Patrick O’Keefe of iFroggy Network Featured On #custcontent—Pace’s Twitter Event

Patrick O'Keefe owns the iFroggy Network.

Pace’s (@pacecomm) ongoing Twitter hashtag event, #custcontent, recently featured an informative discussion with Patrick O’Keefe, author of Managing Online Forums Book: Everything You Need to Know to Create and Run Successful Community Discussion Boards and owner of the iFroggy Network (@iFroggy), a network of content, community and e-commerce sites covering various interests.

We discussed content and online communities. A few highlights:

@PaceComm How can I develop a community around my content?
@iFroggy 1. Engaging with people directly through e-mail and comments is a powerful way of building community.
@iFroggy 2. [Developing] community on sites you don't control: Twitter, Facebook, Digg, StumbleUpon, etc. [using automated tweets and updates so that you are continuously engaging].
@iFroggy Automation isn't a bad thing, it's only a bad thing when it's done badly. Some of us use RSS. Most have no idea what that is.
@iFroggy 3. [Developing] community on sites you control. This is extending community on your space, launching your own forums or social network. PhpBB, vBulletin, Invision Power Board, Vanilla, bbPress, etc. are all good forum software.

@PaceComm How can I involve my community in my content development?
@iFroggy There are some easy ways to do this. 1. Ask what they want and then provide it. Use them to help plot your direction.
@iFroggy 2. Look at comments or posts for cues on what to write about next. Did someone ask a question that requires a long answer? Answer it in a new post and tell them. This allows you to answer it for everyone, not just one person.
@iFroggy 3. Polls and surveys are easy and can be at least two posts: the poll itself and reflections on the results.
@iFroggy 4. Look for good, article-length comments and posts that deserve more attention and then ask the person who made it if they would like to add it as a guest post or article on the main site. There can be gold in comments.
@iFroggy 5. Finally, you can always interview featured members or experts within your community, as well. It is a good way to highlight people and ensure they feel appreciated, while always generating new, valuable, worthy content.

See the full discussion: Pace Communications #custcontent Twitter archive.

#custcontent is held every Thursday, 1 p.m. ET, on Twitter. To join the discussion, log onto Twitter and enter #custcontent in the search box.

Posted By: Jennifer Bringle