September 2010

I come across so many great conversations, ideas, and resources all over the web every day. Here are some of the most interesting things I’ve found recently (as of September 13th). You can join the conversations in the comments, or click through to the original posts to find what others are saying.

To follow more of the things I find online, you can follow @amysampleward on Twitter (which is just a blog and resource feed), or find me on Delicious (for all kinds of bookmarks).

• The Desert of Community Building | Geoff Livingston's Blog – "One of the most crystallizing moments of my online career was when Ike Pigott said social media was an organic process. This analogy struck me as inherently true, in large part because of the significant amount of time and care one has to invest in building an active community. Like a farmer who invests love and labor day after day watching her/his fields slowly yield beautiful fruits and vegetables, community developers must tend to their community and build relationships through thoughtful interactions, valuable content, and empowerment methods. Most marketers and communicators fail to realize the imperative of engaging the Fifth Estate as a group of people just like them."
• Breaking Down Silos Does Not Just Apply to Communications | Common Sense – "How often do you hear that communication silos don’t work? Quite often, right? We’ve probably read at least 10 posts on that over the last couple of years. They are right, of course, that for communications to truly be successful all parts of the engine need to be working together. Marketing needs to be talking to PR needs to be talking to customer service and so on… Without true integration, you’re a ship that’s dead in the water. Funny thing about this silo concept… it can also be applied to research."
• How charities are using virtual gifts on Facebook to raise money | Social media agency London | FreshNetworks blog – "Virtual gifts are big business. Even in its earlier days, many people on Facebook were paying money to give their friends virtual flowers, and Farmville makes a great success out of selling trees and sheep to people to gift to others as part of the game. What we have learned is that people are willing to pay money for virtual objects, and even more so when they are gifts to other people. Seeing this trend, many people are tying to explore ways to integrate virtual gifts into their social media strategy as a way to make money. Few are doing this successfully but as with many examples of successful social media there is much we can learn by looking at how it is being used in the not-for-profit sector."
• How to Piss off an Online Community – 4 Recent Examples | Search Engine Journal – "People are resistant to change. We find solace in our daily routines. And because social media sites have become a part of that routine (for better or worse) even small changes to those services can effect us. So while not every change is bad, and most (if not all) will have their naysayers, some changes are just harder to swallow than others. Here are 4 recent (and very public) examples of changes that caused the respective communities to lash out."
• Luther Lowe: The Positive Side of Negative Reviews – For everyone who is trying to convince their boss, coworkers, or colleagues that "someone saying something bad" isn't as scary or bad as it may seem, here's a great case study for you!