Ten Tips for Online Community Building-Part 2

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By Israel Rothman

RISMEDIA, July 2, 2008-Last month, we discussed SEO, participation and exit traffic as it all relates to building an online community. This month, we’ll delve a bit more into communication. Here are three more techniques to consider:

4. Reach out into your local community. Now that you no longer need to spend your time manually editing your website-or manually submitting it to search engines (see next item)-you can spend your time reaching out to people, business owners, neighbors and everyone else you know to participate in your marketing, by offering them an opportunity to be heard (a basic human need). Ask them to write a column on your website, share tips, stories, experiences, recipes or opinions. Give them their own log-in, and make a friend while you are at it. (See what Patty Plourde, a Realtor for over 20 years, is doing. Check out mncommunitynews.com.)

5. Ping everybody, garnering more participation. There are places (pingomatic.com, Technorati.com, feedburner.com, etc.) that simply aggregate and distribute the data (blogs, websites, feeds) that others create. Use them to distribute your message. Your CMS (content management system) can “ping” everybody every time a new piece of information is available on your website.

6. Think pull, not push. People no longer need to hear commercials. They can filter, mute and avoid them. Shift your thinking from who you can reach, to who you can serve and what you can offer them. The most effective method of marketing online is service. Offer a service that targets your market, then let the whole world find it, by simply making it available. RE

Check back next month to learn more about profiles, information share and getting your name out there.

Israel Rothman is CEO and founder of SocialMediaSystems.com LLC.

For more information, contact him at israel@socialmediasystems.com.

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