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Social Media & Communities

• Why the Huffington Post Is Successful

  Engaging Your Audience as Active Contributors and Promoters Was Baked into Its DNA

  by Patricia Seybold

  The Huffington Post became a successful, profitable online media property for seven good reasons. Most of these best practices are applicable for anyone providing online content.
  Feb. 17, 2011

  All Members

  

• Going Social Globally: A Global Perspective on Customer Relationships and Social Media

  An Interview with Bill Decker, Principal, Partners International

  by Matthew Lees

  According to Bill Decker, going social globally means understanding the relationships between company and customer and how they vary from culture to culture. Through diverse examples, Decker gives recommendations on avoiding common cultural pitfalls.
  Aug. 5, 2010

  Strategies

  

• AIP UniPHY: Creating a Professional Social Network

  How the American Institute of Physics Is Creating Value Add for Its Members

  by Patricia Seybold

  How do you build a social network for professionals? The American Institute of Physics is paving the way by pre-populating the profiles and network connections of physics experts based on the research papers these experts have co-authored.
  Mar. 4, 2010

  Strategies

  

• How Custom Product Design Can Spawn Customer-Centric Ecosystems

  How National Semiconductor, CustoMax, and Zazzle Built Vibrant Ecosystems

  by Patricia Seybold

  Three companies in different industries—CustoMax, National Semiconductor, and Zazzle—have built vibrant customer-centric ecosystems to let customers design their own products.
  Jan. 7, 2010

  Strategies

  

• Want Customer-Contributed Content?

  Make It Easy for Your Customers to Multi-Post

  by Patricia Seybold

  Do you want customers to contribute content to your Web site? Customers are more likely to post or curate content in an environment that will "automagically" syndicate that comment or posting out to several other sites.
  Sep. 1, 2009

  Strategies

  

• How Citrix Evolved Its Online Community of Customer Advisors

  How to Recruit and Manage a Private Customer Community—Patty’s Visionaries' Interviews' Series

  by Patricia Seybold

  Andrea Davidowitz tells the story of how and why she launched a private B2B online community of advisors in 2007 and what she has learned about running and managing a private customer community. Andrea manages strategic customer programs at Citrix.
  Aug. 6, 2009

  Strategies

  

• How Customer-Centric Visionaries Make Information Valuable

  Make Information Actionable and Connect People to People

  by Patricia Seybold

  Visionaries—ebusiness leaders—take content very seriously. They don't just post it; they make it multi-dimensional and actionable.
  Jun. 2, 2009

  Strategies

  

• Why Twitter Rules and What to Do About It

  The Six Best Uses of Twitter for Your Organization

  by Patricia Seybold

  Why should your company "tweet"? How and why should your team be monitoring twitter? Here are the six most powerful ways that companies can use Twitter to connect with customers and would be customers, along with plenty of real-life examples.
  Apr. 13, 2009

  All Members

  

• Best Practices in Corporate Blogging

  How Your Organization Can Run a Successful Blogging Program

  by Matthew Lees

  While blogging isn't a new communications medium, many companies are still getting the hang of it. Blogging takes commitment. But the many benefits can be attained by following best practices such as framing blogs as an ongoing program.
  Oct. 30, 2008

  Strategies

  

• What Customer-Centric Visionary Execs Are Doing in 2007

  Customer-Outcome-Driven Businesses, Disappearing Home Pages, and Other Trends

  by Patricia Seybold

  Want to know what’s on customer-centric execs’ minds? Here’s an overview of some of the topics discussed at Patty Seybold’s Spring 2007 Visionaries’ Meeting.
  May. 17, 2007

  All Members

  

• Customer Innovation Guide: Core Competency 2

  Mastering the Second Core Competency: Effective Community Building

  by Patricia Seybold

  Customer communities are a bountiful source of innovative ideas and an excellent opportunity to create lasting relationships with your most loyal customers. But you have to do more than just set up a community and say “go.”
  Apr. 12, 2007

  All Members

  

• Publishing 2.0/Libraries 2.0: Students are Shaping the Future of Academic Publishing

  How Graduate Students Want to Interact with Information

  by Patricia Seybold

  How do professionals and students consume information in the Web 2.0 era? Three graduate students provide great insights into how digital information should be presented, organized, consumed and shared among professionals.
  Mar. 29, 2007

  All Members

  

• Digital Natives in the Classroom Are Propelling Us to School 2.0

  A Few of David Warlick’s Thoughts on How Kids and Web 2.0 Are Reshaping Education and Publishing

  by Patricia Seybold

  You’ve heard of “Web 2.0.” Now we have School 2.0. What can we learn about the future of education and educational publishing from long-time tech-educator, David Warlick?
  Mar. 21, 2007

  All Members

  

• Best Practices in Acquiring Customer Community Members

  Making It Easy and Worthwhile for Customers to Join

  by Matthew Lees

  Just about all online communities need to acquire new members on a regular basis. This report, a companion piece to our “Best Practices in Engaging Customer Community Members,” discusses proven ways of acquiring new community members.
  Feb. 1, 2007

  Strategies

  

• Customer Innovation Guide: Taking the Third Step

  Nurturing Customer Communities: The Key Third Step to Outside Innovation

  by Patricia Seybold

  Customer communities are key to fostering outside innovation. This guide provides a self-assessment to help you determine what your next steps in nurturing your customer communities should be.
  Nov. 22, 2006

  All Members

  

• Outside Innovation at the BBC

  Q&A with Matt Locke, Head of Innovation, BBC New Media

  by Patricia Seybold

  As the BBC attempts to reinvent itself as a digital media company, the company developed an externally-facing, open innovation strategy.
  Oct. 5, 2006

  Strategies

  

• Online Customer Communities Are Strategic

  Why We All Need to Build a Core Competency in Nurturing Customer Communities

  by Patricia Seybold

  Vibrant customer communities are a hallmark of businesses that lead in product and service innovation. Here are a few tips to nurturing and spawning online customer communities.
  Sep. 14, 2006

  Strategies

  

• Best Practices in Engaging Customer Community Members

  Making It Easy and Exciting for Your Customers to Participate

  by Matthew Lees

  Starting an online community is just the beginning. To build it, you’ve got to engage your customers. Implementing best practices to challenge, empower, and motivate your customers will enable it to grow and provide value over time.
  Aug. 17, 2006

  Strategies

  

• Cisco Systems

  Growing a Vibrant Online Community for More Than a Decade

  by Ronni Marshak

  Cisco supports its customers with interaction-based customer support and a thriving online community of networking professionals.
  Jul. 20, 2006

  All Members

  

• What Business Models Work in an Open Source World?

  Cohesive Financial Technologies: How a Software Start-Up Thinks through Its Options

  by Patricia Seybold

  How does open source work as part of a business model? A start-up company explains how to think through the different dimensions of open source.
  Jun. 29, 2006

  All Members