Category: Strategy

  • Dr. Strangeshare or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the “Collaborative Economy”

    I have a confession to make: I can become really obsessed with labels. Back in 2008, when I was producing events and conducting research focused on Online Communities for Forum One, the word “social media” hit broad adoption. I had countless debates with my colleagues about what we should title events and new research initiatives…

  • Culture, Change and Faith: Achtung Baby & Social Business Transformation

    File under: slightly off topic but personally meaningful. Disclosure: I’m not a massive U2 fan. With that said, Achtung Baby is one of my all time favorite albums. It is a transformative recording from a band that had, to date, been cast as a folksy and righteous rock and roll band from Ireland. Achtung Baby is a…

  • The Role of Brands in Online Communities

    There seems to be a wave of bad advice and misguided thinking regarding where and how brands should engage with their communities. Examples include pundits advising brands to prioritize social efforts “off domain”, being passive observers in their communities instead of active hosts, and a general sentiment that hosting a brand-based online community is high…

  • Thoughts on Managing Your Social Vendor Relationships

    Let’s face it – the vendors you rely on for social media & community platforms, services and advice have you outnumbered and surrounded. Between account reps, sales reps, relationship managers, executive success partners and the rest of the cast, most vendors have a veritable army of skilled professionals whose primary purpose is to maximize revenue derived from their relationship…

  • Developing a Social Strategy: Research Project Open for Participation

    note: this is cross-posted from the Online Community Report blog. The next Online Community Research Network project is open for participation. In January, OCRN members discussed and prioritized a long list of topics, and the issue that made top of the list was “Developing Social a Strategy”. The OCRN chose to study how social media…

  • My SxSWi 2010 Panels – Please Vote (Because My Mom Can’t)

    It is that time of year again… SxSW Panel Picking!!! I have two proposals this year, and I would appreciate your support for either or both. Panel #1: What community and social media metrics are organizations tracking? Bill Johnston, Chief Community Officer for Forum One (that’s me), will present and then lead a discussion about…

  • Your Input Needed: Surviving & Thriving in a Downturn

    I’ve been working with my research team at Forum One to put together a short survey about the effects of the economic downturn on online community budgets and strategy in the near term, as well as the effects on 2009 planning. If you currently run an online community for your organization, I would love to…

  • Online Communities and Sustainable Development: Supporting “Green” and Beyond

    This is cross-posted from the Online Community Report. Many organizations are involved with online community building activities, but few consider implications of their online communities on making their business more “green”, or even better, more sustainable. The case can be made that online community building activities support the three key areas of Sustainable Development: From…

  • Online Communities: Surviving and Thriving in a Downturn (Part 1)

    Note: this is cross posted from the Online Community Report Unfortunately, there has been a lot of very grim economic news of late. The purpose of this post isn’t to give an overview of the current situation, but to highlight possible implications of a slower economy on business, and by extension on online community budgets.…

  • Online Community Governance: The Project Brief

    One of the biggest challenges for those leading the community efforts for large organizations (or really, orgs of most sizes) is ensuring that the hosted community efforts of the organization are appropriate, valuable (both to the org and to the member / customer) and sustainable. First, a little context. I worked at Autodesk for 6…