Michelle Ferrer, who oversees the Daytona Beach News-Journal’s hyperlocal online community, MyTopiacafe.com, offers some pointers on managing online community on Poynter.org.
She says we can learn a lot from successful political campaigns:
- Know your base. Understand your key constituents — their age, where they shop, how many kids they have, etc. Tailor your content and site functions to meet their daily needs for information and sharing. Don’t alienate this group.
- Stay “on message.” When I talk about MyTopiaCafe.com, I emphasize a few key phrases: “building community,” “making strangers into friends,” and others that complement our written philosophy. (Yes, we do have a written philosophy.) Our content, functions, site architecture, and design all reinforce this message.
- Wear out the shoe leather. Hit the streets with camera and notepad in hand and go where the people are. Be willing to accept speaking engagements on a wide range of local topics. Recruit others to help evangelize your site and its uses. Don’t underestimate the power of a few committed believers/users… and reward them when you can.
- Create strategic alliances. Target the groups or people who can get the most benefit from the site. In our case, nonprofit organizations use our tools to promote their services and events. We provide a donation exchange called Helping Hands where people can post their wish lists for goods and volunteers. I also work with local higher education institutions as a guest lecturer to talk about media-related topics. This allows me to tap into the college community — including students with talents in journalism, photography, and Web development.
