What's Inside:
Greetings Online Communiteers,
In the spirit of "Back to School" we have a fantastic interview with Joi Podgorny on tween's and children's use of social software. We also have coverage of the ongoing debate around social network portability, and highlights from the Online Community ROI study. On to the Report!
Bill Johnston, Editor
bjohnston@forumone.com
A Message From Our Sponsors:
LiveWorld
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Online Community Research Network
The Online Community Research Network is a research-based network of online community pros studying best practices for building and managing communities.
http://www.onlinecommunityresearch.com
Online Community Highlights
The Social Graph, Portability and Member Rights
Discussions about the "Social Graph" have been heating up of late, particularly around the topic of open access to member profile, network, and content streams. The thinking was catalyzed, at least in part, by the Data Sharing Summit Sept 7th-8th, which spawned a slew of discussion and at least 1 manifesto: The Bill of Rights for Users of the Social Web. To members of online communities, this conversation implies a coming degree of freedom and ease of use. To community hosts, this also implies a responsibility to "open up" your community technically, experientially and culturally.
The Data Sharing Summit: Outcomes- Event Site
A Bill of Rights for Users of the Social Web - Open Social Web
A Bill of Righteous intent - FactoryCity
Thoughts on the Social Graph - Brad Fitzpatrick & David Recordon
Online Community ROI: Reporting on Dimensions of Value
The Online Community ROI survey was completed in May of this year, and published privately to our research network. The report is scheduled to be released to the public on November 8th. The report has many key findings, including:
- Overall, the survey results indicated a fairly high tolerance for investing in online community activities without clear “hard numbers” ROI.
- A small number of respondents reported that they had the ability to tie community initiatives back to their corporate goals, and to clearly communicate ROI. The majority of research participants felt their initiatives are adding value, but can’t provide a complete ROI model.
- Community budgets seemed healthy. 75% of those that answered indicated a spend of at least $50k, and there were a significant number of that indicated spends of over $100k and over $500k annually, not including headcount.
Expectations by management are that defined return of some kind will be produced soon, yet most research respondents did not feel that they were in a position to create a "big picture" view of value.
Reporting on Dimensions of Value - OC Report
Marketing & Online Communities
Marketers continue to experiment with online communities and social media, and with this being the time of year that students go back to school, the most visible examples we in the student-oriented social networks.
Beyond the Hype: The 10 Most Asinine Trends Online and Why You Should Ignore Them - Advertising Age
A Marketer's Guide To The Social Graph - Twist Image
Marketing & Online Communities: Techniques still rudimentary - OC Report
Back to School: Marketers Learning How to Work With Social Networks - MarkterBlog
Facebook Sponsored Group Analysis: Target vs Wal-Mart - Web Strategy By Jeremiah
More Highlights:
Confused by Facebook
Danah Boyd is "the ways in which the tech industry fetishizes Facebook"
The evolving role of the Community Manager An exploration of the additional duties, authority, and higher expectations that community managers are starting to deal with.
Social Media’s Direct Influence on Search Engine Ranking
This article explores the correlation between social media (like comments) and a pages search rank. Good start on the topic.
The Holy Grail For Mobile Social Networks
Arrington explores current state of mobile social networking, and describes teh holy grail as "physical presence detection and information exchange with other users."
Comic-Con: J.J. Abrams’ Secret Project And ‘The Dark Knight’ Go Guerilla With Marketing Tactics
Highlights of the initial guerilla strategies with the new Batman and "unnamed" JJ Abrams movies.
Online Community Events
Online Community Summit
October 4-5, 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.
For more information, contact Jim Cashel.
Marketing & Online Communities
November 8, NYC 
The Marketing & Online Communities Conference is an invitation-based event to be held at the Tribeca Grand in New York City on November 8. The conference will bring together thought leaders from the marketing and and online community sectors to discuss marketing challenges – and unprecedented opportunities – in online communities.
Confirmed speakers and participating organizations including senior staff from Edelman, THE HUB / Cool News of the Day, Digit, Yahoo, and AOL.
Please Note: We are actively seeking online community hosts or marketing organizations with exceptional case studies and best practices to share.
For more information, contact Bill Johnston .
OC Expert Interview: Joi Podgorny
This month's Online Community Expert interview is with Joi Podgorny of Ludorum, Inc. Joi's area of expertise is the post-Facebook crowd, Tweens and Children.
Q: Your work tends to focus on Tweens and children. How is that different than working with the current adult Internet population?
A: I like the question regarding whether kids' needs are different than adults' needs online. My answer is yes and no. Adults are usually more aware of their multiple identities, both on and offline. They have their work personality, their friends' personality, their (seemingly) anonymous online personalities, etc and they are more able to see the lines of distinction between these identities. Kids also have multiple identities but they are less paranoid about separating them. Many kids, teens and young adults are comfortable with living aspects of their lives very publicly, online. I see pros and cons to both ways of identity juggling. Adults seem to have a better grasp (again, usually) on the ramifications of their actions and will/should act accordingly. Kids/Teens are freer in their identity exploration and therefore, they are able to learn so much more than if they were in a more protected stance.
Read the full interview with Joi here.
Online Community Jobs
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 with the title and link.
Autodesk
Senior Manager, Community Programs
eBay
Associate Manager, Community Input
Optaros
Online Community Manager
Small World Labs
User Interface/Graphic Designer
Student PIRGs
Online Community Organizer
Yahoo
Community Manager - Yahoo!
Software Engineer - Yahoo! Local
Lead Front-end Engineer – Yahoo! Local
Senior Software Engineer – Yahoo! Local
Warner Bros. Records
Community Manager, New Media
VM Ware
Sr. Community Manager
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