There are many contrary things to what is frequently assumed about online communities. These include: Online communities should be small. The bigger a community gets, the less people participate. This creates wastage and makes it impossible for the community manager to identify and work with the top members. Famous online communities are terrible examples. Most successful communities were usually lucky. You will have unrealistic expectations, strive for growth and ignore proper community management. Look for mid-sized communities instead. MORE >>

This is a draft of chapter 10 of Social Marketing to the Business Customer by Paul Gillin and Eric Schwartzman. This chapter focuses on how to calculate ROI of social media and Internet marketing programs in general. We’ve told you about a few companies that have achieved a notable return on investment (ROI) from their social marketing initiatives. In conversations with hundreds of marketers over the last few years, we’ve observed that few of them closely track the ROI of their social marketing programs. Market influence. They include Indium Corp., MORE >>

We urgently need to rethink how we hire community managers. At the moment too many organizations, with little idea of what makes a great community manager, are hiring people who are either great at technology, have irrelevant community or social media experience, or have far too much free time.    This is a tragedy that's sabotaging their community efforts.   How are community managers being hired? Knowledge and experience might be more tangible to assess, but they have little impact upon the community being a success. Attitude. MORE >>

It should give you a great overview about both the strategy and the process of creating an online community from scratch. The Online Community Basics. Primer About Successful Online Communities. The 11 Fundamental Laws of Online Communities. Building An Online Community: How You Start With 0 Members. How Do You Build An Online Community? Contrary Truths About Online Communities. Don’t Start A Community For Any Of These Reasons. Basics Community Building Principles. What Is An Online Community? Different Types Of Communities. MORE >>

If you are invested in any of the global stock markets you recently experienced some unnerving fluctuations as valuations fluctuated by 25% or more in a matter of days. Markets are Irrational. When people share a connection you have a community. Your customers are a community. The subscribers to this blog are a community. You can communicate with a community – and that’s why your business should be focused on communities rather than markets. Communities are Cohesive. Communities are people. Communities are common. MORE >>