Upload
matt-haughey
View
20.702
Download
2
Embed Size (px)
DESCRIPTION
A presentation I gave at the National Writers Workshop in Wichita, KS on May 20, 2007
Citation preview
Building Online Communities
Matthew Haughey
Everything is moving online, newspaper subscriptions fall
Writers, editors, and organizations need to adapt
This doesn’t seem right.
Give readers community features and they’ll flock
Follow these steps to build a successful community
Why community?
Newspapers are a fixture in the physical community
…but not in the online world
Small towns: easy to be the sole source of online info
Large towns: name recognition
Web communities get traffic
More traffic: more readers, and more revenue possibilities
Digg, reddit, gothamist, blogs
Users expect interactivity online
News doesn’t have to be one-way
Comfortable with customization
Tyranny of choice
How to build it?
Robust user systems
Incorporate into existing logins
Don’t do this.
Personality in member profiles
Welcome contributions
Highlight the best
Have writers interact as well
Elevate members to writers & photographers
Embrace the web
Hire web-savvy teams
No barriers to reading
Open the archives, perm. URLs
How do you maintain it?
Moderation that’s fair
Online moderator: full-time job
Online moderator: ombudsman?
Emotions out of decisions
Craft some guidelines
Guidelines, not rules
Deal with troublemakers quickly
Metrics help run a community
Flagging spreads the work out
Favorites/voting for the good
Case Studies
What’s stopping your organization from building a community of readers?
Everything is moving online, newspaper subscriptions fall
Add community features and grow your online audience
A collaborative news site can please readers and create revenue
Questions?