Axero Pulse » online community

Policy And Implementing It On Social Business Communities

Tim Eisenhauer — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 13:00:49 +0000

Online Social Business Communities & Mitigating Legal Risks They Can Bring Up

A online discussion started by a community manager for his company’s internal social network brought out an issue which is critical to the smooth operation of online communities both internal and external. One of the users on their internal business website network copied and pasted an article off another site possibly without realizing it’s a copyright violation. When you build a community for the business and have a number of different users actively adding to content, linking and posting, there are almost always a risk for copyright infringement in some form or the other. Even if not deliberate, not everyone will be as aware about copyright and licensing issues as the next person and without moderation of every single post and activity before publishing (which is not viable for most) it’s always possible some copyright violation happens on the site which can snowball into messy situation with the owners of the content.

It’s clear that it may not be possible to be 100% sure this doesn’t happen so the objective is always to mitigate the risk and ensure that everyone is aware of it. This is done through educating users and putting in a policy. While most people may not directly be involved with plagiarism, something as simple as adding a picture for a blog post they published and later discovering that picture was copyrighted is enough to start a legal course of action.

It’s important to create a comprehensive policy which explains things like use of images. video, the need to use quotes and references while using extracts of other peoples work and it’s just as important to be able to explain this is simple terms. If every user that signs up is made aware of the policy for using the community or network the risk of them doing any of this (at least knowingly) is reduced. However, it’s good to be able to consider and account for what can be done should this still happen. What do you do if there is still content posted which is a violation of policy or copyrights?

This is where administrative capabilities come in handy. If your community platform has good administrative capabilities it gives you the option to step in and moderate content and user activities where it’s really required. If the software being used doesn’t give you moderation abilities, it can put you in a tough spot knowing something needs to be done but doesn’t let you take any action before someone else does.

A number of platforms put together by assembling various open source software components don’t offer this level of administration which is then really not suitable in a business situation where you, as a business, are held more accountable for everything published online. It’s like having the most comprehensive policy in place and not having the ability to implement it. The ability to moderate the community and content is the last line of defense against issues caused by such copyright violations.

Here are a few things that can be done to reduce the risk of copyright and content duplication:

Develop a user policy which is easy to understand and ensure all users have read the policy on sign up
Re-enforce the policy through offline training for internal networks where location is not an issue and by discussing it on the community where it’s not possible to educate users offline
Have a community manager or moderator who is assigned the responsibility of scanning the activity and content on the site daily and raising a red flag for any violation of the policy
Contact users who have violated policy through internal messaging or email so they understand what the risks of their actions are.
Moderate and take down any copyrighted content as soon as possible as a last resort

With a good user policy, constant awareness and the ability to implement the policy and keep the site clean and free from legal issues unwanted trouble can be kept at bay.

Cadence – A Great Example Of Using Social Networking For Business Websites

Tim Eisenhauer — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 13:00:46 +0000

We’ve regularly discussed the use of social networking software platforms integrated into business or corporate websites on our blog and talked about the benefits of building an interactive community on your website as against having a “one-way” website which simply pushes information out to visitors. There are several companies both large and small who have been able to successfully weave a social networking into their business website and use it effectively to draw stakeholders whether they are customers, peers within the same vertical or employees. The technology company Cadence is a great example of how social networking can be seamlessly integrated into any business website.’

The “community” section is linked as a prominent section of the website on main navigation bar of the website among “Products & Solutions”, “Services” and “About Cadence”. The main page is an industry-wide community for more general discussions around the industry happenings. Then, you’ll find a number of communities which each tap one topic or area of interest such as “Logic Design”, “RF Design” or “Custom IC Design” among others and each community has:

Blogs
Forums
Resources

The blogs are a perfect example of how multiple blogs and multiple writers can still come under one roof (website) and create a single “go-to” resource for those within the industry. It’s a better long term strategy than having scattered blogs on different platforms where co-coordinating a combined effort is a lot harder.

The forums blend into the look and feel of the rest of the website, are well divided into topics and all the discussions have been kept active and alive once again making it a great resource for information on any of these topics. An important thing to note is the forums are well administered and moderated. This is easier to do when there is a centralized administration process in place and not as easy when using multiple forums software platforms.

Lastly the resources section, which has a rich supply of informative data sheets, white papers and other useful material simply adds value to the overall community resource and works as a great incentive for signing up as a member and having access to all that information. The “Digg” like feature which enables users to rate resources they liked makes it truly social media all the way.

Cadence is a fine example of how a social media platform for a business website can be used and used really well. There is virtually nothing to stop any business small or large from following in these footsteps and getting their own community section. The benefits are worth exploring.

How An Online Community Can Add Credibility To Your Business Website

Tim Eisenhauer — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 06:56:03 +0000

There Is Nothing Quite Like Others Endorsing Your Business & Nothing Quite Like Your Own Online Community To Encourage It

Having credibility online is key to any business website — and especially in today’s context, there is nothing comparable to third party and customer endorsements, the kind of credibility you can build on the web when they say good things about your business. It makes a world of difference hearing about something from a sales person or representative of a business and hearing others who are outsiders talk about the business. The latter is something we rely on so heavily on. It’s imperative that businesses do as much as they can to ensure others are talking about them, spreading the word, and building credibility for the business. Social networking based community platforms can play a very central role in this process.

Think about this… What do visitors come across on your business website that builds some kind of trust and confidence in your business and makes them feel you are the business to go to for their requirement? Perhaps the “About Us” page? The management team? Your list of existing customers and clients? Your contact information, like an address? All of these components play some role in building confidence in a website user, along with other things like the look and feel, design, and how professional the site appears. As for third party endorsements, these are usually found in the form of customer testimonials, which are great simply because they come from others who have good things to say about their experiences with your business. However, in the social web, there is a lot more that people look for to re-assure them about your business. What are others saying? Are people blogging about you? Are other people discussing your products and offerings on forums? What’s the chatter about you on Twitter? Do you have any communities or groups where we can hear what people are saying about your business? All these things play some role and to bring all this to the website — a social networking software or community platform can add this dimension to a business website.

Building a public facing community on your business website can provide people with a place to communicate with your business and also with each other. Simply providing this completely open, transparent environment where users can have a say alone can instill a ton of credibility. It says that you as a business are open to transparent dialog and encourage users to communicate freely about your products and services. It provides a platform for a user seeking assurance to sign up and talk to others inside and outside your business, who may have had some experience with it and get unbiased opinions from other customers … which is often more convincing than hard selling.

Social networks and communities become the places we as consumers turn to for assurances and opinions — the community section on a business website may just be the place to find the credibility we seek.

Social Networking Software Solutions And Advertising

Tim Eisenhauer — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 23:57:39 +0000

Social Networking For Businesses & Advertising Space – Is Your Online Community Space Really Your Own?

Context based advertising has come leaps and bounds from old school advertising where every banner or text ad seemed quite random. Now, most sites know what you’re typing, what you’re thinking and display ads that you can connect with. This is supposed to be great not just for the consumers, but for the advertisers too — and it is….in most cases. Yet, sometimes I wonder “are online advertisements on social networking websites and communities getting a little too smart?” Here’s what I mean:

You are browsing through what seemed to be a well built online community for the InterContinental Hotels Group on Facebook. It looks like the admins and creators of the community have done a great job keeping the community active, responding to posts by customers and fans, and regularly posting photos and updates with the intention of making sure they remain loyal to the InterContinental brand. Everything seems perfect until you notice the Hyatt Hotel advertisement on the right hand side of the page! Looks kind of like the perfect customer drain hole! And the real kicker for those who put in the hours building a community for their business, is how their efforts are benefiting their rivals. With that being said — this is a risk every single business takes when opting for a hosted social platform to build their community, where of all the space on the website is not completely under their control.

We’ve often talked about the advantages of hosting and managing your own community portal using a social software platform with source code…and how sometimes having control over the smallest details of your website can save you the frustration of having to deal with unforeseen problems at a later stage. Control over branding and advertising space is one of the aspects that needs to be given serious thought before selecting a social software platform … and it’s easy to overlook initially. At the earlier stages, it’s not really an issue, as the focus is mainly around building the community — and often the quickest way to do that, is to sign up on a hosted community site and build it there. It’s only when the number of members on your business community grows do you start to notice the value of the space on your website. That’s usually when you start analyzing which pages get the most views, what parts of the pages get the most eyeballs, and where all the clicks are focused. At that point you also start thinking about modifications to the website, adding or moving components, making space for advertising and promoting certain things. If you’ve gone with a solution that doesn’t allow enough room for customization, this is also the point where you may just find yourself at a dead end.

Building and managing your own community has a downside as compared to putting one together on Facebook or a social networking site which already has a large user base. It will mean that you have to start and grow it from scratch. But is speed and growing a quick group of users the only objective? Online marketing pro Sonny Gill in a recent blog post said:

“Those people who are looking to help further the industry, build strong communities, help innovate, and are genuine in their actions. While on the flip side, you have the people looking for shortcuts, the easy road to infamy and a legion of thousands that they probably don’t even know. The people who think it’s a numbers game.”

Likewise, when you decide to build an online community for you business, it’s good to think beyond just how quickly you can add people to it and how many you can reach and influence. Think ahead about the branding and advertising options on your community space and the flexibility you will need in the future before selecting your platform. Does your technology allow you the space to make changes, should your community grow beyond what you anticipated? Do have administrative control over aspects that may influence your community one way or an other? …all important questions which can help you narrow down on the right platform.

Think about it before starting or you might find your self wondering some day if your online community is really your own — or is it someone else’s?