyboard shortcuts. Helvetica Neue for you modern font lovers. And more to come…”
Together these two both offer a great solution to keeping the conversation flowing when working together. How do you keep in touch with your work team?
Why track your tweet you may ask? Well, for many reasons. Besides @replies to your tweet how do you know if your Twitter followers are finding your links and information of value? Social Media is about 2 way conversations, information sharing – it’s not about shouting into an empty room or standing on a soapbox – which is what you’re doing if people aren’t reading your tweets, clicking your links or finding the information you provide valuable – or at the very least mildly interesting. Also, it takes time to share that information – so if you’re sharing the wrong information or information that your followers don’t think is relevant it would most likely be a better use of your time to share different information or resources.
The most basic way to track your tweets is by doing a search for your tweet or subject on Google or Twitter Search.
Or – you could use a new tool that combines these two into a powerful search engine called Twoquick
A more focused twitter search/tracking method could be had by adding a meme or hashtag to a specific keyword. hashtags.org provides real-time tracking of Twitter hashtags. Opt-in by following @hashtagsto have your hashtags tracked.
Budurl offers a free service to shrink and track your shortened link. Budurl allows you to see referrers, click charts, and more. You can create multiple BudURLs that point to the same destination so you can tell which source generates the best ROI. This allows you to see which cities, states, and countries drive your traffic. Their basic service is free and their dashboard is pretty intuitive.
PeashootApp offers to shrink and track your shortened link but also allows you to set goals for your campaign. Like Budurl it allows tracking and a personalized dashboard. It’s good that it sets goals for measurement but the coolest option was just added. It now also lets you build an audience around a particular keyword or theme. In essence:
Peashoot’s Audience Builder automatically follows people on Twitter who are relevant to you or your company. Over a matter of days Peashoot can increase your total audience size giving you more people to connect with and help spread the word about you or your company.
Both Budurl and PeashootApp offer paid monthly plans and free trials.
Do you currently track your tweets and if so have you changed the nature of what you tweet based on the measurement stats you’ve received?
The term “Social Media Expert” is bandied about so much these days you have to wonder what is a Social Media Expert – and what qualifies one to be labeled as such – and further if everyone is a Social Media Expert – maybe it’s a title that’s lost it’s meaning or value, since everyone can’t all be Social Media Experts can they?
The devaluation of this term has been discussed in other blogs, most notably on the article in Open Wire called “You’re NOT a Social Media Expert, you idiot” where the author Joel Mackey sets new definition criteria for determining what truly makes one a Social Media Expert.
Joel defines 5 categories of true Social Media Experts:
Authority Experts – Those who are able to transition their thought leadership from another arena to Social Media. His examples include : @joelcomm, @guykawasaki, @jimmyfallon, @aplusk
The Power User Expert – Someone whose gotten to the top of one social media platform and sets their sites on another. Usually are early adopters: @zaibatsu, @mrbabyman@LouieBaur @stejules
Content Creation Social Media Experts: Those who report on trends and current themes are are able to disseminate that information effectively across the internet and social media platforms. @murnahan, @mayhemstudios, @jessenewhart, @szetela, @fantomaster
Just like being canonized as a saint, elected class president, or named People Magazine’s sexiest man of the year – I don’t think Social Media Expert is actually a label one can apply to themselves. Rather it’s a label that’s applied given or more rightly earned by sharing your passion for social media, showing innovation and thought leadership. Being creative with your social media usage and in the most social sense – open and sharing with your information, insights and ultimately results.
Results not in the sense of pay-per-click marketing of click-through rates, impressions and user views. But rather, measured in the quality of the 2 way communication, comments, replies and overall engagement of both the expert and the audience.
It’s the user community that grows around these individuals – those of us who read their blogs, subscribe to the feeds, link to them and generally subscribe to their thought stream and appreciate their viewpoint.
In Sept 2008 (which feels like eons ago in internet time/space) ReadWriteWeb identified these 7 Social Media Consultants that Deliver Tangible Value – I think these serve as an excellent example of who some of the true experts or thought leaders are.
Chris Brogan
Jeremiah Owyang
Charlene Li
Dawn Foster
Dosh Dosh
Gary Vaynerchuck
Nancy White
I guess the next question is – what should we call them? Since we collectively are the ones who are responsible for the number of Twitter Followers, Technorati Authority and Google Page Rank – we should come up with a title to bestow upon these social media luminaries of the moment. If the title “Social Media Expert” has been worn out by the hordes of them suddenly around – do we come up with a new name, or put them in categories that define exactly what type of expert. So let’s hear it – what do you think true social media experts should be called?
I think the question first must be asked – what’s a Social Entrepreneur?
Commonly, a Social Entrepreneur is defined in the following manner:
Social entrepreneurship is the work of a social entrepreneur. A social entrepreneur is someone who recognizes a social problem and uses entrepreneurial principles to organize, create, and manage a venture to make social change. Whereas a business entrepreneur typically measures performance in profit and return, a social entrepreneur assesses success in terms of the impact s/he has on society. While social entrepreneurs often work through nonprofits and citizen groups, many work in the private and governmental sectors.
Increasingly I think this term has been flipped around – instead focusing on Entrepreneurs who are social – and now Social Media experts who are entrepreneurs. With every new technological, business or entrepreneurial development, the experts and early adopters are sure to appear shortly thereafter. Social media is no exception. As the technologies and other available networks and tools continue to spring up all over, social entrepreneurs are out there testing the waters, finding out what works and what doesn’t. While the world of social media may seem impossibly complicated or involved, watching the actions of these social entrepreneurs, whether successful or not, can impart valuable lessons to anyone interested in jumping in to social media or perhaps becoming a social entrepreneur himself. While the lessons to be gained from analyzing the actions of social entrepreneurs are many, following are a few basic principles that all social entrepreneurs follow. These actions can be applied to social entrepreneurs in both the traditional and modern sense-
Take Risks: Social media is new, and social entrepreneurs are applying limited knowledge to their ventures. No matter how successful one is in the offline world, the social media explosion has put everyone back to square one when it comes to strategies ad techniques. Because of this, social entrepreneurs are essentially trying untested and unproven strategies and hoping for positive results. With no case histories to go on, everything a social entrepreneur tries is essentially a risk. Sometimes it pays off, and sometimes it doesn’t, but risks are necessary in mastering new media tools like social media networks.
Take Advantage: If there is anything social entrepreneurs know how to do, it is how to take advantage of the tools available. Not only do they push social media networks to their limit with new techniques and marketing strategies, but they also make use of the networks and contacts they have made. Whether asking for opinions or information, forming partnerships on projects or ventures, or any number of other applications, social entrepreneurs know how use all the tools at their disposal. Not only do social entrepreneurs create massive networks, they know how to use them.
Take Care: No news travels more quickly than bad news, and when it comes to social networks, you can double the speed of the spread. Social entrepreneurs know how important it is to carefully evaluate what they say as well as how they present themselves in the social media arena. While recovered from a misstep is possible, it is easier to be careful and have nothing to apologize for. Social entrepreneurs are successful because along with all the risk taking and socializing, they are careful to manage their words and messages.
Have you seen an social entrepreneurs taking advantage of the social media tools available? Have you seen any social media entrepreneurs branching out into charitable or social entrepreneurial endeavors? I’d love to see some examples of crossover here.
PS Theme is a
