Are you working on a new community with big time bells and whistles that caters to a niche that you just know has been waiting for a place to call home? If so, I encourage you to push ahead full steam. But, let me caution you first. Your new community, no matter how great will not change habits. What I mean by this is you will not be able to stop potential members from posting on Facebook or twitter or their favorite Ning community.  If you are assuming that your new community will become the new gathering place for those belonging to the niche, I think you will be disappointed. Can you make it a great destination with robust content and interesting discussions? Absolutely. I know from experience what that kind of commitment can do

Have you ever wondered how some members of your online community (or any community for that matter) can get so overwhelmingly caught up in online drama with people they hardly know?  I know I have. Well, there could be a real, clinical reason behind it, according to a new study, that goes beyond them needing to “get a life.” Psychologists from Leeds University say they’ve found “striking” evidence that some avid internet users develop compulsive  habits in which they replace real-life social interaction with online chat rooms and social networking sites. The lead author of the study wrote in the the journal of Psychopathology that the study “reinforces the public speculation that over-engaging in websites that serve

I have a rogue group of members in my community. They don’t think I know it. But I know it all too well. Their tactics are completely juvenile. They plot against other members, and pat each other on the back when their antics cause others grief. They clearly have a lot of time on their hands. One of the members was once an employee and I believe this person is trying to settle a score by bringing what my grandfather would call “ill-will” to the community, which in this persons mind  causes problems for the company. But that’s another story for another post. I have struggled with handling this group. I just want to kick them all out. They all have alter egos. They present themselves to me in one way, and do a complete 180 whe

The journalist in me makes it impossible to stop reading press releases. I just can’t do it.  Once a news assignment editor, always a news assignment editor apparently, and part of that job has always been to forage for news via press releases, police scanners, newspapers, beat calls, while eavesdropping during lunch or through any other means that brings in a good story. But now, since I am no longer responsible for determining what to divulge to the masses during a 22 minute news hole, I’m reading and digesting them a bit differently. I can now analyze them a bit, laugh at the long-winded nature of many who write them and look for cool things to share with people in my networks. There is a trend I’m noticing of late. It’s

This is exactly what nearly 5,000 members (or should I say "former" members) of the website BeautifulPeople.com were told after packing on the pounds during the holidays, according to a story on CNN.com. Founder, Robert Hintze states in the article that they "mourn the loss of any member," but that his community demands a high standard of beauty. "Letting fatties roam the site is a direct threat to our business model and the very concept for which BeautifulPeople.com was founded," he told CNN.com. While my initial reaction included a smidgen of outrage, it soon faded because you know what? The community belongs to the members, and if they don't want so called "fatties" it is certainly their prerogative. The good news is, these

It is very rare for me to devote a post on my blog to dismantling another posted elsewhere on the web.  And I’m not going to do that exactly, but I wouldn’t be able to rest  if I didn’t share this misguided post on Advertising Age with those who value community management and work their butts off daily trying to grow an online community.  These are people who I know read my blog. So be sure to read that AdAge post and all the comments when you can. First off, this is not to bash the author. It really isn’t. But I do want to applaud the people who spoke up against claims that “out of work copywriter’s and journalists can reinvent themselves as social-media brand advocates,” as if this is an easy task. Secondly

I don't have a list of ten predictions. I don't even have five. But I do have one and I feel rather strongly about it. Okay, a great number of people are predicting that social media will be even bigger next year and businesses will continue to latch on and make use of the space. They've learned that it is an important strategy and that social media must become a huge part of their overall marketing and PR efforts. Great. However, I believe that many employees (state workers, for sure) will find themselves blocked from Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and maybe even LinkedIn entirely next year. I've written quite a bit about social media guidelines and even led the charge in developing them for my current company, which supports employee

The results of a new study initiated by ComBlu found that Retail is the leader of the pack when it comes to maintaining active online communities. But despite this top-billing, most retail brands and those in the eight other industries analyzed are still in the social marketing experimentation stage. The other industries analyzed for the study were: Auto, Entertainment, Financial Services, Healthcare, Online Services, Packaged Goods, Technology, and Communications. The only other industry with a similar level of success was online services. While 90% of the brands studied had an official presence on popular social media platforms, only 56% were integrating that presence with their branded communities, a move that ComBlu believes contribut

A new survey conducted by Junior Achievement and Deloitte finds that teens fully expect to access social networking sites on-the-job. According to the Deloitte survey, 70% of teens surveyed use say they participate in social networking an hour or more daily, and “more than half (or 58%) said they would consider their ability to access social networks at work when considering a job offer from a potential employer.” Will they get a rude awakening, or will this be the status quo by the time they enter the workforce? I think we have yet to determine the answer to this one, and it will likely depend on what happens in the next few years. Employers need to realize that policies will have to be created and they need to really figure out t

In one of the first large-scale studies of Facebook pages ever conducted, Toronto-based  Sysomos analyzed and investigated usage patterns in nearly 600,000. The results include information on various aspects including popularity, amount of content posted, number of fans and categories. This is a study of interest if you manage Facebook Fan pages or plan to create one. Here are a few highlights from the analysis: On average, a Facebook Page has 4,596 fans. Four percent of pages have more than 10,000 fans, 0.76% of pages have more than 100,000 fans, and 0.05% of pages (or 297 in total) have more than a million fans. Pages with more than one million fans have nearly three times as much owner-generated content as the avera