POWER THOUGHT OF THE WEEK: Building Virtual Community, Part 3

Power Thought of the Week with Patricia Parham, Ph.D.

Ensuring Equality

Equality among network members assures all involved of their value to the community. Inequality potentially leads to tyranny. How does equality manifest in virtual networking communities? Equal voice is one aspect. As the size of the network increases, what will prevent equality from becoming invisibility? The opportunity to be heard, as well as being responded to, resembles equality in a virtual networking community.

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Posted to THE NATIONAL NETWORKER (TNNW). All rights reserved.

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POWER THOUGHT OF THE WEEK: Building Virtual Community, Part 3

TNNW, JANUARY, 2009, WEEK 2: "We're Looking for a Few Good Networkers"

By Adam J. Kovitz

CEO, Founder & Publisher

Okay...we're looking for A LOT of good networkers. Why? Because without good networkers:

1.) Nothing would ever get done

2.) You wouldn't be reading this right now

3.) There would be no trust

4.) There would be no TNNW

5.) There would be no community.

We're proud to have been the trusted source for better networking for nearly four years and we appreciate you being part of our subscriber community. It is because of you that we have been making significant improvements to this publication to better serve you.

To this end, for the first time in TNNW history, we are offering yearly memberships to our subscribers who want to take our TNNW community to a higher level. The benefits of TNNW membership include access to premium products and services that no good networker should be without.

And while we have not officially launched as of yet, we have been overwhelmed by those who have already chosen to join. THANK YOU AND WELCOME!!!

This is just the beginning...

TNNW is available and will continue to be absolutely no-charge. Starting in 2009, however, TNNW will be offering a yearly membership, which will be a nominal yearly fee - $18/year for an individual membership and $30/year for corporate members. While membership is optional, you will want to join right away (call it our "offer you can't refuse"), as it will include access to members-only services which you won't find anywhere else, including:

1.) Press release, publicity and public relations services - imagine sending up to three of your own press releases to over 20 premium newswire services with an aggregate of over 25,000 national and international publications (online and traditional) all for less than $100.

2.) Webinar and broadcast programs - produce your own fee-based webinars!

3.) Custom text messaging programs

4.) Trade and non-bank financing for growing businesses

5.) Post up to one event per week on the TNNW calendar at no additional charge

Plus many more to follow...

We have spent the past several years building a network like no other...membership in TNNW will grant to access to this network and open a whole new door of possibilities to you and/or your business!

Stay tuned for more.

TNNW Calendar

We have a new calendar and it's open to you! To post your event, please visit our calendar page. There are three options:

1.) Post your event for $5.00 as a non-member

2.) Purchase a package of 10 postings for $30.00 as a non-member

3.) Become a member and post up to one event per week at at no additional charge!

New Delivery Options

You mean I can get TNNW articles emailed to me? I can listen to them on the web? I can put all the TNNW articles (and then some) up on to my own website or blog? Click here to find out how!

Surveys and Polls

Yes...you've been making your voice known to us! Now you can do it even better with our new site devoted to letting us know what's on your mind. We will also be making your collective opinions be known. Click here to find out more.

As always, I look forward to networking with you!

- Adam

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Posted to THE NATIONAL NETWORKER. To subscribe for your free newsletter, go to www.TheNationalNetworker.com. For the complete National Networker Relationship Capital Toolkit and a free, continuous RSS feed (available either by traditional RSS or by direct email), go to: http://thenationalnetworkerweblog.blogspot.com. You are also invited to click our buttons:


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TNNW, JANUARY, 2009, WEEK 2: "We're Looking for a Few Good Networkers"

Will Your Community Survive?

Strategy: What Say You? with Jay Deragon

I participate in dozens of "social communities" and enjoy reading others post and getting feedback on my own post. As these "communities grow" sometimes it seems like "the good old boy politics" begins to creep into the fiber of a community only turn the community into an anti-social place where the politics become more important than the open conversations.

It is this very behavior which bloggers have criticized the big brands for yet some community moderators think they are big and begin to create community rules, practices and behavior they learned from the big. By doing so they are planning the demise of the community they've tried to build.

What Is The "Community" Model?

In the early stages of all this social stuff people from different industries or business practices have created aggregated communities. These aggregated communities enable bloggers to add their own blogs to these communities while maintaining their independence and their own blog identity. The typical aggregated community is supported by corporate sponsors who typically major brands are looking to test the waters of "social media" and to attract a specific audience.

These aggregated communities are supported by advertising and sponsorships. The community moderators seek to recruit the "mega bloggers" whom add related content to the community that keeps the community engaged. They also attempt to create a "soft competitiveness" by listing things like "most read authors, highest rated authors or most comments on a particular post". Additionally they enable a feature to list the highest rated post of the week and occasionally highlight "Bloggers of the Week" or best post of the week. The typical community has between 1,000 to 5,000 registered members.

While initially the model may seem logical it is not sustainable for several reasons. These include:

1. Moderation of post begins to get anti-social due to petty politics or favoritism
2. Unless a community has critical mass and grows exponentially on a regular basis, being replaced by brands is inevitable
3. Members are already distracted by invites and involvement in other larger more dominant communities.
4. Community aggregation by the Big is already underway segmented by topics, industry and geography
5. Participants will migrate to the big looking for increased exposure and brand affinity
6. The big will soon provide economic incentive for bloggers to participate, something the smaller communities can not afford.
7. Aggregation will soon move to industry sites or to existing major branded "news" brand that adopt the social practices and want to truly collaborate with the small. i.e. Look at Business Weeks Business Exchange
8. A few of the big brands will finally get it. In getting it they will adopt a more collaborative philosophy and create community models that truly engage the small and provide significant value to emerging markets driven by conversations.
9. The difference between social networks and social media is becoming blurred and subsequently which network you belong to will no longer be relevant rather which community is the preferred community for your profession or for your personal interest.
10. The "mesh" of the old media with the new will accelerate given the "wake up" call sent to the brands and the comprehension of "if you don't engage you'll loose".

Can Existing Communities Still Win?

If you moderate a large community centric to industry or topical matters and have active participation you do indeed have the chance to survive and thrive. The faster growing more vibrant communities will likely be sot out by the major brands aligning themselves with the opportunities created by all this social stuff.

The attraction will be driven by several factors including:

1. # of active participants
2. The community philosophy and quality of content
3. Growth rate of membership
4. Know experts or high profile bloggers whom are active and endorse the community
5. The quality of thinking and innovative approach to engaging community members
6. The systemic understanding of the emerging market of markets created by conversations

On the other hand if your community does not focus on the above six value attributes and then it isn't likely to survive. Attraction and traction comes from doing the right things and doing them right. Both are centric to being social and adding more value than is expected.

What say you?

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Will Your Community Survive?

Networking is Building Community, Part 1

Power Thought of the Week

By Patricia Parham, Ph.D.
Contributing Writer

Power Networking

Think of networking as community building. Visualize community as all persons within the area connected to each other, directly or indirectly, like a huge spider web. Communities gain strength when the connections are conscious, concrete and constructive. Look for linkages everywhere – in opposing ideologies and approaches, as well as in complementary ones. Each one’s success or failure impacts us all.
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Networking is Building Community, Part 1

Small Group Has Big Mission

By Glen Gould, Southeast Bureau Chief

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If you were to bring together business and community leaders in a small group setting and provide breakfast in a convenient and attractive environment, one might argue that you would have the recipe for a successful business networking organization. If you added interesting and knowledgeable speakers and packed the program full of opportunities to meet people, learn skills and grow both personally and professionally, you’d have an atypical networking group. But add in a mission, something that the entire group could focus on and you’d have an extraordinary opportunity. In short, you’d have the Atlanta Community Breakfast.

The Atlanta Community Breakfast is a network of individuals who are interested in exploring issues of success, personal leadership, and life-balance as they relate to our personal, professional and spiritual lives. It is a weekly breakfast in a convenient, attractive location where business and community leaders can grow in their faith and mentor others while networking with and meeting like minded individuals.

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Small Group Has Big Mission