Encouraging Connections and Friendships in an Online Community

Facilitating potentially creative connections and friendships is one of the high value challenges that online community managers aspire to. So we always want to hear from our peers how they work their magic. Brad Selby, senior product manager from Flixster.com, fields this question from Susan Tenby, (Senior Online Community Manager, TechSoup Global) during the monthly meeting of the San Francisco Online Community Report on June 24, 2009.


Brad mentions two specific routes toward familiarization in the context of Flixster.com:

• one user can challenge another user to test their "movie compatibility", an application that Flixster has greatly popularized in Facebook.
• the community search engine can match pertinent parameters of one's film, actor, producer, director, and genre preferences to recommend introductions.

Improving Influence in Crisis Situations

Addressing the question of how a web2.0 business measurably wields and verifiably improves its' influence with its customers, Scott Hirsch (VP of Business Development at GetSatisfaction) relates a story about Yolo.net using multivariate testing of different customer conversation guidelines which were employed in customer-in-crisis situations. Sampling NetPromoter scores before, during, and after crises, Yolo was able to improve the effectiveness of communications and customer satisfaction by testing their usage and how they converse under fire.

Mr. Hirsch was participating in a panel discussion entitled "The Power of Influence", hosted by Eastwick Communications in their Mountain View, California headquarters for the Social Media Club of San Francisco and the Silicon Valley on June 25, 2009.

Build Armies for Presence in Business Communications

Establishing your presence through and improving upon Business Communications principles is accomplished through friends, connections, and followers who rise and serve in a call-to-action, according to Chris Brogan (New Marketing Labs) in his keynote "You Shall Know Us By Our Dialtone" at the New Comm Forum 2009 in San Francisco.

Chris warns us against falling victim to body-count maximization mentalities that foam rabidly around us. He says that 1,000 caring fans will accomplish more than 10 million who don't give a crap, which is Chris' nod to the heartbreak of Michael Arrington syndrome.

#TechKaraokeSF: a Modestly Multi-player OFFLINE Role-Playing Game (MMORPG)

The glittering geekerati celebrate each month in Baghdad-by-the-Bay with #TechKaraokeSF, a Modestly Multi-Player OFFLINE Role-Playing Game (MMPORPG). Most of the best players acknowledge this simple fact to neither themselves (or others) because that would be too analytical to admit to having felt. Like so many things that we do in in the tactile, visual, and/or auditory realm, the impact of #TechKaraokeSF becomes supercharged by preparation, engagement, and follow-through in the virtually enhanced mode: using Twitter with bit.ly, Delicious, DIGG, Facebook, JustinTV, Livestream, QIK, Seesmic Desktop, StumbleUpon, TweetDeck, Tweetie, TwitterBerry, Twitpic, Tumblr, Ustream, Zannel, & Whrrl.

#TechKaraokeSF is a brainsprayingly awesome channel for self-expression, vulnerability, persona, identity, authenticity & personal branding. Beware of any weird or too-good-to-be-true claims that might get posted or circulated (e.g. #TechKaraokeSF is neither a morning-after nor afternoon-before remedy for real indiscretions).

Once you get past choking on your fear or feasting on your ego, #TechKaraokeSF energizes you, regardless of whether you're performing from the stage-to-audience, audience-to-stage, audience-to-audience, or stage-to-stage. When this critical mass builds, it's like fusion with your collaborators, aficionados, followers, gawkers, stalkers, and stalkees. At the June 2009 edition in the Dirty Martini in the Historic Cannery, watch how an ever so slightly innocent instance of "Voulez-Vous Coucher Avec Moi?" served as a delightful foil for toasting the birthdays of @krystyl and @khartline. The crowd was wise, and set itself into a collectively friendly blaze.

A blast of tweets by and to: @gwenbell, @DearBadKitty, @gillat, @perivision, @adrielhampton, @misstillytilly, @Jennicricket, @traffichoney, @QueenofSpain,
@msjeanneb, @FromSF, @gregarious, @rogerniner, @suki, @craisin @morganb, @thorpus, @jyamasaki, @sjsharktank, @shellerae, @chrisheuer, @missrogue, @michaelcummings, @technosailor, @chadcat, @thekenyeung, @khartline, @krystyl,
@DanielleMORRILL, @kristiewells, @xiaolinmama, and @dotw

There were some extraordinary individual and duet performances that I missed, but I can promise you that a great treat is in the works thanks to @missrogue and to @misstillytilly.

Learn From Labs: Rule 20: Presence in Business Communications

Establishing your presence in Business Communications principles should be treated as conversations rather than intellectual property. Share them with the world on sites such as Delicious, according to Chris Brogan (New Marketing Labs) in his keynote "You Shall Know Us By Our Dialtone" at the NewComm Forum 2009 (a semi-annual colloquium of the Society for New Communications Research) in San Francisco.