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Grammar or Personality?

Posted by Crystal on June 5, 2013 at 9:00am in quick tips

With more and more companies trying to use social media as a "human" face of their business, is there a growing place for conversational writing?

The Different Types of Events

Posted by Richard Millington on June 4, 2013 at 12:12pm in best practices

Events play a vital role in the successful development of online communities. Alongside discussions and content events is one of the three ways you can increase participation in your community.

Tickets to ForumCon 2013: The Ultimate Event for Anyone Involved in Creating Communities

Posted by Allison Leahy on June 3, 2013 at 11:21am in tools and tech

Nominate your favorite community cultivator to win a free ticket ForumCon 2013! The conference takes place on June 13th in San Francisco.

Bandpages We <3

Posted by Crystal on May 31, 2013 at 10:00am in community spotlight

The secret is out! On Tuesday, we launched integration with Bandpage, making Ning an even better place for musicians to build communities for their fans. In honor of this new collaboration, we're sharing some bands with Bandpages that we just love.

Music for Relief - Help Oklahoma Tornado Victims

Posted by Crystal on May 30, 2013 at 1:00pm in community spotlight

Our friends at Music for Relief have been working to raise funds and help victims of natural disasters all over the world since 2005. To support recovery efforts for the families affected by the recent Moore, Oklahoma tornado, they've teamed up with Linkin Park to give one lucky supporter the chance the win a trip to LA to hang with Linkin Park in the studio.

Types of Community Growth

Posted by Richard Millington on May 29, 2013 at 9:30am in best practices

How you persuade new members to join a community isn't as interesting as why you are persuading new members to join a community. Making a community bigger won't necessarily make it better. In fact, evidence suggests that making a community bigger will decrease the level of participation. It gets noisier, harder to follow and less personable than it used to be.

BandPage + Ning: A Destination for Your Band’s Biggest Fans

Posted by John McDonald on May 28, 2013 at 8:40am in ning news

Ning is excited to announce that its partnership with BandPage, the most authoritative, up-to-date content in the music world. Bands can now create a custom fan community in minutes, combining publishing, community and their BandPage content in a way never before seen.

Challenging the Traditional Music Marketing Model: An Interview with BandPage's Chris Wiltsee

Posted by Allison Leahy on May 28, 2013 at 8:30am in ning news

Chris Wiltsee, Senior Director of Business Development at BandPage, takes a moment to chat with us about music marketing and offer further context for the BandPage + Ning integration.

How to Find your Community’s First Members

Posted by Richard Millington on May 24, 2013 at 11:15am in quick tips

To get going, you want people who are interested in your company or your industry. You want people who are comfortable with technology. Here is some fertile recruiting ground:

Community Unconference - What I Learned

Posted by Crystal on May 23, 2013 at 1:50pm in tools and tech

Earlier this week, I had the pleasure of attending the Online Community Unconference along with fellow Ning colleagues Allison and John. With about 130 community, social media, marketing, and new media professionals attending, it was an amazing learning and sharing experience.

Community Spotlight: Well-Adjusted, A Bridge to the Next Generation of Insurance Adjusting Professionals

Posted by Allison Leahy on May 21, 2013 at 4:30am in community spotlight

Meet Daniel Kerr, COO of AdjusterPro and founder of Well-Adjusted, a community of insurance claims adjusters. In this interview, Daniel discusses the ins and outs of cultivating a community of practice in a tight niche and shares bits of wisdom along the way.

20 Fantastic Content Ideas For Your Online Community

Posted by Richard Millington on May 20, 2013 at 7:30am in quick tips

Too many communities focus on advice or industry news when they should be focused on community people and activities. The best content for any online community is content about the community. Here are 20 content ideas you can use.

What is Your Community Support System?

Posted by Crystal on May 17, 2013 at 2:00am in social media

Everyone has bad days at work sometimes but as community managers, often we can't use the same outlets to vent our frustrations. When your name and face are publicly connected to your employer, you have to watch what you tweet. When you need to talk about your day, who or what do you turn to?

Digest Emails: Yea or Nay?

Posted by Crystal on May 16, 2013 at 9:53am in best practices

Are digest emails good for valuable engagement or do they discourage visits to your community? Take our poll!

Create Content That Your Community Will Love [Video]

Posted by Allison Leahy on May 15, 2013 at 7:59am in community management talks

Publish content that your community will love, and you may never be a victim of writer's block again. This sounds like a paradox, but it is the reality of creating a terrific content strategy. In Content and Community, Richard Millington offers advice on the types and frequency of content that you should be developing for your community.

Cultivating Communities From Your Audience

Posted by Richard Millington on May 13, 2013 at 10:40am in best practices

The difference between an audience and a community is relationships. The benefits of building communities are high. You can increase spending from existing customers through up-selling, increase in repeat purchases, higher levels of retention.

Mother's Day Roundup of Great Moms Communities

Posted by Allison Leahy on May 10, 2013 at 5:08pm in community spotlight

This Sunday, the second Sunday in May, is Mother's Day. A day to celebrate the strong women in our lives. As part of this celebration, we decided to roundup some of the many vibrant Ning Networks that connect, educate, entertain, and inspire mothers the world over.

7 Cycling Communities for Bike to Work Day

Posted by Crystal on May 9, 2013 at 10:47am in community spotlight

Here in the San Francisco area home of Cultivating Community, May 9th is the 19th Annual Bike to Work Day. In honor of this awesome occassion, we've rounded up the best cycling communities around the internet.

Are you a Professional or an Amateur?

Posted by Crystal on May 8, 2013 at 10:30am in quick tips

These are actors (thankfully), but with Community Manager being such a new career path, there are those self-proclaimed experts that are just a load of talk at the end of the day. Fortunately, they are vastly outnumbered by the awesome, talented, always learning, always sharing community managers that make up the majority.

The Psychological Impact Of Interactions

Posted by Richard Millington on May 7, 2013 at 9:59am in social media

Closing struggling communities is a good idea. But it's mistaken to believe that the types of interaction are interchangable between platforms.

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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

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.

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