Starting a new on line community space can be a bit like throwing a party. You have the idea, decide on a theme, pick a time and location, send the invitations and wait for the people to show up.

When you open the doors to any new community on the web, having community managers ( party organizers ) are essential; especially in the beginning stages, if you are going have any kind of focused success with your community.

Here’s a story from the book Crowdsourcing about the challenges that Assignment Zero ran into when they created their new community to crowdsource the collection of crowdsourcing the news.

Rather than recruiting people beforehand to manage each topic, doling out assignments, corresponding with would-be contributors or just providing a friendly face – we decided to hold off building this essential layer of community managers until after the party had already started. It was a fateful mistake. The flood of guests made our community’s design flaws quickly apparent.

Baffled by the overall concept and confused by the design of the website and unable to connect directly to a manager or organizer, most of the initial community members simply drifted away.

Communities are about creating and managing experiences. My personal experience as a community manager has shown me that organizations tend to forget about the crucial role of having real people to engage new members. My community manager friends have also experienced this lack of understanding by their organizations. Community managers are critically important to help create a sense of belonging in any new and existing community.

If you’re starting an on-line community here are some things to consider:

• Pre Plan the role of Community Manager
• Your Community Manager will be at the front line of community relationships
• Hire for quality. Excellent people are a wise investment
• Get your Community Manager involved in site organization and planning
• A good Community Manager will be an excellent resource for greater insight into your community

>> Click to Watch

Mandala Life Media is here to help you understand the technology of the social web.  Waking up to the opportunity our technology provides us to connect locally and globally is fundamental to personal and business success.   We enjoy guiding you to the tools and resources that help you connect, converse and share your story.   Communications and technology is an ongoing journey of adoption, use and exploration with the continuing goal of building and maintaining authentic relationships.

If you have a need we would love to discover how we can help.

]]> http://mandalalifemedia.com/2009/03/technology-is-amazing-and-its-taken-for-granted/feed/ 0 http://mandalalifemedia.com/2009/03/trival-relationships-weave-the-fabric-of-society/ http://mandalalifemedia.com/2009/03/trival-relationships-weave-the-fabric-of-society/#comments Mon, 02 Mar 2009 20:51:40 +0000 Mark http://mandalalifemedia.com/?p=279

Twitter is a conversational tool filled with low level chatter of people sharing what they are doing.  I love how Laura Finton ( @pistachio ) shares the beauty and value in these small connection opportunities that make a village and human society function.

Little relationships make a big difference in how we weave our society together. Twitter is about these little conversation links and building micro relationships which can blossom to real world connections.

Watch the video and share your comments on Laura’s thoughts on Twitter’s real time impact on connectivity in our society.

Designing a stop sign with corporate communication. 
What if everything you do had to go through this process?

It’s great to seek ideas and feedback.  Group think can be very helpful to your projects and help create something better.  Teams working together can create so much more than an individual working alone.  Clearly aligned vision is critical to produce valuable contributions.  Big challenges can happen if the team isn’t crystal clear.  Executing a simple idea becomes a confusing mess.

Too many Voices Muddy the Conversation

Getting too many voices involved without clear understanding is a path to chaos, as illustrated in the video.  I’ve been there a few times and it rarely works.

Get Clear about what Your Creating

Anything you’re doing, including starting a blog and developing a conversational marketing strategy benefits from a clear vision of who you are.  Take some time to understand what it is that you wish to share with the world.  Listen to your community and explore what they’re interested in.  Consider why you’re creating what your creating and who you’re creating it for.

Be a Voice of Clarity

He who knows others is wise, but he who knows himself is enlightened.  ~ Lao-Tzo

Your projects and conversations will blossom if you listen to yourself and express yourself with an authentic voice.   Take the time to be consciously in your center before sharing your voice.  Listen to your inner wisdom that is always right there to guide you if you take the time to get in alignment.  When you share from your heart you are able to flow with passion and purpose, bringing clear focus to your creations.

The original request was retweeted all over the Twitterverse and written about here and here and a bunch of other places. David followed up with another post comparing the connected, supportive neighborhood he grew up in to the connected digital neighborhoods we now converse with. People like to help other people that they know. Social Media is allowing us to call on cyber friends for help with real world challenges.

I love the neighborhood analogy because it’s so easy to picture what a nice, connected local neighborhood feels like. People smiling and greeting each other on the street, stopping to chat, sharing work and playing together. A good neighborhood is a place you want to be. Good neighborhoods have a sense of belonging. Good neighborhoods have a sense of community that is familiar to all the people living in the neighborhood. Good neighborhoods are places where you can get to know each other just a bit and you look out for each other.

What does a Digital Neighborhood Look Like?

Our social web is full of interconnected circles. We make connections in all sorts of ways. Here are a few examples: Facebook allows us to keep up for people we’ve meet all over the globe see and converse with each other on our walls. Twitter is an interconnected web of people all conversing about whatever it is they are doing in this moment like coming together to help Daniela. We discuss our photos on Flickr. Bookmarking services like Stumble and Delicious allow us to organize and share links with our friends to the stuff we like all over the web. We use these tools to converse with each other, find other like hearted people and extend our neighborhood circles.

Is Your Blog a Neighborhood?

Do you treat your blog like you envision your ideal neighborhood? Is your blog a place you like to hang out and a nice place to invite your friends over for conversation? Would you live in your blog neighborhood? What if you applied some of the qualities of good neighborhood’s to your blog?

We’re forming a new neighborhood here were we like to talk about blogging, social media, community, circles ( mandalas ), conscious business, authentic communication and doing good. As any good neighbors we’d like to talk with you about your blog, your networking and the good things you’re weaving through your circles too. We like to be helpful, listen and share. So grab a fresh cup of tea and your keyboard and join us in our neighborhood.