• More Ways for Solopreneurs to Use Online Community Forums

    In a previous post I discussed the advantages of owning and managing your own online community, including privacy concerns, flexibility to grow and hedging against changes in social media platforms. It’s useful to ask, what can an online community do for the solo entrepreneur or practitioner? In conversations with many of these folks in my coaching and consulting business, they most often mention the factors of time, privacy and marketability.

  • Online Communities for Small Enterprises

    You don’t have to be a Fortune 500 corporation or non-profit the size of the World Health Organization to benefit from running an online forum. In this age of Internet commerce and entrepreneurship, small ventures and non-profits, as well as solopreneurs such as freelance designers and writers, consultants, coaches, and therapists can all benefit from creating virtual communities. Indeed, organizations of all sizes are enhancing their professionalism, improving communication with stakeholders, and increasing client satisfaction rates, all while promoting community goals and initiatives.

  • 2015 New Year's Resolutions for Community Managers

    Unless you’re managing forums for this season’s hot toy line, you’re likely experiencing a lull in community activity during the holidays. So while your community members take a break from their computers to engage in holiday festivities, this is the perfect time to sit back with an eggnog latté, survey your performance during the past year, and resolve to update your community building strategies in 2015.

  • Three Key Ideas to Ensure Your Online Community’s Success

    The Web is full of articles about why online communities fail. I decided to survey them to see what we can learn to do right. Below is a summary of the most highly ranked “Why Communities Fail” articles, turned around as a pith strategy for success.

  • What Type of Online Forum is Right for My Community?

    An online forum is a forum is a forum, right?

    Well not exactly. There are as many reasons to host an online community as there are community hosts, and the possibilities for types of discussion threads are unlimited. Depending on your organization and your mission, you’ll not only want to think clearly about which platform provides the best tools for your community, you’ll also want to style forums that speak to the needs and strengths of your audience.