After you’ve had your website up and running for a bit, or once you’ve been blogging for awhile you’ll want to start thinking about your online ‘community’. Your community is an important, if not integral, component to the success of your online presence. By building a solid brand, creating great content and interacting with your audience, you’re working toward developing a passionate online following that will promote and support you with others.

Build It

Make your blog/site an original, meaning, try to take a fresh approach to the subject that you plan on covering. A great example of an outstanding and custom brand blog is Southwest’s Nuts About Southwest. Instead of spewing a mouthful of corporate hum-drum Southwest has assembled a blended blog that reflects the diversity of its audience and they’ve peppered it with fun and interactive content.

Another super example is the Sharpie blog. Beyond simple blog posts, the Sharpie blog has incorporated a bevy of images and videos that showcase their products in action with everyday folks and artists. The result is a visually entertaining blog that is both inspiring and entertaining.

Take a cue from Southwest and Sharpie and find a unique way to position your blog/site  that’s right for the audience that you want to capture.

Promote It

Make it easy to pass along and share what you’re creating. This means including social share buttons to increase viral opportunities. At a bare minimum, you should feature  Tweetmeme and Facebook Share buttons that can be used to attract others to become a part of your online community. People want to be able to send links and information in quick and simple ways. Integrating social share buttons is a near guarantee that they’ll be able to do so.

Ask For It

You have to ask people to visit, comment and share. It’s a very simple way to remind and ensure your audience that you want them to invite others to take a peek and converse about what you’ve created. Communities aren’t built overnight, but asking others who appreciate your perspective, style and message to find and include others is an ideal way increase growth. Like-minds attract like-minds and you’ll discover that asking people to spread the word about your community is as easy to say as it is to do.

Get Involved With It

An online community can’t grow on its own. You need to take an active role in fostering relationships with your members. Encourage contributions through commenting and be prepared to seek out potentially interested people to invite to the community. This doesn’t mean that you need to launch a spam campaign or make a commitment to stalk anyone into joining. Be yourself, be authentic and tell people that you’d love for them become a part of what you’re putting together.

Repeat It

Whether your online community has 50 followers or 15,000, you need to continually work at adding new members. A stagnant community is also a flailing community. By continually adding new members you're increasing the chances that better dialogues will form, more interesting questions will be asked and novel ideas will be exchanged. These actions in themselves make your community more attractive to others, which will increase your subscriber base. The goal isn't to have a blog or site with the largest quantity of followers. It should be to have the best quality of content and relationships with the people who are supporting what you're creating.

There are many other tips that can be used to build a strong online community. What are some that you've used to enhance your own blog or site? Fill us in.

There's no doubt that today's buzzword is 'social media'. It's lurking in conversations, hiding in emails and it's absolutely unavoidable. People tell you that social media is where you need to be and if you're not doing it or using it then you're missing out. But where do you begin? How do you start? Think of social media networking like making a pitcher of lemonade. The evolution and cycle of how it comes together is pretty similar.

1. A Social Media Grocery List

Before you make your lemonade you need to figure out what ingredients you'll need to put into it. Are you aiming for a beverage that's more on the sweet side or do you want something more tart? Same thing is true for social media. Figure out what it is you want to accomplish and then find the social media platforms that will help you reach your goals in the best way possible. Just because Facebook is the biggest and most well-known social media site doesn't mean that it's the right one for you. Try branching out and exploring other possible avenues.

2. Social Media Squeezing

If you're making a giant batch of lemonade you're going to need a lot of juice. Trust me when I say that hand-squeezing lemons is tough and tiring work. What's nice about the effort you put into something fresh-squeezed is that it tastes so much better than a quick fix - like, say, frozen concentrate. Well, that's exactly like social media. Rushing out and trying to capture thousands of fans, followers and what-have-yous isn't the same as earning them one at a time. Instant doesn't equal better.

We've all been here. The most important thing is that you have your social profile up and running. Be persistent and share helpful, newsworthy items that your niche audience would find valuable and useful. Just because you don't have a large base of supporters (yet) doesn't mean you should neglect sharing. Stick with it and continue to 'squeeze' out good bits to attract people to network with.

3. Tasting the Flavor of Social Media

As you build your social network you'll occasionally invite others to join you on your social media page. Using the lemonade analogy, you're asking others to taste your concoction. Some might say it needs more lemon or sugar, but others might say it's fantastic. Those are the folks who are going to connect with you through social media and support your brand, service or product. Now that you've created a great tasting pitcher of lemonade you'll want to figure out how to continue recreating it to keep your followers happy.

4. Lemonade Ambassadors

Your social networking will eventually lead you to the one social maven who is seemingly connected to everyone. They are passionate about their connections and truly enjoy spreading news about genuine fan-worthy discoveries for others to enjoy and learn from. In a sense, they become your lemonade ambassadors and tell people that they absolutely must try your most fantastic lemonade because it's precisely the right flavor, it's consistently refreshing and it delivers a unique blend of ingredients that others just don't seem to have. Lemonade ambassadors aren't a dime a dozen, but when you have the pleasure to network with one you'll truly enjoy the magnitude and capabilities of social networking.

5. Thirsty For Social Media

Soon enough, thirsty people begin seeking you out to get a swig of your lemonade. The word on the street is you've got what they want and it's pretty darn good. Your social media efforts are paying off and you're building a solid community of like-minded supporters that are benefiting from a connection with you. It might be a product that they can't live without or maybe you're the go-to for breaking industry news, whatever it might be, you're social media engagement is quenching the palettes of fans-a-plenty.

6. A Perfect Pitcher of Social Media

At this point you've evolved into a social media hub where you're connected to other influencers and you're able to bring other people together and pay-it-forward. It's been a long haul, but the end result is you've grasped the power of social media and realized it's true potential.

A little over two months ago, the social network platform Ning made social media headlines when it announced that its longtime CEO would be stepping down and that its free service model was being nixed (don’t forget that 40 percent of Ning’s staff was laid off too). The company has officially announced its new tiered pay models to the public. Well, what if you’re someone who really enjoyed what the free version of Ning had? Maybe you’re a little disappointed that payment is required and you want to explore other options. Luckily you can. There are actually quite a few alternative platforms to Ning, but rather than bombarding you with all of them (save that one for a future post), let’s just take a quick peek at one of them. Today’s spotlight is on BigTent. The account interface to set-up BigTent looks fresh and clean. Plenty of support available online to help newbies get up and running in no time. The best part is that BigTent is free. No fees, just a place for folks to gather together which is why it’s worth reviewing. BigTent's positioning itself against Yahoo! Groups as a competitor and the contrasts are visually and verbally communicated throughout BigTent’s site. If you’re well-versed in Yahoo! Groups the transition to BigTent should be fairly simple. Here’s the skinny on some of its features:

• Buzz page - this is the main page that can be customized to explain what your group is about. You can include photos, videos, calendars and just about anything else to make it your own.
• Forum - organized by threads, members have the option of participating directly to a thread or by email.
• Polling - create a poll and get your members to weigh-in.
• Photos - post and exchange with group members. Always a nice feature to have.
• Filesharing - being able to exchange data through the site turns it into a communication tool that can be used in a variety of other ways.
• Group news - admins can publish announcements, send photos and share links through this feature and they can also send out updates to members directly to their emails.
• Events - complete event coordination can be handled from this location including, payment collection, volunteer assignments, sign-up members for the event and more.
• Shop - more than 30 retail affiliates are linked through this tab and members can purchase from iTunes, Benefit Cosmetics and Chico’s, just to name a few.
• Members - click on other member profiles to learn more about each other and connect with people who share common interests.
• Reviews & Classifieds - this is a place where members can share their opinions on products and services, as well as post items that they have for sale. Might not be a feature that every group needs, but it’s available if you want it.
• Subgroups - this helps organize and nurture the interest of group members. It’s a separate place to discuss and exchange ideas with the same functionalities as the Buzz page.

Some of the other features of BigTent let you collect group dues and manage the membership process, as well as increase membership by sending email invites and setting up a sign-up box widget on your blog or website for people to sign-in and join. So far, BigTent seems to be a good solution for Ning users who are wondering where to go. Again, there are quite a few alternative sites available and each has its pros and cons. The nice thing about so many options is that there’s something out there for everyone.

Let us know about your experiences with BigTent or other social networking platforms. We’re always interested in learning more.

The differences between social media and social networking are just about as vast as night and ‘last’ night. Just kidding. Indeed, there are some key differences and knowing what they are can help you gain a better understanding on how to leverage them for your brand and business.

1. By Any Definition

Social media is a way to transmit, or share information with a broad audience. Everyone has the opportunity to create and distribute. All you really need is an internet connection and you’re off to the races. On the other hand, social networking is an act of engagement. Groups of people with common interests, or like-minds, associate together on social networking sites and build relationships through community.

2. Communication Style

Social media is more akin to a communication channel. It’s a format that delivers a message. Like television, radio or newspaper, social media isn’t a location that you visit. Social media is simply a system that disseminates information ‘to’ others. With social networking, communication is two-way. Depending on the topic, subject matter or atmosphere, people congregate to join others with similar experiences and backgrounds. Conversations are at the core of social networking and through them relationships are developed.

3. Return on Investment

It can be difficult to obtain precise numbers for determining the ROI from social media. How do you put a numeric value on the buzz and excitement of online conversations about your brand, product or service? This doesn’t mean that ROI is null, it just means that the tactics used to measure are different. For instance, influence, or the depth of conversation and what the conversations are about, can be used to gauge ROI. Social networking’s ROI is a bit more obvious. If the overall traffic to your website is on the rise and you’re diligently increasing your social networking base, you probably could attribute the rise in online visitors to your social efforts.

4. Timely Responses

Social media is hard work and it takes time. You can’t automate individual conversations and unless you're a well-known and established brand, building a following doesn’t happen overnight. Social media is definitely a marathon and not a sprint. Because social networking is direct communication between you and the people that you choose connect with, your conversations are richer, more purposeful and more personal. Your network exponentially grows as you meet and get introduced to others.

5. Asking or Telling

A big no-no on with social media is skewing or manipulating comments, likes, diggs, stumbles or other data, for your own benefit (personal or business). Asking friends, family, co-workers or anyone else to cast a vote just to cast it, doesn’t do anyone much good for anyone and it can quickly become a PR nightmare if word leaks out about dishonest practices. With social networking, you can tell your peers about your new business or blog and discuss how to make it a success. The conversations that you create can convert many people into loyal fans, so it’s worth investing the time. Social media and social networking do have some overlap, but they really aren't the same thing. Knowing that they're two separate marketing concepts can make a difference in how you position your business going forward.

Share your thoughts or add a comment or two. We'd love to hear from you.