Software companies, such as Ableton use forums as part of their community building strategy.
Prior to Web 2.0…
Before blogs, before social media, before Facebook and MySpace — message boards and forums reigned supreme. For the uninitiated, they are fragmented, niche communities of like minded people who came together around a common interest.
It’s no surprise that sites like Ning have sprung up in popularity and blogging has taken off in the last few years. There are countless people creating content, trading expertise and working together to learn and socialize around things they are passionate about.
Message boards (or message forums, which ever you prefer) were the start of the modern social web. In fact, they still thrive today and are some of the best resources of information on niche topics around. Continue reading...
Every year, Technorati, the authority blog database and search engine releases a “State of the Blogosphere” where they document the progression of blogs as a medium and their influence in our culture.
I touched on a few of these statistics already in my post from Sunday on the digital divide. However, now that more detailed information has been released, I thought I’d put some of it here to spread the good news of the blogosphere’s growth with all of you.
Some snapshots from the State of the Blogosphere 2008:
“The word blog is irrelevant, what’s important is that it is now common, and will soon be expected, that every intelligent person (and quite a few unintelligent ones) will have a media platform where they share what they care about with the world.”
–Seth Godin, Author Tribes (blog is: sethgodin.typepad.com) Continue reading...
image credit: pbo 31 via flickr
I’ve been traveling this past week - and Thursday morning as I stepped out of my hotel room for a series of meetings, I noticed a usual sight: a copy of USA Today sitting at the steps of my door.
And, my usual response was to pull it inside my room and set it aside where it remained unopened and unread. Perhaps a better idea would be to bring it downstairs and ask them kindly to save the energy and paper and not deliver my news in this arcane format.
As I have said before, the whole idea of someone bringing you news as words printed on paper with ink in the digital age is a quaint and archaic notion. It is wasteful, harmful to the environment and pretty much irrelevant.
I enjoyed my breakfast while reading RSS feeds through my iPhone - where I am receiving exactly the information I want without ads that are of no meaning to me and without articles that don’t pertain to my world or industry. There is only a fleeting amount of time daily, there is no reason to waste time reading something that was designed for a previous era. The one-size-fits-all, shotgun approach is over. Let the age of customization begin. Continue reading...
image credit: adstream via flickr
Smart organizations and individuals across industries are building their brands through gathering organic audiences and encouraging dialogue.
By organic, I mean people who have opted-in to receive messages. And, encouraging dialogue not only between individuals and the organization, but also between fans of their brand as well. When you function as a connector, you become even more valuable to your audience than merely providing content.
Blogs function great as connectors because they publish not only a reader’s name but a link to their blog or website when they comment. So, when someone posts an interesting comment, it not only adds to the conversation on-site, but it allows the readers of that comment to potentially connect with the writer. Continue reading...
In something which is hard to witness as both a PR professional and writer, thousands of journalists around the country at major newspapers are being laid off or offered severance packages to quit. You’ve probably read local stories in whatever area of the country you’re in about downsizing and layoffs at your major daily of choice. You may have also seen your local community newspapers closing their doors.
I have written previously on how newspapers have much to learn about the web (and they do), and how local community newspapers need to evolve, but let’s not focus on the people making the decisions who have unfortunately ignored the writing on the wall. Let’s focus instead on the journalists, and all people who write for a living.
