http://onlinecommunitieshandbook.com Wed, 27 Jan 2010 18:04:40 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en The social Web is expanding into the workplace. According to a Forrester Research study of business buyers, 91% use social technologies and 69% use them for professional purposes. In that context, more companies are discovering the potential of branded online communities aimed at the B2B market. That trend is less visible ... http://onlinecommunitieshandbook.com/planning-an-online-b2b-community/ by Anna Buss Facts: The international online community Independent Collectors was launch at July 2008. 11 months later they count 1700 members from 68 countries. The community is a platform for collectors of contemporary art to find like minded people and create online exhibitions to show their treasures. Anna Buss ... http://onlinecommunitieshandbook.com/annas-interview-with-independent-collectors/ Ciao.com is Europe's leading consumer community, with over 26.5 million unique visitors per month. In an interview for Online Communities Handbook, Ciao.com's Managing Director, Stephan Musikant, shared some of the strategies that helped shape Ciao's success, and discussed best practices for member recruitment and member remuneration, balancing the needs of different ... http://onlinecommunitieshandbook.com/interview-with-ciaocom/ Anna recently interviewed Independent Collectors, a new online community for collectors of contemporary art. On Independent Collectors, members can upload photographs of their own art, find and contact other collectors, and share insider information about the art market. Launched only a year ago, Independent Collectors is already a ... http://onlinecommunitieshandbook.com/online-community-for-contemporary-art-collectors/ Anna discovered this t-shirt, described by its creators, Despair.com as, "A gorgeous, 8-color masterpiece which captures ever so brilliantly the three behavioral disorders propelling the continued phenomenal growth of today’s most widely-trafficked social media sites. And at the intersection of the dysfunctional forces of Narcissism, ADHD, and Stalking resides today’s ... http://onlinecommunitieshandbook.com/despaircom-social-media-t-shirt-for-narcissists-and-stalkers/ by Anna Buss Changes in the age structure of social networks can create a critical situation for these communities. Online networking is no longer dominated by younger users. Look at the international social network Xing: 37% of all members are older than 40. One example is the Spanish group "Mayores de 40 ... http://onlinecommunitieshandbook.com/changes-in-the-age-structure-of-social-networks/ Recently, I received an unexpected package containing a guidebook to six Spanish cities published by the Spanish consumer community 11870.com in honor of its second anniversary. The attractive book is a "best of" directory quoting 11870.com of the restaurants, shops, and bars that generated the most discussion in the ... http://onlinecommunitieshandbook.com/from-community-to-book/ In my last post, I talked about the importance of achieving a large enough population to keep your community alive. At least in the beginning, online communities don't grow by themselves. So here are some options to recruit members to your community. Recruit from your corporate websites. Add ... http://onlinecommunitieshandbook.com/how-to-recruit-members-for-your-community/ For an online community to work, you need members participating. The number of members required depends on your community model. In an interview for our book, Debi Kleiman from Communispace, a company that builds and manages private customer communities for over 100 brands, said that they'd found 300-500 ... http://onlinecommunitieshandbook.com/how-many-members-do-you-need/ If you want a glimpse of the type of community management challenges faced by a large social network, have a look at the reader comments on this blog post: 13 reasons your Facebook account will be disabled Apparently (and logically), Facebook have partially automated the policing of the site and are disabling ... http://onlinecommunitieshandbook.com/banned-from-facebook/