community - Blogs - Ning Creators Social Network2024-03-28T19:32:42Zhttps://creators.ning.com/blogs/feed/tag/communityNING POWERED PROJECT: Survey Earth in a Day 6https://creators.ning.com/blogs/ning-powered-project-survey-earth-in-a-day-62017-06-14T22:58:04.000Z2017-06-14T22:58:04.000Z⚡JFarrow⌁https://creators.ning.com/members/JFarrow<div><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2233600?profile=RESIZE_400x&width=400"></div><div><p>If you have been on Creators for a while you may remember my post about Survey Earth in a Day back in 2012. This is a GLOBAL Community event for our <a rel="nofollow" href="http://landsurveyorsunited.com" target="_blank">Land Surveyor Community</a>.</p><h3 class="entry-title" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://creators.ning.com/forum/topics/ning-powered-project-survey-earth-in-a-day">NING-POWERED PROJECT: Survey Earth in a Day</a></h3><p style="text-align: center;">Well, this year will be our 6th year remeasuring the entire planet as a community, in a single day.</p><div class="wrapper"><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.surveyearth.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.surveyearth.com/assets/public/images/surveyearth.png" width="100%" class="align-full"/></a></div><p>What Is Survey Earth in a Day?</p><p>On the day of the solstice June 20, 2017, geospatial professionals around the world and members of Land Surveyors United (a global support network for land surveyors) will be simultaneously recording survey grade GNSS/GPS data from thousands of points around the globe, in order to promote awareness of and a better public understanding of the surveying profession. Measurements made on this day will serve as comparative data from prior events and to expand upon the database of logged points.</p><p><span><span><a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.surveyearth.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.surveyearth.com/assets/public/images/456.jpg" class="align-center"/></a></span></span></p><p></p><p><span><a rel="nofollow" href="http://surveyearth.com" target="_blank"><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/QxHBc5XE_RiuixT94rEZ18e1upBOEdeTAwjKxR9zylyhHT5KO3MC__sgn2VAevgNQ99qOlPDWEw_Ff_HNn-_4YNwHa86ZGAZ8TORS2UhWL8TEWXJZeAvETJgWrIcOxWhSMefwUY" class="align-center"/></a><br/></span></p><div id="TE_3" class="mce-content-body"><p><span class="font-size-5">So WHAT happens on Survey Earth in a Day?</span><br/> On the day of the solstice June 20, 2017, geospatial professionals around the world and members of Land Surveyors United (a global support network for land surveyors) will be simultaneously recording survey grade GNSS/GPS data from thousands of points around the globe, in order to promote awareness of and a better public understanding of the surveying profession. Measurements made on this day will serve as comparative data from prior events and to expand upon the database of logged points.</p></div><p></p><p>This is just an example of what you can do with a Global Community!</p><p></p></div>Your Community as a Planet and Prismhttps://creators.ning.com/blogs/your-community-as-a-planet-and-prism2017-03-05T22:34:44.000Z2017-03-05T22:34:44.000Z⚡JFarrow⌁https://creators.ning.com/members/JFarrow<div><img src="https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2233583?profile=RESIZE_400x&width=400"></div><div><div style="color:#1d2129;font-family:Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:14px;font-style:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:pre-wrap;word-spacing:0px;background-color:#ffffff;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" style="white-space:pre-wrap;text-align:center;"> </div><div class="_1mf _1mj" style="white-space:pre-wrap;text-align:center;"><span class="font-size-6"><strong>My <a href="http://landsurveyorsunited.com/" target="_blank">first community</a> Turns Ten Years Old March 10th!</strong></span></div><div class="_1mf _1mj" style="white-space:pre-wrap;text-align:center;"><strong>After a decade of community building, here are a few things I have learned</strong></div><div class="_1mf _1mj" style="white-space:pre-wrap;text-align:center;"> </div><div class="_1mf _1mj" style="white-space:pre-wrap;text-align:left;"><strong>Some Observations About Planets and Such</strong></div><div class="_1mf _1mj" style="white-space:pre-wrap;text-align:left;"><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/560228?profile=original"><img class="align-right" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/560228?profile=original" alt="560228?profile=original" /></a>Online communities are like little planets, each with their own ecosystem. As a community manager, you provide the venue for conversations to happen. Once they happen, it is your job to make sure the content becomes categorized, tagged and grouped with relevant items. Of course you must make members aware that such place of your creation is the type of a place for people of suchness to discuss what it is worth discussing. In order to help others of such suchness find your place for discussing such so that they might discuss such too. As such, you must "do" certain things outside of your community, like linking back to those discussions and photos which continue to bring in new members. Only the best of the best content originating on your site will attract visitors. Visitors interested in such may become members in order to join such discussions. Then it becomes up to you to decide what you need to know about their relation to such through profile questioning. As founder, you must gauge whether or not they qualify for membership. There is a good chance that a follower of your facebook page will already be interested in your topic, as long as you stay on topic. If you stray too far from the topic, members will leave.</div><div class="_1mf _1mj" style="white-space:pre-wrap;text-align:left;"> </div><div class="_1mf _1mj" style="white-space:pre-wrap;text-align:left;"><strong>The Questions We Ask</strong></div><div class="_1mf _1mj" style="white-space:pre-wrap;text-align:left;"><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/560454?profile=original"><img class="align-right" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/560454?profile=original" alt="560454?profile=original" /></a>The questions you ask them should require answers by which you test their humanity and sanity, unless you're building a social community for robots and refridgerators, think of it as a quiz. This quiz is the best kind of quiz because they can always change the answers to reflect who they actually want themselves to be seen as online. The answers they save become the about section on everyone's profile. With the right tuning, a member's profile could be as impactful as a living resume. The answers they provide can tell you whether they are joining for the right reasons. Their profile become the criteria upon which all other members will gauge them as well. You shouldn't accept every person who joins to increase numbers. The person who joins must be deeply interested in the specific subject matter of your community. If not and they still try to join, they have ulterior motives, which may cause you stress eventually. In my experience I have noticed that if a person will not take the time to fill out their profile, they will never contribute anything to your community. Avoid the pain of spammers joining by asking well thought out questions in addition to using the other social platforms as your <span style="text-decoration:underline;"><em>qualifiers for new members</em></span>. That is where facebook, twitter, tumblr, pinterest, instagram and any number of other services become your community satellites, amplifying your message to other planets and to people in the future who haven't even been born yet..</div><div class="_1mf _1mj" style="white-space:pre-wrap;text-align:left;"> </div><div class="_1mf _1mj" style="white-space:pre-wrap;text-align:left;"><strong>Listening Through Noise</strong></div><div class="_1mf _1mj" style="white-space:pre-wrap;text-align:left;"><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/559359?profile=original"><img class="align-right" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/559359?profile=original" alt="559359?profile=original" /></a>In a world of noise, social channels become clouded and must be filtered and categorized according to relevance, if for no other reason than clarity. A community online becomes different over time, changing while pushing older content down and replacing with it with new topics. In communities of practice, old topics can become new discussions to anyone who is serious about what it is that they do. Each topic originates in your community or rather, it should. Rather than bang it out on Facebook, put it inside a post on your community and share the link on Facebook. You'll have much more control over the message that way. You message will be read by those who want to or have time to read it. When the post is live, the link becomes what you share as updates on your satellites- your associated social profiles. All of those links should all be linking back to your post in the communitynow. That link become like a prism through which the focus is channeled and redistributed in a manner similar to a spectrum - public knowledge changes every single time an object of knowledge is reinterpreted. Every time some new way of doing anything is invented, the old way may still be the best way , if for no other reason than because it is known to work. Whether or not it is will always remain a matter of opinion or debate. Questions of this suchness are timeless and as such should be grouped for reintroducing members to your site or in the very least make it simpler to find what they are looking for somewhere in that community. This is how we lessen the noise. We must learn to listen to one another through noise while reducing the noise, together.</div><div class="_1mf _1mj" style="white-space:pre-wrap;text-align:left;"> </div><div class="_1mf _1mj" style="white-space:pre-wrap;text-align:left;"> </div><div class="_1mf _1mj" style="white-space:pre-wrap;text-align:left;"><em><strong>Think of it like this:</strong></em> Your community is your planet that you are trying to protect and grow- the inhabitants of that planet (your members) love to have choices. One such choice is the ability to follow the community feed if all things happening <em>inside</em> your community from the <em>outside</em>- from the comfort of their fb profile by following your associated facebook page, for example, as a filter. This gives them an option. They don't have to be bombarded with everything that happens. This is the whole point in Groups. You follow groups to reduce the noise. For example, a surveying student wouldn't be interested necessarily in the discussions happening in the Retired Surveyors group. Such is the case with your community. Relevance becomes possible through organization. If your members follow your satellites, they are able to casually jump in at any time. This is their <em>right</em> as <em>citizens</em> of your community to not have to be notified when something irrelevant to their interests occurs on the main site. The best way to keep those following from the outside coming in is by feeding them links to community content every-single-day. The best way to do this, in my opinion is through creation and updating of <em>linktrees</em> - one link with a collection of links related in type or subject matter. It could be discussions about a particular brand, organization, topic, category or type. You collect the links and keep adding them... but only share the one elink. Now you can pack 20 reasons to come back to the site rather than one.</div><div class="_1mf _1mj" style="white-space:pre-wrap;text-align:left;"><a href="http://creators.ning.com/members/JFarrow"><img class="align-full" src="{{#staticFileLink}}830762684,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="830762684?profile=original" /></a></div><div class="_1mf _1mj" style="white-space:pre-wrap;text-align:left;"><a href="https://elink.io/9ac35" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1868470?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" alt="1868470?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="750" /></a>This is a snapshot of my dashboard where i have links that I can turn into newsletters or embed them. eLink basically eliminates all of the time that you normally would have to spend crafting the HTML newsletters. You can easily track your views and use deeper analytics for any of the links to get geeky. It's the best $5 (if you're a student like me) you could spend on your community.</div><div class="_1mf _1mj" style="white-space:pre-wrap;text-align:left;"> </div><div class="_1mf _1mj" style="white-space:pre-wrap;text-align:left;"><a href="http://landsurveyorsunited.com/" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1868482?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" alt="1868482?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="747" /></a></div><div class="_1mf _1mj" style="white-space:pre-wrap;text-align:left;">Recycling archived content and bringing awareness to popular items is kinda your job if you manage a community. No one likes to enter a room for the first time and join a group of people standing around and staring at one another. A good way to insure this doesn't happen is to continuously reignite the conversation by introducing new speakers to the circle. Regularly update the links and redistribute them to your peers and colleagues. On one community forum I built, we have conversations that were first started in 2009 that still receive comments and every new visitor offers a new perspective or insight from another geography. Of course you could pay a person like me to try to do it for you. I would of course do my best, but chances are it would be better if I taught you so that you could put the time in. Chances are if I can't relate the subject matter of your community to my own life, job, hobby, interest and/or passion, how could i ever really be able to make it perfect?</div><div class="_1mf _1mj" style="white-space:pre-wrap;text-align:left;"> </div><div class="_1mf _1mj" style="white-space:pre-wrap;text-align:left;"><strong><span class="font-size-5">Lead By Example</span></strong></div><div class="_1mf _1mj" style="white-space:pre-wrap;text-align:left;">Put the time in and see what you attract. If you think your community is dead because no one new is applying to join, no one posts anymore, people are leaving, or any of the 100 other reasons why communities die, you may be wrong. Word of Mouth to mouth resuscitation may save it's life. If you want for your network to expand, you must lead by example. You will never be able to effectively "pay someone to do it for" you. At the end of the day, week, month, year, decade, only you know what will gain the interest of people like you...for whom the community was intended. Take it from me..a person who like you felt at one time like i didn't know what to do next. I noticed a sort of scientific process at work that I wanted to follow closer. My original Ning <a href="http://landsurveyorsunited.com/" target="_blank">community for Professional Land Surveyors</a> built March 10th 2007 will turn 10 years old next week. I have learned a lot from managing online communities over the past decade. Hopefully some of my observations can help save a few of you some time.</div><div class="_1mf _1mj" style="white-space:pre-wrap;text-align:center;"><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/558897?profile=original"><img class="align-center" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/558897?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" alt="558897?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="750" /></a>Every June on the Solstice, <a href="http://landsurveyorsunited.com/profiles/members/" target="_blank">Land Surveyors United Members</a> <a href="http://surveyearth.com" target="_blank">Survey Earth in a Day</a>. This year will be our 6th celebration.</div><div class="_1mf _1mj" style="white-space:pre-wrap;text-align:left;"> </div></div><div style="color:#1d2129;font-family:Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:14px;font-style:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:pre-wrap;word-spacing:0px;background-color:#ffffff;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" style="white-space:pre-wrap;text-align:left;"> </div></div><div style="color:#1d2129;font-family:Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:14px;font-style:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:pre-wrap;word-spacing:0px;background-color:#ffffff;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" style="white-space:pre-wrap;text-align:left;"> </div></div><p> </p><div style="color:#1d2129;font-family:Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:14px;font-style:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:pre-wrap;word-spacing:0px;background-color:#ffffff;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" style="white-space:pre-wrap;text-align:left;"><strong>Takeaway and Give Back</strong></div><div class="_1mf _1mj" style="white-space:pre-wrap;text-align:left;">If you have a lot of content which has not been categorized or recollected into linktrees, you are simply missing out on all of the traffic you could and should have- would have, if you did. elink.io is not the only web service out there allowing you to curate collections of links. It is, however, the most versitile and (as a student) the cheapest to manage, in my opinion.</div></div><div style="color:#1d2129;font-family:Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:14px;font-style:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:pre-wrap;word-spacing:0px;background-color:#ffffff;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" style="white-space:pre-wrap;text-align:left;"> </div></div><div style="color:#1d2129;font-family:Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:14px;font-style:normal;font-weight:normal;letter-spacing:normal;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:pre-wrap;word-spacing:0px;background-color:#ffffff;"><div class="_1mf _1mj" style="white-space:pre-wrap;text-align:left;">Building a community doesn't happen over night.In fact, it shouldn't.You do not need a lot of third party add-ons to make your site attractive, but you will have to do work outside your community to bring new members in.. You simply must put in the time and effort if you hope for a community to form. The way your site is designed and layout is tuned will be an ongoing experiment for the entire life of your community. For this reason I have always tried to help save time by <a href="http://creators.ning.com/members/JFarrow/content?type=DiscussionEntry&context=all">sharing tips</a>. In order to build a sustainable community, you must get to a place where your members feel comfortable and think of your place built for them when sharing that photo or tip or guide on the community you built for them. Progressive enhancement is the human way to increase relevance of your community for search engines, social graphs, bots, algorithms and yes, humans. You can do this for your community by channeling the traffic back into the network and reintroducing relevant content to those new members and visitors which might find it and the dialogue which occurs useful even five years in the future..</div></div></div>How To Help Members Overcome Their Fear of Participationhttps://creators.ning.com/blogs/how-to-help-members-overcome-their-fear-of-participation2014-04-30T17:54:07.000Z2014-04-30T17:54:07.000ZCrystalhttps://creators.ning.com/members/CrystalC<div><p><em><span class="font-size-3">By Richard Millington</span></em></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">If you could increase the number of members initiating discussions, the level of activity and engagement would rise sharply. </span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">The percentage of members who initiate discussions is usually small. This limits activity and the level of engagement members have in the community.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">Members need both the motivation to initiate and to overcome their fear of starting a discussion. Their motivation to initiate will be to either learn something (e.g. <i>"Does anyone know how to....?"</i>), to impress others (e.g. "<i>does anyone else think business class travel isn't as great as it used to be?</i>") or to bond with others (e.g. "<i>I'm upset Kelly got fired from the Apprentice</i>").</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">Motivation comes relatively easy in active communities. It's social anxiety which prevents most members from initiating discussions. This social anxiety comes in three forms:</span></p>
<ol>
<li><span class="font-size-3">I might ask a dumb question or make a dumb statement.</span></li>
<li><span class="font-size-3">My comment won’t receive any reply and I will appear unpopular.</span></li>
<li><span class="font-size-3">I might be criticised by members of the community.</span></li>
</ol>
<p><span class="font-size-3">A community can overcome much of this anxiety in a few simple steps...</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3"><em>(Read More at the <a href="http://cultivate.ning.com/ning-blog/how-to-help-members-overcome-their-fear-of-participation" target="_blank">Ning Blog</a>)</em></span></p>
</div>Looking Back at 2012: Identifying Successhttps://creators.ning.com/blogs/looking-back-at-2012-identifying-success2014-04-30T17:36:13.000Z2014-04-30T17:36:13.000ZCrystalhttps://creators.ning.com/members/CrystalC<div><p><em><span class="font-size-3">Written by <a href="http://creators.ning.com/profile/MayraPacheco" target="_blank">Mayra Pacheco</a>. This post originally appeared on the <a href="http://cultivate.ning.com/ning-blog/looking-back-at-2012-identifying-success" target="_blank">Ning Blog</a>.</span></em></p>
<p></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">As the year comes to a close, it's a great time to look to a few Ning Networks that have had great success throughout 2012 for inspiration. <a href="http://creators.ning.com/forum/topics/it-s-time-to-brag-about-2012">We asked Network Creators</a> on our <a href="http://creators.ning.com">Creators Network</a> to let us know how their year went, and we received some exciting stories of success and lessons learned.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">These Ning Networks were led by creative, hard-working teams and have achieved their own forms of success due to their dynamic leadership. Using the words of <a href="http://wellkunnected.com/">wellkunnected.com</a> Network Creator, Armani Rouse: "There isn't a hack for had work and creativity!"</span></p>
<h3><span class="font-size-3"><strong><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1281637?profile=original" target="_self"><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1281637?profile=RESIZE_320x320" width="300" class="align-right"></a>eCoronado.com</strong></span></h3>
<p style="text-align: left;"><span class="font-size-3"><a href="http://eCoronado.com">eCoronado.com</a> is the most popular newspaper website and online community resource for Coronado, Calif. During 2012, the eCoronado team looked beyond their online tools and developed successful strategies to incorporate their community with offline events/ giveaways/ discount cards/ sponsors/ pretty-much-anything-they-set-their-mind-to.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">In brief, they hired two paid writers, a site admin, and interviewed many candidates to bring on their 13th intern. They now have 20+ paid sponsors and have launched over 40 physical photo/scavenger hunt <a href="http://www.ecoronado.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=photocontest" target="_blank">contests</a> to drive activity. In their spare time, they hosted an <a href="http://www.ecoronado.com/profiles/blogs/member-appreciation-ecoronado-com-102220121239?xg_source=activity" target="_blank">anniversary party</a> and bought hundreds of local members ice cream, created a <a href="http://www.ecoronado.com/csf" target="_blank">local discount card</a> in partnership with public schools and started rewarding <a href="http://www.ecoronado.com/profiles/category/photo-star" target="_blank">top photo contributors</a> with badges and <a href="http://www.ecoronado.com/coronado-shirts-hats-92118" target="_blank">company schwag</a>.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">We're not sure when the eCoronado.com team finds time sleep between advancing their development strategy and hosting ice cream giveaways!</span></p>
<h3><span class="font-size-3"><strong>IAVA.COMMUNITYOFVETERANS.ORG</strong></span></h3>
<p><span class="font-size-3"><a href="http://iava.org/" target="_blank"><img src="http://theponyhof.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/iava-logo.jpg?w=300&width=300" width="300" class="align-right"></a>Some networks define their success by the number of members they attract, while <a href="http://iava.communityofveterans.org">iava.communityofveterans.org</a> has amassed 24,500+ members, this is not where they see their triumph. The IAVA community is part of the largest nonprofit organization helping Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">The IAVA community team sees their triumph in the very real resources they have developed for their members. They implemented a Crisis Response SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) this year which was used to connect members with suicidal urges to life-saving resources. As Jason, the Network Creator, puts it: "Running a mental health / veteran network provided endless excitement. It's been a crazy year on our network."</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">They also had the opportunity to personally officiate a wedding of two long-time and active members of the community — who actually met because of the network — and secure a couple of grants to get some part-time support and a redesign for 2013. We look forward to continue to hear inspiring stories from this community in 2013. If you'd like to support an organization that <em>Time</em> magazine says remains the most important organization representing the new generation of veterans, please head to their <a href="http://iava.org/their-service-our-stories">donate</a> page.</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3"><img src="http://theponyhof.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/sound-check.jpg?w=300&width=300" width="300" class="align-right"></span></p>
<h3><span class="font-size-3"><strong>FOTOGRAFIAPUNTODINCONTRO.COM</strong></span></h3>
<p><span class="font-size-3">Italian photographer network <a href="http://www.fotografiapuntodincontro.com/">fotografiapuntodincontro.com</a> defines its success by the elegant, clean and efficient community they have created thanks to their decision this year to enable the option to have all new photos approved by administrators before they become visible. <a href="http://www.fotografiapuntodincontro.com/profile/RiccardoRossini">Riccardo</a> believes this enables <a href="http://www.fotografiapuntodincontro.com/">fotografiapuntodincontro.com</a> to deliver the highest quality photos to enrich the member experience. "We are proud to offer in Italy something different about photography site, thanks to approval photo."</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">Check out some of their <a href="http://www.fotografiapuntodincontro.com/photo/photo/listFeatured">featured photos</a>; they truly are stunning. We'll be keeping an eye on their network to see them grow and to enjoy more of their masterful shots in 2013.</span></p>
<h3><span class="font-size-3"><strong>PARENT-CHAT.COM</strong></span></h3>
<p><span class="font-size-3"><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1281647?profile=original" width="300" class="align-right" height="112"></span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3">Three weeks ago, self-proclaimed web novice Jennifer realized her dream of managing an online parenting community with <a href="http://parent-chat.com">parent-chat.com</a>. Having no</span><br> <span class="font-size-3">experience whatsoever, she set about getting her network up and running and now has a solid founding-member base. The Network Creator, Jennifer, promises: "I am only related to 5 of them!" Creating something tangible from an abstract idea is definitely a great leap forward, so we'd like to congratulate parent-chat.com for launching their network in 2012!</span></p>
<p><span class="font-size-3"> </span></p>
<h2><span class="font-size-3"><strong>Defining Success for Your Community in 2013</strong></span></h2>
<p><span class="font-size-3">It's important to remember that each community defines success differently. The end of the year marks a great point to look at your own community and decide what you define as success. Whether it is defined by page views, engagement, or financial profit, we wish you the best of luck in 2013!</span></p></div>National High Five Day?https://creators.ning.com/blogs/national-high-five-day2010-04-14T23:30:00.000Z2010-04-14T23:30:00.000ZLaurahttps://creators.ning.com/members/Laura326<div><p>I can't really say it better: "<a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.nationalhighfiveday.com/">National High Five Day</a> falls on the <strong>third Thursday of April</strong><br> each year, which falls this year on <strong>April 15, 2010</strong>. "<br> <br> That's right! Tomorrow is the Day to Celebrate high fives, by indeed, giving out high fives as much as possible. We're going to be offering virtual high fives here on Creators, to all of you who contribute positively to the conversations here.<br> <br> Have you thought about celebrating this on your Ning Network? To help, here are a few high five graphics:</p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><img src="http://www.nationalhighfiveday.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/tanooki-4-18-02.gif"></p>
<p><br></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><img src="http://api.ning.com/files/zakY4WWkpVASh-jdzrTLRfA6BldDAUsERKTjJzfNybL0lsRtZwQRJD6Ugp8Pl2OjQAM7EKtH-o84hi*CSBdIaw1gciomMDyQ/6a00d83453352869e20120a564e9d7970cpi.jpg"></p>
<p>Check out more content (including <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.nationalhighfiveday.com/category/videos/">videos</a>!) at the <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.nationalhighfiveday.com">National High Five Day</a> website.<br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br></p></div>Things you need to run an online communityhttps://creators.ning.com/blogs/things-you-need-to-run-an2010-04-14T02:15:53.000Z2010-04-14T02:15:53.000ZManny Hernandezhttps://creators.ning.com/members/MannyHernandez<div><p>This was part of an interview put together by our friends from <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.aids.gov/">AIDS.gov</a> at the recent <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.nten.org/ntc">2010 Nonprofit Technology Conference</a> in Atlanta.<object width="640" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/7aN-ViS9UiA&hl=en_US&fs=1&" ></param>
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</div>The 90-9-1 rulehttps://creators.ning.com/blogs/the-9091-rule2010-03-22T17:45:33.000Z2010-03-22T17:45:33.000ZLaurahttps://creators.ning.com/members/Laura326<div><p>A fantastic blog post was put up last week, which has lead to a number of great discussions about member traction and engagement within communities. Dr. Mike Wu, Ph.D. posted metrics based on his study of over 200 online communities <a rel="nofollow" href="http://lithosphere.lithium.com/t5/Building-Community-the-Platform/The-90-9-1-Rule-in-Reality/ba-p/5463">here</a>.<br />
<br />
As he writes, "The 90-9-1 rule simply states that:</p>
<ul>
<li>90% of all users are lurkers. They read, search, navigate, and observe, but don't contribute</li>
<li>9% of all users contribute occasionally</li>
<li>1% of all users participate a lot and account for most of the content in the community"</li>
</ul>
<p>The data he present generally backs this up. The comments both there and in a related <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.linkedin.com/groupAnswers?viewQuestionAndAnswers=&discussionID=15826271&gid=1173397&trk=EML_anet_qa_ttle-0St79xs2RVr6JBpnsJt7dBpSBA">LinkedIn</a> community explore how he defined his terms, constraints of the data, and how to encourage engagement.<br />
<br />
Do you agree with his findings? Do you see them reflected in your Ning Networks?<br />
<br />
I look forward to his future posts, where he promises to "dive deeper into the contribution level of the hyper-contributors, you community's real superusers."<br /></p>
</div>Vote for two Ning Networks to get $250K in Pepsi Refresh Challenge!https://creators.ning.com/blogs/vote-for-two-ning-networks-to2010-03-03T21:30:00.000Z2010-03-03T21:30:00.000ZJoseph Porcellihttps://creators.ning.com/members/JosephPorcelli<div><p>Fellow Network Creators,</p>
<div>I am writing to ask you to rally for fellow Ning network creators. We support each other here, lets also help each other get funding!<br />
<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">Both <a href="http://blog.ning.com/2009/12/waggleforce-working-together-to-get-back-to-work.html">WaggleForce</a> and the nonprofit I founded and run <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.neighborsforneighbors.org/">Neighbors for Neighbors</a>, are in the running to win $250,000 from Pepsi this month as part of the <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.refresheverything.com/">Pepsi Refresh Project</a>. Voting started Monday, and will continue through March. Y<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', Arial, sans-serif; line-height: normal; font-size: 13px;">ou can vote <u>once a day</u> for each of our networks and nine other ideas you like. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">Judging is simple; the two projects that get the most votes win funding. VOTE FOR US!</span></span></span></div>
<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', Arial, sans-serif; line-height: normal; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"><b><br /></b></span></span></span></div>
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<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', Arial, sans-serif; line-height: normal; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"><b>WaggleForce <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', Arial, sans-serif; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; font-size: 13px;">is a Ning Network that helps members collaborate with each other to create career clubs and get communities back to work. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', Arial, sans-serif; line-height: normal; font-size: 13px;"><b>Vote for</b> <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.refresheverything.com/waggleforce"><b>Waggle Force</b></a></span></span></b></span></span></span></div>
</div>
<div>
<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', Arial, sans-serif; line-height: normal; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"><b><br /></b></span></span></span></div>
</div>
<div>
<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', Arial, sans-serif; line-height: normal; font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"><b>Neighbors for Neighbors <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', Arial, sans-serif; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; font-size: 13px;">operate neighborhood-centric community-generate social networks that serve as a soundboard for voice and a springboard for action. Unlike Facebook, Neighbors for Neighbors connect people who live, work ans serve in their neighborhood with the purpose of brining people together offline to do things with and for each other. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', Arial, sans-serif; line-height: normal; font-size: 13px;"><b>Vote for</b> <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.refresheverything.com/neighbors"><b>Neighbors for Neighbors</b></a></span></span></b></span></span></span></div>
</div>
</blockquote>
<div>
<div>If you know of any other Ning Networks that are in the competition, please leave a comment so we can support all network creators!</div>
<div>With much appreciation,</div>
<div>Joseph!</div>
</div>
</div>Active Network Managementhttps://creators.ning.com/blogs/active-network-management2010-02-01T23:00:00.000Z2010-02-01T23:00:00.000ZLaurahttps://creators.ning.com/members/Laura326<div><p>Tom Humbarger has written a <a rel="nofollow" href="http://tomhumbarger.wordpress.com/2009/01/13/the-importance-of-active-community-management-proved-with-real-data/" target="_blank">fascinating read</a> on the importance of active management to the success of an online community.One of the most interesting sections to me is the Google Analytics snippet. We don't often get to compare our network metrics to others. In a year and a half, the group grew from 0 to 4,000 members, and in the final full year saw just under 200,000 pageviews.</p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1868311?profile=original" alt=""></p>
<p>His active management consisted of:* delivery of bi-weekly email update newsletters* production of monthly webcasts* active blog posting and blogger outreach* uploading of fresh content each week* continual promotion of the community in various forums through guerilla marketing* ongoing brainstorming and strategizing with respect to improving the community experience* priming of discussion forums, and* ongoing communications with individual community membersWhat do you do to actively manage your Ning Networks?</p></div>