In the second stage of evaluating an online community deployment, comparing platforms and costs is essential. If you have a limited budget, for example, can you select an affordable platform that still provides real value for community members? If you’re a nonprofit or association, is it possible to choose a platform that gives your constituents new ways to interact with each other and your organization? Will the platform seamlessly scale to meet the demand as more and more members begin taking advantage of the technology?

Today we present an overview of elements associations and nonprofits might consider in their selection of a white label social community platform.

Questions Abound, but Start with Two:
        1) Does Your Social Networking Provider Specialize in Serving Organizations Like Yours?
        2)Will the Proposed Platform Be Secure and Scalable Plus Integrate Seamlessly with Your Existing Database Systems?

After you’ve determined precisely what you expect to accomplish with your new online community, start evaluation by formulating a list of requirements generated by the above questions:
        -Make sure you compare the level of industry experience your prospective software vendor possesses with organizations similar to yours
        -Explore your provider’s track record with online communities much like the one you envision
        -Study the design and functionality of relevant communities. Do they look and work as you would expect?
        -Inquire about the level of support vendor candidates offer in terms of a well-planned launch strategy. Can they offer best practices?
        -Your potential vendors exhibit expertise, but do they offer 100% reliable, secure and scalable hosting, even during traffic surges? In a best case scenario, the servers will be housed in a state-of-the-art Tier IV data center
        -Determine if the proposed platform offers full integration with your existing brand and web presence, and full compatibility with legacy applications that you will continue to run
        -Look for a flexible, enterprise-focused platform that will help your organization achieve a return on your investment while fully meeting the needs of your customers and members
        -Whether your organization is a large or small nonprofit or association, will the new online community help you address multiple issues such as membership retention, fundraising, consistent member engagement, non-dues revenue generation, and significant support for special events?
        -It is essential that full integration exists with your database management systems so that your staff can easily access constituent data and leverage it. Will you own your data?
        -Ask your candidates about open, flexible APIs (Application Programming Interfaces). Will your deployment offer a suite of next-generation API modules and the option of allowing your tech staff to create more?
        -Does your prospective vendor offer a reasonable, subscription-based partnership that does not demand significant upfront investment?
        -If your budget is limited, your provider should help you utilize  Twitter to enhance the impact of your online community
        -Ideally, your community should include social media solutions that help your constituents support your mission, whether it takes the form of socially-enabled education groups, advocacy causes, actions, fundraising events or supplier directories

Evaluating the costs and benefits of social networking deployments can be complicated, even intimidating. It is our hope that these ideas serve as a logical beginning for your research. If you would like to learn more about the real-world benefits and ROI being realized by nonprofits and associations in white label social media, please click here.
 

We’re putting together a four-part series of informative blog articles on evaluating social media deployments, covering initial research to beyond launch. Deploying white label social networking communities can be confusing and complicated, which is why we would like to take you on a step-by-step approach, from initial research to beyond launch.

This post is about establishing goals and starting research. Stay tuned for weekly updates—next up is comparing vendors and evaluating platforms.

Without a doubt, researching a white label community deployment can be complex and time-consuming. The question is, how should you initiate such a research project, how can you best take it step by step, from evaluating vendors to launch strategy and beyond. Today we take a look at how associations and nonprofits might get started on their social media platform evaluation.

Begin by Compiling Reasons for Launching a Community

What do you expect to accomplish with your new online community? First, identify the person or department in your organization that is best suited to spearhead this type of demanding project.
Which department should lead the way? Marketing...Communications...IT... Development...or perhaps even the executive staff should be in charge. But in the end, it probably makes sense to pick the department that has the right resources to create value from the community after deployment.

First, create a definitive list of precise objectives that need to be realized with the online community. Here are a few examples:
-Ultimately, what level of return on investment (ROI) do you expect to achieve?
-When do you expect to see this ROI?
-What are your expectations about a timeframe for the deployment?
-What do you want constituents or members to do in your online community?
-How many staff members can you dedicate to the administration and marketing of the community?

Define the Technical Considerations that Will Affect the Performance of Your Community

Your organization will face the same challenges before and after an online community deployment...fundraising and/or dues collection...membership growth...connection to and engagement with members...healthy participation in causes and/or events. The list goes on.

You should definitely consider the depth of integration your social media platform will offer with your existing databases:
-Do you want your community provider to offer seamless integration with your management systems so that your member data can be fully utilized?
-How deep does integration with your AMS/CMS database need to run? Do you need to socially-enable fundraising, advocacy or other programs that are powered by these systems?

Which Current Programs Would You Like to Socially Enable? Which New Programs Would You Like to Create?

 

Make a list of the important initiatives you already have in place to benefit your members. If these programs are effective and popular, chances are you can take them to greater heights with social media. Exceed constituents’ expectations in these suggested areas:

 

-Events participation

-Chapter meetings and sessions

-Group/committee creation

-Causes and Mission actions

-Online classrooms/certification -Interactive Supplier Directory

Think creatively about new programs/concepts that might engage, educate and enlighten your constituents within activities that help deliver a more meaningful social networking experience in your newly deployed community:

-Consider launching campaigns that boost Advocacy and leverage

the power of your constituents’ networks

-Think about creating social groups or committees that work in conjunction with your online training programs

-Keep in mind how you can more fully engage your supporters with socially-enabled Knowledge Sharing 

-Analyze how thought leaders in your community might go about driving discussions and action commitments around important causes

 

If you would like to learn more about the real-world benefits and ROI being realized by nonprofits and associations in white label communities from ThePort Network, please click here.

In performing your due diligence regarding a white label community deployment, keep in mind that your online community’s functionality is only as good as its hosting performance. Have you compared the costs and reliability quotient of in-house hosting versus affordable shared hosting? Which data center Tier rating do you think offers the best value in security and dependability?

Overview of Data Center Ratings

To succinctly summarize the difference, Tier I represents the most basic type of hosting with a greater risk of downtime for your community. Tier I rated data centers represent the prototype first developed in the 1960s. Tier II complexes offer minor improvements, including servers that are positioned higher off the center’s floor than Tier I, but Tier IIs have also been around since 1970.

Moving from Tier I to Tier IV, one of the biggest differences is built-in redundancy or delivery paths. When Tier I and Tier II centers go down, they’re down. Tier III hosting offers one passive backup delivery path to your active data stream. Tier IV centers provide two full-time, active delivery paths.

For example, ThePort Network’s state-of-the-art Tier IV data center delivers hosting with double-redundancy backup that even includes diesel generators in case of a total power outage.

Quick Comparison of Data Center Tiers

Tier I - Delivery Paths: 1. Raised Floor Ratio to Overall Space: 20%. Raised Floor Height: 12”. Year First Deployed: 1965. Average Annual Downtime: 28.8 hrs. Site Availability: 99.671%.

Tier II - Delivery Paths: 1. Raised Floor Ratio to Overall Space: 30%. Raised Floor Height: 18”. Year First Deployed: 1970. Average Annual Downtime: 22 hrs. Site Availability: 99.749%.

Tier III - Delivery Paths: 1 active, 1 passive. Raised Floor Ratio to Overall Space: 80%-90%. Raised Floor Height: 30”-36”. Year First Deployed: 1985. Average Annual Downtime: 1.6 hrs. Site Availability: 99.982%.

Tier IV - Delivery Paths: 2 active, Raised Floor Ratio to Overall Space: 100%. Raised Floor Height: 30”-36”. Year First Deployed: 1995. Average Annual Downtime: .4 hrs. Site Availability: 99.995%.

A Brief Story about a Company Which Decided Not to Go with a Tier IV Data Center

For an example of the real dangers and aftermath of not selecting a Tier IV data center to host your servers, read this story about Rackspace. Rackspace is a global web host which experienced a critical interruption in its sole power display for a number of hours, causing websites for thousands of customers to go down when their servers lost power.

 

Smart, Secure, Affordable Shared Hosting

ThePort Network keeps costs reasonable for its clients by offering shared website hosting in a state-of-the-art, super-redundant Tier IV data center. Together, ThePort and its dozens of clients share the cost of data center operation and vital server maintenance. Everything is included in the cost of the subscription agreement—no additional fees for reliable, high-performance hosting for the life of the contract.

In addition, ThePort’s world-class Tier IV data center features the latest in security, such as bio-key and physical key, along with sophisticated firewalls and vulnerability scanning to protect against viruses, malware, spyware and malicious hacking.

Administration of the servers and center is implemented and maintained by ThePort as part of your contract. Over time, the savings of shared hosting versus internal or dedicated hosting add up.

Questions for Your Software Vendor or SaaS Provider

In your research about data centers and community hosting, try to include a few of these logical questions:


* What is the uptime record over the past 90 days?
* How many backup generators do they have to keep the power running in the event of a power loss?
* Do they provide you with an uninterruptible power supply (UPS)?
* Does the data center have a powerful cooling system that keeps temperatures down to at least 60 or 70 degrees Fahrenheit so that servers and computers are kept cool?
* How sophisticated is the fire prevention system?
* Are system administrators on staff 24x7?
* Will they give you a list of customers you can contact as references?

If you would like to learn more about ThePort’s Tier IV data center and the benefits of secure, shared hosting, click here.