Are you responsible for your institution’s social networking website?
Do you manage your university’s Facebook Page or Group?
Are you in charge of the online community targeted to your alums or students?
Keep reading.
I’m currently working on the closing keynote I’ll give on July 23 at the eduWeb conference (as well as an upcoming University Business column on the topic):
It’s the community, stupid … 7-step plan to raise and nurture any community online
Blogs, wikis, podcasts, videocasts, YouTube, MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and more have made their ways in higher education. Whether you work in admissions, communications, marketing, PR, student services, advancement, alumni associations, web services or information technology, it’s impossible to ignore this fireworks of new technologies. It’s easy to get blindsided. It’s difficult to see that it’s really not about the technology, but the community. While we can’t predict today what the next Facebook or YouTube will be, we can get ready for the online communities of tomorrow. It might take a village to raise a child, but what does it take to jump start and nurture a thriving online community? A bit of luck, a lot of work and my 7-step plan.
I’m looking for examples of successful – in terms of participation – online communities.
If you are the lucky community manager of such a web space, send me a quick note including some facts and stats at karine@collegewebeditor.com.
I’m also interested in your personal take about what it takes to create and develop a thriving online community.
So, tell us what the secret ingredient of any good online community is, be it a community of alums, prospective students, bloggers, readers, etc. by posting a comment.
I’ll try to share as many of THIS community’s ideas (with proper credit to its members) as possible in my talk.