Hosting Web Communities: Building Relationships, Increasing Customer Loyalty and Maintaining a Competitive Edge - Tapa blanda

The benefits of Web communities are attracting substantial media attention. They give customers a forum for dialogue, whether to voice a complaint, offer suggestions, or share ideas and allow businesses to get closer to their customers. This text explores the principles and techniques of hosting a successful Web community. In addition to introducing the technologies and tools, and what to expect when starting up and maintaining a Web community, readers will learn how to: define the purpose of a community; keep up-to-date member profiles; offer a variety of features (mailing lists, discussion boards, live chat, paging, etc.); effectively host and moderate discussion groups; organize and promote events and contests; showcase accomplishments of the community; provide necessary information to new members; offer growth opportunities to experienced members. The companion Website will include checklists, examples of different platforms, links to and evaluations of policy statements for Web communities, job descriptions for hosts, various OL communities, and tools, technologies and business models.