Tips for building communities from Matthew Mamet of EditMe, presented at our first Newport Interactive Marketers event

Tips for building communities from Matthew Mamet of EditMe

Perhaps you’re not super-familiar with Wikis, but you’ve at least heard of Wikipedia, no?

Brainstorm about how you can harness the power of a Wiki, where you can share concepts, photos, history, and invite members of your community to edit and elaborate on them. Similar to a blog, in some ways, but so much more interactive.

Before we get to the highlights
1. Thanks so much to the 20 designers, marketers, SEOs, writers, project managers, business development specialists, and sailboat dealers who joined us in Newport RI for Newport Interactive Marketers last night!
Stay tuned for details about our monthly tips & cocktails nights.

2. Extra special thanks to Matthew Mamet from EditMe offering a simple an affordable website and community platform

Web 2.0 is all about interaction, a Wiki enables multiple people to collaborate online
Communities aren’t just about text anymore: think video, images, multimedia

Tips for building communities

• Don’t get caught up in infrastructure
• Start small and work on gathering your people
• Want someone to feel like they stumbled across something great
• Try to enable conversations
• Want to be like a good host, want people to initiate posts and comments on their own

When your community is established

• What’s happening in the community that you didn’t expect? Encourage it!
• Do whatever it takes to get the rubbing sticks to become a fire
• Controversy isn’t always bad
  
• If someone or a topic is a wallflower, as manager you need shift from creating to encouraging others to create

Watch out for spammers & jerks

• It’s a sign of success although it’s discouraging
• Ask them to guestpost or take over a section
• Moderate: Be willing to kick someone out

Watch for signs of impending doom

• Pages not updated for 3 months
• Visitors haven’t been there in 6 weeks

Once the community is dead, it won’t revive: a la Friendster

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