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Community-Building Web Sites
In this article, Linda talks about various community-building sites and how you might use them to create a “glue” to keep community active.
Linda talked about community and its relationship to marketing in the previous article. If you plan on building community, will you rely on social networking sites to keep that community together? Or, will you include a Web site in your community-building plans? In this article, Lindatalks about various community-building sites and how you might use them to create a “glue” to keep community active.
Conclusion
Hopefully the sampling of social networking sites listed above, along with information I provided in the previous article about community will get your juices flowing toward building a network around your talents and skills. While building community is not easy, it can push you to break out of a mould to show others what you are capable of doing outside your usual day-to-day production.
Additionally, building community (or joining a community) also provides you with a safety net during poor economies. Networking is one way to learn about jobs, entrepreneurial opportunities and other options that can help keep food on the table and a roof over the head. When you build your own community, you show others that you are capable of leadership and management skills. If you build an easily navigable, usable and beautiful site, you also show that you have design and program skills.
What more can you ask for as far as a means to bring your best to the world – as well as meeting new people of like mind?
Links
The following links provide dozens of links to other networking platforms. Use these links to learn more about platforms that may better suit you than the ones offered above. Most platforms are not free, so be aware of cost factors, terms of service and other legalities in your search:
- List of "White Label" or "Private Label" (Applications you can Rebrand) Social Networking Platforms, Community Platforms: A list of over 100 vendors that offer commodity community software.
- Nine Ways to Build Your Own Social Network: Mark Hendrickson provides a list of social networking apps that go well beyond this article.
- 34 More Ways to Build Your Own Social Network: Hendrickson continues to build on that previous list with more apps.
Linda Goin
Linda Goin carries an A.A. in graphic design, a B.F.A. in visual communications with a minor in business and marketing and an M.A. in American History with a minor in the Reformation. While the latter degree doesn't seem to fit with the first two educational experiences, Linda used her 25-year design expertise on archaeological digs and in the study of material culture. Now she uses her education and experiences in social media experiments.
Accolades for her work include fifteen first-place Colorado Press Association awards, numerous fine art and graphic design awards, and interviews about content development with The Wall St. Journal, Chicago Tribune, Psychology Today, and L.A. Times.