When you think about online communities you may think of message boards, blogs, Facebook, and other forms of social media – but if you really want to go from good to great, you should also think about ways to encourage your community to connect offline.
                Below are three examples of very different organizations (one political, one in the sports realm, and one in retail), which have each thought outside of the box in order to take their online communities to the next level.

Political: My.BarackObama.com

                When Barack Obama’s Presidential campaign launched its community site, they saw an overnight boom of 1,500 groups formed online. While this is quite remarkable in its own right, this was not when the magic happened.  Of those groups and the thousands that formed later on, many were silly, and only loosely connected people with a thin interest in common (like “Barack Fans in the Colbert Nation”, which united Obama supporters who were also fans of Stephen Colbert, or “Wine Lovers for Obama,” among many others.)
                The magic happened when the campaign encouraged those groups to set up offline in-person meetings.  So, while some of those groups remained as purely online interest groups, others across the country started setting up local meetings, using the tools provided on the website.  These tools were simple: the ability to post an event and invite people; the ability to search for users by ZIP code; the ability to use a listserv to email your group members; and the ability to post to your group’s blog page.  These three tools were enough to allow leaders to emerge from all across the country, and to take some ownership of the campaign in their own communities. They met each other in person, exchanged ideas, and started to recruit more people through carefully planned offline activities. These offline meetings were what turned those early Obama supporters into real communities – communities, which would be ready to do some serious heavy lifting for the campaign when the time came.  And the secret was giving people the online tools they needed to connect offline.
                It should be noted that part of the vibrancy of these groups came from the fact that they did not always march to the beat of the national drummer – in a remarkable show of trust, the Obama campaign gave them the latitude to take some real ownership, and campaign activities in Northern NY farm country were often very different than campaign activities in Chicago, which were in turn different from what was going on in Dallas. This may not have been exactly what the professional staff wanted, but they had the good sense to recognize that you can get a lot more out of people if you allow them real ownership.

Sports: www.syracusecrunch.com

                The Syracuse Crunch Hockey Club is the minor league affiliate for the Columbus Blue Jackets.  Their website includes news, multimedia, blogs and photos. Their “Crunch Alerts” keep fans up-to-date on all the latest news, trades and promotions.   Their Twitter feed (http://twitter.com/SyracuseCrunch) cross promotes information from the website and elsewhere, and their Facebook page has thousands of fans.  These are all a baseline, but what makes their online community building great, is the wonderful attention they pay to engaging and bringing these same people together offline as well.
                Recent examples include very publicly honoring the Jamesville-DeWitt Little League team for their 10U CAN-AM Tournament championship, holding a barbecue for their season ticket holders, and a contest just for their Twitter Followers.  (Incidentially, when some Facebook fans yelped that they were being ignored, someone from the Crunch organization replied right away, and a similar contest was set up for Facebook fans almost immediately.)  Fan forums are held every year, and the organization listens hard to what the fans have to say.
                Even though hockey season is only part of the year, community building season lasts all year round: in summer the Crunch host youth street hockey games open to kids between 5 and 15. A golf outing is held for media and sponsors, and throughout the year various player events, such as celebrity bartending, raise money for charities.
                By putting in the extra effort both online and offline, the Crunch have been able to build a strong local community of supporters, which is good for them, but which also adds value to the larger community around them. 

Retail: Harley Davidson: http://www.harley-davidson.com/wcm/Content/Pages/HOG/HOG.jsp?locale=en_US

                One might not think that a retail business would have the cultural power to form a network of local organizations all across the country, but that is just what Harley Davidson has been able to do.  And, the community pull is so strong that they are actually able to charge people for membership.  The slogan on the owners section of the website is “NO ONE UNDERSTANDS YOU LIKE FAMILY,” and the company culture strongly reinforces this idea in several ways.
                  On the national site, users can create an online profile, where they can plan rides and share them with the online community.  Members are encouraged to share their stories, encourage others, and join a local owners group. 
                Searching on the locator for the Rochester chapter reveals an upcoming “Biketoberfest” event, a Fall Foliage ride and a chapter meeting.  Searching on other cities reveals a patchwork collection of very active local websites with their own community events.
                By using a few online tools, like personalized accounts, the ability to post stories, or map a route, Harley Davidson has been able to cultivate an online community of owners.  But, only by taking it to the next level and actively encouraging people to ride together and form real offline associations and friendships, have they been able to create the strong-as-family sense of community, which adds so much value to their brand, and which adds tangibly to the enjoyment of their owners.

                So, what can your organization do to break out of the box?  Efforts do not have to be nearly as elaborate and labor intensive as the stellar examples above, but consider what sorts of nudges you could provide to your online community to get some of them to meet face-to-face.  Perhaps it would involve hosting a networking event.  Sometimes just planting the suggestion is sufficient – a simple form that allows members of your community to post their own event, along with the encouragement to do so, may produce surprising results.  The important thing is to think beyond the virtual world, and to understand that a true community is not totally directed from the top.  Once you let go and to extend enough trust to your community members to allow them to take some ownership, you might be amazed at what they can do.

You probably realize by now that there is some value in blogging, but maybe you are not sure what that value is. How can blogging benefit your business? That is a good question.
A study called State of the Blogosphere was released this month from Technorati, which surveyed 2,900 bloggers in 50 countries. In it are some very interesting statistics. But lets stay focused on the question of How can blogging benefit your business?
Until recent years, companies have been trying to tell their story in 30 second TV commercials, ¼ page print ads, on the floor of trade shows and splashed on billboards. Call it branding, marketing or advertising, it doesnt really matter. Telling the real story about your company, what you do, is an excellent way to build customer loyalty. Reflecting your people and your culture as well as the things that really make your company unique and successful can be a difficult task.
Blogging can break through those limitations and give people the opportunity to see what you really do, what you really think and how you really operate. Reading thoughts from the CEO, other employees, or clients, and allowing for anyone to comment paints a true picture of the character of your company.
In writing a blog regularly, you also help boost your ability to rank more highly in search engines. You will be amazed at how you become found for more diverse and unique keywords and phrases. Fresh, relevant content on your site is the healthiest thing you can do for your rankings, and your business.
In the State of the Blogosphere report, respondents claimed the following benefits of blogging:
• 71% have greater visibility in their industry
• 63% said clients have purchased products and services
• 56% say their company is now regarded as a thought leader
• 40% were asked to speak at conferences
In summary, a blog can help you define your brand character for your customers; it can help your customers get to you more easily through the search engines. Blogging can give you greater visibility and establish you as a thought leader in your industry.
The question was How can blogging benefit your business? I think the new question is: "Are you blogging yet?"

 

I noticed while watching President Obama’s speech, a relatively new phenomenon was happening in my living room.  I was watching the speech with my laptop open and my Twitter account activated when it started.  All the news and media people and organizations that I follow on my Twitter account started commenting in real time to everything in the speech and happening on the screen.  It reminded me of the “special feature” commentary that you get on a DVD.  You know, when the actor and director comment as the movie is playing so you get an inside view of the movie.  Or maybe a better analogy is “VH1’s Pop Up Videos”…or am I the only one that remembers that?  Anyway…
I had followed some blogs in the past during major events like last fall’s election night coverage.  However, all I endeavored to follow at one time were maybe two or three columnists.  This latest Presidential speech I followed 30 commentaries, at least, on Twitter.  Some that I followed were funny and some were very serious, some were right of the isle and some left of the isle.  I had 2 mediums, Television and Internet, working together in perfect harmony to create whole new media experience for me.
But it doesn’t end there.  Fox TV just recently announced a new concept for their network TV shows: The Tweet-peat.  In prime time shows like “Fringe” and “Glee”, instead of simply airing a repeat episode, they re-air that episode while the stars of the show, as well as the director, tweet the audience watching it.  Tweet-peat!  They load up the TV viewer with inside information, mistakes made during scenes, plain and simple they create new content during a rerun of a show thus drawing new viewers in and satisfying repeat viewers.  The Tweet-peat! 
The convergence of all media forms is happening before our eyes.  Perhaps nothing is more suited for, or easier to embrace, than the convergence of Twitter and Television.

During the past few years, my work in the political realm has caused me to become a quasi-public figure.  Not what one would consider "famous," but publicly visible enough in a particular realm to know that there are certain things I should not do or say online.  If you do a Google search on my name and city (Syracuse), you will find enough information to realize that any bad behavior on my part would embarrass not just myself, but my company (LogicalSolutions.net), my Congressman (once upon a time I was his director of New Media), and even my President (I was the Central New York Coordinator for the Obama campaign and an elected delegate).

I mention this, not because others of you might have the same particular history (you probably don't), but because all of you nonetheless share the same situation, even if you are still young and in school, and even if you have never given a media interview.

With the recent explosion of social media, each of us needs to give some thought to the content of our online reputation, not just for the sake of those whom we represent now, but with an eye toward the people and groups we may aspire to represent some day.

I like to tell people that in order to gauge where your personal line should be on those items, you should think not of the immediate audience to whom you are speaking, but of the person whose respect you would most like to earn.  Then, think of how your online messages, photos and comments would appear to him or her.  In today’s world, he or she surely will have access to more of it than you might like to think.

Language
Are you using language online that you might be embarrassed about in front of that person or organization? 

Alcohol or Drugs 
Do you allow people to photograph you in situations in which you are, or appear to be impaired?  Many young people make this mistake, thinking that their friends are the only audience they need to care about.  Not true!  It is very hard to roll back years of circumstantial evidence that you might have a drug or alcohol problem. Employers and others are finding more ways every day to build a fuller picture of who you are.  Do you really want those beer-pong photos from college to be part of that picture?

Anger 
Do you express opinions online when angry that you might later wish you could take back?  Sleep on it first!  Ask yourself not, "is this justified with regard to the target of my unhappiness," but rather, "is this message, something I want associated with my name for a long time in the future?"  Your online messages often say more about you than they do about the object of your rant.

Build up the Positive
You may not be able to eliminate all the youthful indiscretions of your online past, (although it certainly does not hurt to politely ask someone to take down a particular photo), but you can begin to build a solid foundation for the future.  There is no time like the present to start putting out the kind of messages and information that you will still feel good about years in the future.  What are you passionate about, good at, altruistic about?  These are the elements of an online reputation that highlights what is best about you.  These are the kind of messages that you will never have to explain awkwardly to your children, employers, or anyone else important in your life.

Your reputation is one of your most valuable assets.  Protect it as if your future depends on it - it does!

Obviously, we are all well aware now of Web 2.0 and all of the many well known companies that fit this moniker, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, etc, but the one thing many of us probably haven't given any thought about is the health of these companies and the chance that just maybe we're repeating some of our mistakes of the not too distant past.  To be honest, I hadn't given it much thought.  Like anyone else, I've seen the growth and popularity that some of these sites have enjoyed and I just assumed that along with popularity went profits.  Until I recently read the article Do You Think Bandwidth Grows on Trees?, which provides an intersting look at the struggles that some of the Web 2.0 companies are having as it specifically relates to bandwidth and data storage.

Web 2.0 is all about the user and communities and the proliferation of user generated content, which is why they grow quickly in popularity, because us, the users, have the control.  Along with that control, we also have the access to post just about anything we want to a lot of these sites, and as the article states, "Advertisers don't like paying very much to support homemade photos and videos."  The theory is that these sites are generating plenty of revenue through advertising but if an advertiser isn't willing to put their ad on questionable content, there are a lot of videos, photos, and pages in sites that would not be getting any ads.  So if you thought YouTube was raking in the dough for Google, you might be surprised to learn instead it might lose as much as $470 million in 2009. Remind anyone of about 10 years ago?  Working at a company that deals with bandwidth the really astonishing figure to me was that the estimate for what Google pays in bandwidth alone for YouTube is in the $360 million a year range.

The Slate article also points out that people are willing to pay for plenty of pay services online to get to content that is of greater value, better quality, and comes from more trusted sources.  It seems like anyone who might have thought they were doomed by the Web 2.0 companies, still has a fighting chance, maybe even the newspapers will find a way to survive.  I'm not really sure where this all might pan out, but I definitely don't envy any of these companies and trying to figure out a way to make Web 2.0 lead into profits and sustainability and not take us down the path of the begining of the decade.  What's even worse, is that they are trying to do it in today's economy where advertising is being dropped and not added.