By Amanda Natividad
If you build it, they will come… but what if they don't come? That was the question Lisa Belkin (above, left), contributing writer, The New York Times Magazine and Motherlode blogger for NYT, asked at the final panel of the day at our first EconWomen conference. Starting an online community from the ground up has its difficulties, but the panelists agreed women want at least one thing - to connect. Some highlights:
• Starting out: Brandon Holley, GM, Yahoo Shine, pointed out what she calls the 3 Cs: content, conversation and community. Once you create good content - with personality and voice - it starts the conversation. Soon after, the community starts to grow. The reason Heather Armstrong's blog, Dooce, works, Holley says, is because it makes readers feel they know her. Maureen Bergmueller, director of marketing for Disney (NYSE: DIS) Family.com, says the site began with the primary goal of creating an environment in which women can relate to one another, establishing commonality that's rooted in content.
• Tricks of the trade: Aside from the usual elements of a social community, Bergmueller said Disney Family.com's wiki, encouraging users to post topical photos and asking Twitter-like questions of the day helped build up the site, while Holley said Shine relied more on having strong editorial content, stressing that sometimes women just want to hear what another woman has to say. Joni Evans, CEO and co-founder, wowOwow, said polls, questions of the day and comments of the week resulted in the best feedback, and Stephanie Dolgins, SVP, Women's and Lifestyle Programming, AOL (NYSE: TWX), look at what works best within each demographic and seeing them responding directly to the content.
• User comments and censorship: Once the interactivity begins, and the comments keep flowing, there comes the issue of establishing - or enforcing - conduct rules. While Armstrong (above, right) is adamant about removing inappropriate comments, she stressed that what helped her was to stop feeling guilty about deleting comments. It may be the quote of the day: "If someone comes in and takes a crap on my living room floor, I'm not going to say, 'you have a right to do so." If she sees a deeply hurtful comment, she likes to "delete, delete, delete… print it out, run over it with my car, then delete it again!"
Shine, on the other hand, established commenting guidelines, then when users cross them, takes down the comments. Shine and Disney Family.com have community managers who read though and remove inappropriate comments, while Dolgins said AOL allows users to report each other if need be. In general, though, all of the panelists agreed that to an extent, the users will self-regulate, as though the community becomes a social contract. Call it a need to preserve the environment, if you will, but when it comes to social media - or at least within women's social nets - the need for a safe haven, in which users can freely communicate their ideas and feelings, is clear.
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