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Archives for December 2012

Online Community Development: From Loyals to Fanatics

Online communities are most successful when loyal members transform into fanatics. Unfortunately for website managers, this is no easy task. There are many theories on how to collect loyal users and feed them the content they are looking for, but there are only a few best practices that consistently work.

Blog World Expo 2012

At BlogWorld New Media Expo, online community expert Dino Dugan shared his insights on which best practices deliver results.

Emotions are key: Being vulnerable, genuine, helps build community

  • Make community members feel welcome by facilitating, answering, connecting, and thanking.
  • Create a special language that makes users feel included.
  • Helping is the new selling : Give away what you know. Helping will make users feel supported.
  • Recognize value. Showing that you understand that users are looking for quality will make them want to come back. In essence, create content that inspires and lives up to user expectations.
  • If they’re doing something for free, that means it’s not about money … it’s about passion.
  • Strive to be somebody’s favorite. Be specific in your blog. General content doesn’t cut it.

Be sure to have a CTA (call to action)

  • Experts say that eyeballs are over-rated, and that page views should not be a goal.  Convert viewers into fanatics by prompting them to respond.
  • Building community comes down to intention: What is the intention behind your community?
  • Fill in the blanks: because of this Blog, <specific audience> will <specific benefit>
  • Then observe “after visiting this blog I want readers to do (this), and then second to do (this).”

Be different. Change it up!

  • Using awards and rankings are another way to generate unique content & draw viewers.
  • Do the blog headline exercise: write 50 DIFFERENT headlines that answer questions for your audience.
  • Publish at least 1 non-standard post a week: interviews, videos, podcasts, presentations, and surveys
  • Avoid “Superbowl” mentality (one ad that goes to many). Use many highly targeted ads to segmented audiences.

Look at your community in the long-term

  • Consider your blog in years, not months. Be specific to be someone’s fave.
  • Create a cohesive business model: social -> blog -> speaking -> clients.
  • Be consistent. Keep to a schedule.

Thanks for sharing insights BlogWorld friends: @jaybaer, ‏@CLRochelle, @nateriggs, @cspenn, @dino_dogan, @angiegassett, @jasonkeath, @justinlevy, @heidicohen and ‏@pcgdigital !

Social Media Playbook for Business, a video book review

Social Media Playbook for Business, a video book review:

The ideal companion for managers

Tom Funk’s Social Media Playbook for Business Reaching Your Online Community with Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and More is an all-encompassing social media book that covers various aspects of social media: From strategy to platforms to “next level” steps, successes, failures, and future predictions.

Managers who are not directly involved with day-to-day social media may find Funk’s explanations most helpful. He covers social media platforms, competitive analysis, setting up profiles on platforms, and monitoring blogs, etc… Unfortunately, Funk is not very in-depth when discussing what to expect when hiring consultants.

Funk’s book covers everything from

  • Listening
  • Ownership
  • Customer service
  • Legal rights
  • Establishing mission
  • Publishing a plan
  • Goals
  • Tracking
  • ROI
  • & Deciding if your company is right for social media

Funk succeeds in discussing the importance of writing a sound social media business plan.  He explains how to formulate a social media plan like a business plan by translating how social media can benefit businesses in a language more oriented to MBAs than marketing-communications specialists.

A social media business plan, like a business plan, should include

  • Competitive analysis
  • Operations plan
  • Goals
  • Objectives
  • ROI
  • Knowing the difference between earned vs paid media.

The chapter on the future of social media was highly engaging and scientific, covering the topics of

  • Social shopping
  • Neuro-linguistic programming
  • How social media is likely to integrate with our everyday expectations
  • How social becomes the new “normal”

Tom Funk’s Social Media Playbook for Business Reaching Your Online Community with Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and More combines the creative and analytical aspects of using social media to succeed in your campaigns.

Follow Tom Funk on Twitter

Social Media Playbook for Business Reaching Your Online Community with Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and More

By Tom Funk

Published February 2011

Best for:  Managers or business owners interested in learning more about how to combine social media into their businesses, or people who are generally curious about creating a successful social media campaign.