Community

LiveWorld Helps Any Website Add Conversation Seamlessly

by Jason Falls · September 16, 2008

LiveWorld, a white label social networking and community solution provider, unveiled a new conversation solution this morning called LiveBar â„¢ which essentially allows any website, or singular web page on a website, to add conversation tolls seamlessly and without large-scale development. LiveBar lives as a bottom toolbar to the userâ€™s browser and only expands to allow for the conversation and commenting elements if the user chooses to participate.

LiveBar Screenshot on the Tulane website

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How To Build A Community Of Brand Enthusiasts

by Jason Falls · February 21, 2008

“We’re really interested in building community!” brand managers enthusiastically say. “We’re hoping a social network, perhaps a CEO blog and, um, er, widgets! We must have widgets. Then we’ll have a community!”

The question is, did I hear an actual person say this or is it hypothetical based on the general misunderstanding of social media in the marketing and communications world? Whether it’s real or not, someone said it today. Someone said it yesterday and every day since about mid-2006.

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How Much Microblogging Is Too Much?

by Jason Falls · February 13, 2008

My periodic Utterz on the way to work produced a question on Tuesday that I thought would make for good discussion here. I recorded my thoughts and the question in a Seesmic post Tuesday evening.

If you don’t have time to watch the video, I am essentially wondering how much microblogging is too much for you. Do you use Twitter? Do you use Jaiku? How about Utterz? Seesmic is a video version of microblogging. Are you there?

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How To Build Brand Communities

by Jason Falls · January 7, 2008

There’s a consistency in what CEOs, CMOs and brand managers are saying these days. “We want to create a community around our brand.” More and more of them are saying it to social media practitioners and champions since advertising agencies can juice your messaging up on “buzz” or craft a catchy video that “goes viral” but never create a community.

But social media is about connecting to communities, not creating them.

Mind you, good social media programming and activity can attract brand fans and foster the growth of brand communities. But most times, the communities themselves exist

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Are Marketers Welcome On Social News Sites?

by Jason Falls · December 17, 2007

On Friday morning, I submitted Chris Brogan’s, “Marketing Is NOT Social Media â€“ Social Media Is NOT Marketing” post to my normal round of social news sites. Digg, StumbleUpon, Reddit, Mixx and Sphinn are my normal stops as I try to contribute content of value to those communities. Occasionally, I’ll add del.icio.us to the list if it’s an article I may want to go find easily for reference.

While I didn’t consider Chris’s analysis of social media as a marketing tool a particularly controversial subject, the article produced a passionate response from one of my new friends on Mixx, Jay Fowler.

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Why Advertising Will Not Win The Battle Of Social Media

by Jason Falls · October 29, 2007

Jeremy Pepper’s passionate diatribe, “PR Will Lose Social Media To Advertising Because Of Sex,” raises relevant questions about the future of social media. He indicates advertising and marketing will win the fight for control of this (relatively) new medium, thus saying public relations will lose it. (Jeremy is a PR guy by discipline.)

His catchy headline says social media will be overcome because of sex. The explanation details the meaning — that advertising understands how to make the mundane exciting. Pepper then outlines a plan to save PR, though I think he means to save social media. His first point is education.

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