The Blog

In the wake of the recent successes of social networking sites like facebook, twitter and linkedin, social networking is creating quite a buzz (no pun intended) in the creation of social networks to encourage and facilitate discussion online.  While forum-type  layouts for online discussions have long been the best way of achieving interactive discussion, An increase in DIY or “roll-your-own” social network services have made creating these online spaces a no brainer for anyone with an internet connection and the ability to use Google. Here’s just a few of said services that are available: Ning, BuddyPress, Jomsocial and SalesForce.

However, the ability to create and maintain an active online community is still rarity and a heavily desired skill.

The web is saturated by these communities and attempts to establish a piece of online real estate to facilitate discussion (Some call it the Web 2.0 bubble). However studies suggest that 50% of these sites have little to no traffic within 4 months. On top of this, around 10% of users generate a vast majority of the sites content¹. Grim statistics to say the least for anyone who thinks their social networking site is about to change the world

All isn’t lost though, there are some techniques for overcoming this, a few of which I outline below:

1. E-mail marketing – If you’re reading this you probably already know how valuable this is, but I’m going to say it anyway. Sending out an email to update users about “what’s been happening” can remind them of the opportunity to contribute to the community. Generally, you’ll always see contribution spike after an email update.
2. Encourage your users with their uniqueness – The study mentioned above concluded that encouraging users with messages that target how unique their opinions and input was facilitated them contributing to the community discussions more.
3. Back linking – Using twitter and facebook to circulate links to posts and discussion is an invaluable way of directing people to your site and encouraging them to contribute.
4. Staying local – This is probably my favourite one. Competing on the internet can often be a daunting thing, since there’s SO MUCH out there which is often much ‘better’ than anything you are trying to do. However, one thing that mgiht set you apart is your local connection – eg: While there might be thousands of social networking sites out there doing a similar thing, you might be the only one in your area. This local connection gives you an edge and you should use it to your advantage.

If anyone has any better ideas, I’m all ears!

Creative commons image by Daniel Iversen