What's
Inside:
Greetings Online Communiteers,
Welcome to the New Year, and congratulations for making it through 2009! In looking back at 2009, I'm reminded of a recent conversation I had with Thor Muller, CTO of Get Satisfaction, in which he shared (I'm paraphrasing) that we will all look back at 2009 and realize how resilient we really are. 2009 was a difficult year, but even in the face of tremendous economic pressure, investment and participation in social media and online communities grew. This combination of our awareness of resilience and the continued growth in social media makes me very optimistic for 2010.
Most of us have been closely tracking the tragic events in Haiti, and many of us have chosen to act through donations. I also plan on setting a calendar reminder to send another donation in 2 months, assuming the media spotlight will have faded, but the needs in Haiti will likely have not diminished.
I wish you the best of luck in the New Year. Now, on to the report!
Bill Johnston, Editor
bjohnston@forumone.com
(follow @billjohnston & @ocreport on Twitter)
A Message From Our Sponsors:
Online Community Research Network
Are you tasked with building, growing and supporting a community and/or social media programs with limited resources, budget and support? Join the Online Community Research Network (OCRN) and collaborate, share and learn from other smart people in the community and social media industry who are doing the work and actively finding solutions.
Go here to sign up.
Please note: We restrict access to the OCRN to those directly responsible for online community management and/or social media strategy for their organization. Membership is not available to platform providers and third party service providers.
Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA)
WOMMA is the leading voice for ethical and effective word of mouth and social media marketing. WOMMA provides ethical leadership, industry best practices and tools for measureable ROI.
http://womma.org/join/
Online Community Highlights
Back to Basics: Member Research
The latest installment in our Back to Basics series, Want to Know What Community Members Need? Just ask, focuses on the crucial role of member research in creating a successful community strategy. Member research helps answer question around what your members expect of you, role that the host plays, content direction, how to grow engagement and how to market and / or advertise to your members. The post gives techniques for conducting member research and sample questions to ask your community members in your research.
#ocb2b
Back to Basics: Want to Know What Community Members Need? Just Ask.
Back to Basics: The Strategy Team & Goal Definition
Back to Basics: Developing an Online Community Strategy
Participating in the Social Media Ecosystem
The Participating in the Social Media Ecosystem survey was initiated in December of 2009. The intention of the study was to get a broad look at social media ecosystems, as well as insight into how companies utilize social media.
We received approximately 125 responses. Participants represent a healthy swath of the types of organizations participating in online community building activities, including: large software companies, large community destination sites, niche community sites, platform providers, interactive marketing firms and independent consultants.
A sample of the 125+ organizations that participated include (with their permission): Microsoft, Intuit, Best Buy, Cisco, Museum of Life and Science, VMWare, BusinessWeek, Autodesk, Consumer Reports, Time Inc., REI, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Quest Software, WiserEarth, Current TV, and TripIt.
Several key issues pertaining to participating in social media ecosystems surfaced during this report, including:
- More than half of the participants, 56%, have developed a comprehensive social media strategy within the last 6 months compared to our last Social Media Ecosystems study in March of 2009, where only 18% of the respondents had a comprehensive strategy in place.
- The two most common changes respondents made in their social media strategies over the last six months are:
- Utilization of Social Media Sites, such as Twitter and Facebook
- Refinement based on Lessons Learned
- Twitter and Facebook emerged as the prevailing social media sites. 92% of respondents use Twitter and 87% of respondents use Facebook.
- Google Analytics is the most commonly used tool to measure participation in the ecosystem.
Click the link below for more highlights from the report:
Participating in the Social Media Ecosystem
The full report is available to members of the Online Community Research Network (OCRN). If you are interested in learning more about the benefits of a membership to the OCRN, please go here. To purchase an individual report please go here.
Social Media in Haiti
In the last several years, social media has become mainstream in the commercial space as a way to reach and engage with users and customers. But, it's also become a major communication channel in times of disaster. Social media is playing a key role in raising the level of awareness about the recent devastating earthquake in Haiti. People who were in Haiti posted status updates, pictures, videos and reports of the devastation before news crews were able to get there. There's been an incredible amount of support and donations from people all over the world via Twitter, text message, and Facebook. The Washington Post reported on Tuesday that donations via text messages are now in excess of $22 million dollars. Social media has changed the way people in the world communicate, connect and share information.
U.S. cellphone users donate $22 million to Haiti earthquake relief via text - Washington Post
Haiti...Turning Internet & Mobile Giving Into Investment - SocialMediaToday
Facebook, Twitter help raise funds for disaster relief - Toronto Sun
Social networks and the web offer a lifeline in Haiti - BBC
More Highlights:
Social Media Marketing: You Fear, You Fail - RWW
The biggest reason most social media marketing campaigns fail is fear - fear of jumping into something new and trying a social media marketing strategy.
66% of Government Agencies Use Social Networking - WebProNews
Study Looks at Government Social Media Practices
Are social media and paywalls compatible? How the WSJ is making both work - editorsweblog.org
With newspapers struggling to make a profit as advertising revenues decrease, many newspapers have turned to offering their online content for a fee.
Skype’s New Dawn? - loose wire blog
We talk about Facebook, twitter, MySpace and Friendster as the big social networks but we keep forgetting one that is far bigger than that: Skype.
Aol Quietly Launches An Expert Site Called Owl, and Feeds It Seed - TechCrunch
Aol’s answer to Wikipedia is Owl, a new site described as “a living, breathing library where useful knowledge, opinions and images are posted from experts the world over.”
7 Questions Key To Social Networking Success - InformationWeek
Organizations must ask themselves seven important questions about their plans for leveraging social networking over the next 12 months.
Sasquatch Meets Social Media -BrandWeek
Brands are investing in social media rather than TV advertising for the 2010 Winter Olympics.
Online Community Events
Online Community Unconference East
February 10, 2010
New York, NY
The Online Community Unconference East is a gathering of online community professionals - managers, developers, business people, tool providers, investors - to discuss experience and strategies in the development and growth of online communities. Those involved in online community development (and social software in general) share many common challenges: community management, tools, marketing, business models, legal issues. As we have found with our past events, the best source of information on all of these challenges is other knowledgeable practitioners.
Go here to register.
Social Web Business Forum
April 8-9, 2010
Santa Monica, CA
The Social Web Business Forum is an invitation-based event bringing together business leaders who drive active online communities, social media programs, and Enterprise 2.0 initiatives for their organizations. The Business Forum (formerly known as the Online Community Business Forum) focuses specifically on social web business models and tactics, what works, and what is on the horizon and is based on the industry-leading Online Community Summit, a annual Forum One event now in it’s 9th year.
The fourth annual Business Forum will take place on April 8-9, 2010, in Santa Monica, CA. The themes and sessions at the Business Forum will include an in depth discussion of social web business topics covering advertising, revenue and subscriber models; ROI frameworks; We limit attendance at our executive events to allow for true discussion during and after our speaker-led sessions.
Contact Bill Johnston to inquire about our limited speaking and sponsorship opportunities @ bjohnston@forumone.com or 415.233.6914.
Click here to request an invitation.
Online Community Unconference
June 9, 2010
Mountain View, CA
The Online Community Unconference is a gathering of online community practitioners - managers, developers, business people, tool providers, investors - to discuss experience and strategies in the development and growth of online communities. Those involved in online community development (and social software in general) share many common challenges: community management, tools, marketing, business models, legal issues. As we have found with our past events, the best source of information on all of these challenges is other knowledgeable practitioners.
Go here to register.
Online Community Summit
October 7-8, 2010
Sonoma, CA
The Online Community Summit is an industry-leading, invitation-only event bringing together leaders in online collaboration.
Held each October in Sonoma, California, the Summit draws senior participants from industry (Amazon, AOL, Apple, Cisco, Microsoft, others); leading online community groups (ezboard, MEETUP, Motley Fool); non-commercial organizations (World Bank, PBS, American Academy of Pediatrics); media (BBC, Univision); philanthropy (Packard Foundation, Skoll Foundation, Omidyar Network) and many others.
The goal of the Summit is to allow practitioners from many disciplines -- who would not ordinarily meet -- the opportunity to share current and best experiences regarding online collaboration.
Click here to request an invitation or email me directly at bjohnston@forumone.com.
Online
Community Jobs
Below is a current list of Online Community job opportunities. If
you would like
to include an open position in the next issue of the newsletter, please
email
me with the title and link to the job description.
Appolicious.com
Community/Social Media Intern
Baptie & Company, Inc.
Community Manager – Hi-tech Channels (London)
Community Manager - Hi Tech Channels (Denver, CO)
CafeMom
Community Manager
Community Director
Edelman
Vice President Edelman Digital
Senior Vice President Edelman Digital
Forum One
Community Manager
Fremont Consulting's Client
Online Portal (liferay) Community Manager
Hope Street Group
Web Manager
Knight Foundation
Social Media Superstar
Opinion Research Corporation
Director or Social Media Networks
United Service Organizations
Director, Online Fundraising
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