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Facebook vs. a Custom Community: Quantity vs. Quality

Posted by John McDonald on July 12, 2013 at 7:00am in social media
“Why should I invest in a custom community on Ning – why not just focus on my Facebook Page?” It’s a question I’ve heard frequently since I joined the Ning team in 2009. While there isn’t just one answer, custom communities do offer several unique benefits including complete ownership of the relationships and membership data, the ability to communicate with fans when and how you want, the chance to create a branded destination, and the freedom to monetize fan activity. However, the most important reason for investing in a custom community is the outcome – higher quality engagement with fans, peers, or customers.
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ForumCon 2013: Nir Eyal on How to Hook Your Community

Posted by Crystal on July 10, 2013 at 9:00am in quick tips
A writer, lecturer at Stanford University and frequent speaker, Nir Eyal's specialty is educating companies and consumers on habits and behaviors that help and hinder their lives, both online and off. In talking about what traits apps need to "hook" users, much of his information was directly relevant to building communities that keep members coming back .
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What Does A Community Manager Look Like?

Posted by Crystal on June 28, 2013 at 12:18pm in tools and tech
The Community Roundtable surveys professional community managers annually to develop their State of Community Management reports. The 2013 SOCM was released in mid-June and contains valuable insights about the community management industry and its workforce. I found the information about today's average community manager to be one of the most interesting parts.
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Understanding Conceptualization: The Process You Go Through Before You Launch An Online Community

Posted by Richard Millington on June 26, 2013 at 9:00am in best practices
Everything between the moment you establish the objectives and the moment you begin doing outreach to your members is the conceptualization phase. This is when you decide who you're targeting, what the community will be about, what type of community it will be, and how you get it going.
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Special Initiatives for Online Communities

Posted by Guest Contributor on June 25, 2013 at 9:00am in tools and tech
Successful Community Managers are experts in facilitating discussions, and we’re all learning best practices on seeding new discussions, responding warmly, etc. These topics are the bread-and-butter of Community Management. In this article, we want to explore special projects or initiatives that add to the community mix.
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Community Spotlight: Rokkus Radio, A Radio Station With a Story to Tell

Posted by Allison Leahy on June 24, 2013 at 11:10am in community spotlight
Rokkus Radio is more than a radio station, it's a community with bucket loads of personality, a lot of heart, and a dedication to trans-media storytelling. We caught up with the charismatic founder of Rokkus.com, John Starr. In this interview, John takes us through aspects of the launch and daily operation of a narrative radio station and alternate reality entertainment-based community.
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What Julia Child Can Teach You About Community Management.

Posted by Crystal on June 21, 2013 at 9:00am in quick tips
Reading Julia Child's memoir, I found myself thinking that I could really learn a lot from her - and not just as a cook. Her life experience is amazing and her writing is full of tidbits that can be used as life lessons. I found that some of her philosophies can even be lessons for community managers.
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Basic Tactics To Grow Your Online Community Without Any Promotion

Posted by Richard Millington on June 19, 2013 at 9:00am in best practices
Sometimes new members do find their way to your community. Sometimes they do invite their friends. Sometimes you don't need to do much work to make this happen. It's probably not a good idea to bet your client's fee on 'sometimes'. A better approach is to think of tactics and a process to stimulate growth.
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Community Spotlight: Carnegie Hall Musical Exchange, A Community for Young Musicians

Posted by Crystal on June 17, 2013 at 8:00am in community spotlight
Carnegie Hall has developed the Carnegie Hall Musical Exchange, a place for young musicians to connect with peers, share performances and compositions globally, and join creative projects led by professional artists from Carnegie Hall in a free online community. This community offers budding musicians new ways to learn and grow as an artist, establishing a dialogue with peers who share a passion for music and the desire to learn about cultures from around the world.
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How to Make Social Work for Your Community: Ted Rheingold at ForumCon 2013

Posted by Allison Leahy on June 13, 2013 at 9:26pm in social media
A breakdown of Ted Rheingold's ForumCon 2013 presentation "How to Make Social Work For Your Forums" including a definition of sociality, a look at the three levels of sharing, how to avoid platform fatigue, and engagement hacks for optimizing your community's presence across popular social platforms.
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Survey the Earth in a Day: Land Surveyors Unite to Measure Our Planet's Surface

Posted by Allison Leahy on June 10, 2013 at 9:42am in community spotlight
On June 21, 2013 at noon, thousands of geospatial professionals will switch on their survey grade GPS devices to simultaneously measure and record information about their location in the largest scale land surveying project ever undertaken. The project is sponsored by the Land Surveyors United (LSU) community. We asked LSU Founder Justin Farrow to explain the significance of Survey Earth Day to the community and planet.
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Community Spotlight: JunoWallet, A Community Motivated by Mobile Rewards

Posted by Crystal on June 7, 2013 at 8:00am in community spotlight
JunoWallet caught our eye recently with the huge amount of activity it drove to its site after just a few weeks on Ning. What started as a simple app for consolidating all your gift cards (and leaving your plastic behind) has blossomed into a community of people interacting and taking actions that get rewarded with credits for gift cards and other prizes. We spoke with Kyle Leonard, JunoWallet Community Manager on what the JunoWallet community is like and how they got started.
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How to Integrate Events Into Your Community Strategy [Video]

Posted by Allison Leahy on June 5, 2013 at 4:19pm in community management talks
Events are an important component to any community's growth strategy. No matter what type of community you have, there are events that you can hold on a recurring or one-time basis to foster a deeper sense of community. Breda Doherty, co-founder and director of Hubb.it and a community management consultant with FeverBee, joined us to discuss the impact of events, explore different types of events, and explain how events can fit into your community strategy. Watch the recording.
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Community Picks

Webinar: Community Platform Design and Development

Community Spotlight: The Peace and Collaborative Development Network

Series: Organizing an Unruly Community

Trending: First Class Lessons from the Ritz-Carlton Employee Community

Infographic: The Value of Online Community

Ning News: Unleash the Power of Groups on Ning 3.0

Every few weeks, Ning invites a leading expert to discuss trending topics and best practices for community management. Watch the recordings here.

More than two million people have built a branded social network on Ning. Many of these customers now enjoy thriving online communities. You can find a few of those success stories here.

Learn what it takes to thrive and see what it is possible to achieve with Ning.


Growing a thriving online community is one of the most rewarding things you can do.

Our goal at Ning is to make building a community dead simple. We provide an incredibly reliable, popular, and easy-to-use platform so you can focus on cultivating your community.

Learn how to start your community in minutes.

Have you considered monetizing your community? Download your free copy of Monetizing Online Forums by Patrick O'Keefe to learn what methods are available, how to implement them, and how you can benefit today.