Your humility impresses me, as I know that SCORE also has a lot of expertise in this area. For those who are familiar with SCORE’s approach to engaging and celebrating volunteers, it will come as no surprise that SCORE’s Women’s Success Blog was named one of the top blogs, see: http://womensblog.score.org/

SCORE’s national marketing director Christine Banning (@cbanningma) was kind enough to share some of the strategies that led to the blog’s success at a recent gathering of tech marketers in Virginia. I thought her tips were brilliant, and worth reiterating (as best I recall them):
- Take care in naming of your blog… (who wouldn’t want to be part of the “women’s success” blog?)
- Think in terms of your audience’s interest when determining topic areas
- Invite experts to serve as “columnists,” and immediately acknowledge contributions and comments
- Think in advance about the content required to keep the blog fresh, and stockpile at least 3 months’ worth, so you don’t get derailed before you gain momentum.
- Include links to your blog in your Web site, emails, business cards, etc.
- Tweet about new posts.

Thanks for demonstrating the power of inclusion and collaboration in developing and maintaining online communities. You’ve given us a great model to follow for developing sustainable online communities.

Those who want to stay apprised of SCORE developments can follow SCORE on Twitter: @scorementor

Thanks for your thoughtful comments. I’m sure others appreciate your analysis.

Peg

First, Silver suggested that the online community will thrive, and the traditional marketing will wither. He even suggested that this event will occur within the next 5 years. This is a pretty strong statement, but I don’t really believe in it. Traditional marketing carries strong momentum, and it is hard to stop. I do believe that online recommender community will thrive but the claim that the product vendor and marketing companies will subdue to the online community, in my opinion, is too strong.

Secondly, there are too much details in the book. Although details are good for references, it does not engage me when I am reading the book. In fact, most of the time, I would skip the details to the next part. Don’t get me wrong, the details are good, but perhaps not for me, at least not for now.

Finally, I don’t believe that all 18 revenue channels will work for ALL communities. If you are starting a company, you may have to ponder which of the 18 channels fits your community and the culture in your country.

Would also welcome a critique of my site. Thanks in advance