Since the explosion of social media on the internet has become reality, every organization is looking for ways to leverage the power of online networking. But for nonprofit and association leadership and marketing teams, there may be potholes in the path to success.

5) Social Media Isn’t Media

Those new to social media and social networking sometimes lose sight of its true nature. Social media is, in fact, a new (yet very human) form of interaction in a relatively new medium, the worldwide web. Social networking is the new form of connecting with others and sharing communications in a public format.

In terms of marketing and advertising linked to a social networking community, you can conduct marketing campaigns and advertising buys just as you can with other media. In other words, social media is more an evolution in format than it is a revolution in advertising. Regardless, as indicated in myth number 4, an investment in a private label social community definitely demands a significant marketing investment.

4) If You Build It, They Will Come

For those of us close to social media--those of us who passionately believe in it--social networking certainly has magical qualities. But online networking is not the Field of Dreams. If you build a community, especially if you integrate it with your existing brand, then you need to actively support it before and after its launch.

Aside from a branded, proprietary community, the same Field of Dreams caution applies to launching a Facebook group or page. Just because you set it up doesn’t mean your active area of a megalithic online community will drive awareness for your brand or causes. Add to that barrier the fact that Facebook can never fully represent your brand, and you have a recipe for disappointment in the engagement of social media. A better tack might be the strategy of a white label community vigorously supported by predetermined marketing resources.

3) IT Security Risks Are Not Common in Administrating a Social Community

That depends. With an out-of-the-box, less integrated online presence, security breeches, beginning with spam and spiraling to viral attacks, can require frequent “hot fixes” or even culminate in a community shut-down when you least expect it. On the other hand, if you choose to deploy a platform powered by a SaaS provider on a subscription basis, the community can be hosted on your vendor’s servers and monitored by their IT professionals. This warrants an investigation into the security of your vendor’s IT infrastructure.

The decision to leave IT administration up to your SaaS partner eliminates security risks to your organization’s systems. A well-qualified SaaS provider will consistently make your community’s performance a high priority, reducing headaches, man-hours and around-the-clock oversight otherwise attached to your IT staff.

2) As Always, Quality Social Relationships Are Built More Offline than Online

Every day, more and more, online networking is proving that social community interaction can be positively rewarding, enlightening, even inspiring. When you engage with a like-minded individual in a community atmosphere of comparable interest and respect, you have the chance of creating a dedicated, lasting relationship that can bridge virtual and real worlds.

A socially-infused community wrapped around your organization’s identity gives you the opportunity of connecting and communicating face-to-face with freely registered individuals who are truly your target audience. Brand stature and growth among these active members can provide your organization with long-term, high-quality benefits.

1) Social Media Won’t Last

From the dawn of early social networking prototypes on the internet, skeptics have denounced social interaction on the worldwide web as an overhyped fad. In the beginning, critics claimed that individuals who participated in and enjoyed social networking communities were simply wasting their shared time together.

Certainly at its current development in 2009, the phenomenal traction of online social media is far more than a fad or indulgence. The amazing growth of MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, and so many other internet destinations is no accident. The adoption of private label social communities by so many leading nonprofits and trade associations is not a coincidence either.

While social media will undoubtedly evolve in the future, its power and value, just like that of the worldwide web itself, is firmly established in the daily routines of people in every corner of our planet. Put simply, the internet is inherently a social platform. The ability of people all around the world to connect and communicate without geographical boundaries is what makes social networking so appealing, and ultimately enduring.

As always, we encourage your comments if you have thoughts about social media, social networking and the remarkable growth of social interaction on the internet.

Whether your IT department is large or small, social networking sites demand special skill sets and specific engineering expertise. Communicate these points to your IT resources and start an objective conversation before moving forward about the possibility of using a SaaS vendor.

Know clearly what you want to accomplish

For an implementation to succeed, you need to have a clear understanding of what you want to accomplish. Unless you do, a vendor will be the one to help you define your needs, and your platform will end up based on their ideas. Be certain your IT personnel know they will be involved in any dialogue with a potential vendor, start to finish.

If your goal is rapid ROI, make sure IT knows this

Whether it’s common knowledge or stated formally, every department is aware of its limitations. Hosted solutions definitely lend themselves to a more rapid deployment which will translate into more rapid ROI. Compare the implementation projections submitted by potential providers to your IT department’s projections. Stick to your goals.

Lay out the upfront costs to IT decision-makers

After consultations with prospective partners, the real-world numbers of your implementation should be clearly spelled out. After all, industry experts estimate a huge savings reward in outsourcing IT development. In fact, the reductions in capital outlay and operating costs will help drive the SaaS market to over $10 billion in revenue by 2011. A trend that powerful is difficult to argue with.

Start a dialogue about the breadth of your ITdepartment

Smaller companies, especially, should be cautious about implementing a large in-house social media project. If your IT staff has an obvious bandwidth limit, they will understand the pitfalls of onsite development and engineering. Discuss with your IT director whether his or her staff is prepared to take charge of security, management and connectivity for the long haul. An agreeable consensus should come to light sooner rather than later. If your breadth of IT resources is limited, the services of a SaaS provider really begins to make sense.

Find a balance between aggressive and realistic objectives

Ask for your IT leaders’ input on goal-setting. Empower them to do an independent analysis of a planned social media project’s demands on human resources and physical capacity, then together, compare the costs and scheduling estimates to the submissions of your top vendor prospect. Again, agreement over the comparisons should evolve.

Let your IT people know you trust them

Take a look at point number six in this article at TechRepublic.

If your IT manager(s) and staff know you have faith in their abilities, they won’t feel slighted when a large-scale implementation is outsourced for the right reasons. Communicate your belief that IT is who you rely on when problems need to be solved and deadlines have to be met. Convey the realization that their core competencies will continue to grow and contribute to your organization’s success—even without the crush of a major social media deployment.

Please comment if you have thoughts about your IT department’s involvement in

Nonprofit and association organizations are benefiting—at an accelerating pace—from the deployment of white label communities that boast flexible social spaces where members gather. The many forms of social spaces can be tailored to perfectly reflect your community’s activities, your organization’s goals and your members’ most compelling interests.

Social Spaces are innovative, socially-enabled places that consistently drive interaction in every type of nonprofit or association community. With Social Spaces, you can create unique gathering places that make sense for your community members. ThePort Network’s experience with Social Spaces goes far beyond the standard “social group.” ThePort’s Social Spaces not only match your constituents’ interests, they are logically linked to your organization’s fundamental objectives.

 
Chapters, Committees, Executive Officers, and Fundraising Teams are all good examples of productive, task-oriented Social Spaces. In addition, Social Spaces can be customized with unique names, descriptions, profile fields and taxonomies. As an added feature, Social Spaces can be public or private. For example, Restaurant Facility Management Association (RFMA) has created private committees within its community where designated officials interact and work on association business.

Social Spaces serve as important community hubs and attract like-minded members who can communicate, share documents, along with a variety of content. Every Social Space has its own blog, photo album, video gallery and comments that stimulate user engagement and activity.
ThePort Difference: ThePort Social Spaces is the only social media technology that lets you define and create 100% unique gathering places that make sense for your members and constituents.

In real-world use, ThePort Network clients are making the most of dynamic online destinations infused with Social Spaces activity. For example, in Sierra Club’s Climate Crossroads community, members flock to Social Spaces called Actions where they team up on specific environmental issues such as Plastics Pledge, Guerrilla Forestry and Letters to the President.

In a different type of Social Spaces use, United Church of Christ encourages members of its MyUCC community to create unique Groups that support church activities and collaboration. One group is designed for UCC clergy under the age of 40; another group, Advocates for Immigrants, dedicates its activities to promoting humane immigration reform.

Harnessing the power of geography and a sense of belonging, many Lee Enterprises’ newspaper-linked online communities make Neighborhoods prominent Social Spaces for their members. For instance, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch MySTLToday community features a landing page with over a dozen possible neighborhoods to join. The landing page is complete with display ads from local advertisers.

If you would like to learn more about the real-world benefits being realized by nonprofits and associations with online communities, please click here.

 Knowing what to expect prior to launching a white label community is essential, every step of the way. Now that you have chosen your online community provider, there is a process which takes place, beginning with your community configuration and continuing to the date of deployment. We will discuss deployment strategies in our next series’ post. Nonprofits and associations, especially, should expect the step-by-step timeline to reflect the following basic elements. Please note, however, that the complexity of the chosen platform will affect the completion of each step as well as the overall timeline.

1) Review the Project Specification Document from Your Vendor
The next step should be a detailed project specification. Look for an initial document that is in-depth yet flexible enough to incorporate critical changes. This important handoff should include a final community design mock-up.  Make sure to devote quality time to reviewing it. Carefully check the details and proposed functionality. The project specification should include feature descriptions, a timeline, along with roles and responsibilities of both parties. Sign off on the specifications and mock-up.

2) Receive the Formal Configuration Document for the Community
Approve all of the specification elements as well as module positioning, advertising scripts and url/domain name.  This is the outline for how your community will look and function when it is completed. 

3) Gather the Necessary Resources from Your Organization
Your social networking community provider should provide details on exactly which members of your team will need to be  involved in the building of your community. Most likely, members of your technical, web, and communications teams will  need to be present at minimum. These teams will need to be able to address questions around your databases, website, branding and messaging.

4) Create the Project Timeline

So that your vendor can furnish a detailed, accurate project specification, you need to think about some of your community’s critical elements:

- If your organization is implementing Single Sign On with the community, plan out the steps to procure the technical information your community supplier needs to implement single sign on. If SSO with a custom-built database is being implement, you will need a technical resource on standby to work with your social networking community provider. Utilizing management systems from a provider such as Avectra, Blackbaud, Convio or TMA Resources will expedite the process, as these systems have standard Single-Sign-On procedures and tools that can help the process move faster

-Think about the look and feel of your community. Do you want the socially-enabled side of your web presence to perfectly reflect your website, or would you prefer the community to be unique? If you are creating a new look for your community, you'll need a designer that can work with you, and you'll also need to work with your community provider to ensure the CSS of your new community reflects the updated design

 -At the least, you will need to furnish your community provider with your website's header and footer so it can be plugged into your community design

-Because your website and servers have unique DNS settings, you will need to reconfigure them to create a unique subdomain for the new community (community.yourwebsite.com). Also, decide upon an appealing domain name that reflects your community and its mission.

It is important, as you create the project plan for the community, that you have gained appropriate buy-in from all departments involved in the community and get them to commit to project deliverables.

5) Construction and Branding of the Community
Your provider will tailor the platform to your needs in terms of design, branding and functionality. This may take as little as a week or months, depending on the configuration and sophistication of your community.  Gathering all of the required information from your organization's different departments in a timely manner will improve the time-to-launch for your community.

6) Community Walk-Through Followed by Q&A
Once the community construction and design has been completed by your providers, give the community close scrutiny and a rigorous trial.  Your provider should adhere to industry-standard Q&A and testing practices before releasing your community.  Key members of your organization should also take time to test all of the different components of the community, ensure that the organization's message and branding is properly reflected, and ensure that the community's work flow will make sense to your organization's members and constituents.

7) Final Review and Acceptance
Prior to deployment, you will have the opportunity to formally review your new community. When your team is satisfied, you will be expected to sign and return an acceptance certificate.

The final step in the process is launching the community and getting your members and constituents to join the community—we'll cover this next week.

Evaluating the process of a social networking deployment can be complicated. It is our hope that these common steps will aid 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.

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.

ThePort has important news for its valued clients, esteemed partners and potential new customers. On Thursday, July 23, 2009, ThePort deployed a groundbreaking 3rd Quarter Global Version Release. As a result of this release, we are delighted to tell you about several fresh product updates and exciting new features.

 

Platform Enhancements

 The successful implementation of the July 23 release means these useful improvements will be present in all communities.

· Plaxo Invitation Widget – Community users and administrators can now import contacts from multiple address books directly from the community. Yahoo, Outlook, Gmail, Hotmail and Plaxo address books are all supported. Community, Friend, Group/Social Object and Event invitations will now include a Plaxo widget with the invitation.

· Group Bulletin Email Notifications – Group Bulletins will now automatically send email notifications to all Group Members. Users then have the ability to manage from which Groups they would like to receive email notifications.

 

New Features

After successful Beta testing, ThePort is pleased to announce the following features are now generally available as add-on services. If your organization is interested in further exploring implementing any of these new features, we encourage you to contact your account manager for additional details and pricing.

Activity Feeds – a major new upgrade, Activity Stream will give all community members, particularly active ones, a compelling new reason to visit the site more often and become more involved with their peers. Checking updates in the stream will help users more actively explore their fellow members’ profiles and actions. The result? Members are more likely to discover events, causes and discussions  they may not have found on their own.

Document Sharing – new Document Share will give our clients the ability to motivate their users and groups to upload and share documents. This release includes the capabilities of uploading, viewing and commenting on documents in the community. The same administrative controls currently used in the community will apply and virus-checking will be included.

Forums at the Group Level – This new feature will allow groups to create their own Forums and thereby inspire members to engage in discussions with others sharing similar interests. Group Forums will also be accessible within the Community Forums but will only be visible to members of the specific Group and Forum Administrators. Each Group will have the option to decide whether or not it wants to allow Forums.

“AddThis” Functionality – AddThis facilitates social sharing and bookmarking of community pages and content modules to other popular social sites including Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and so on. This new community feature will allow you and your members to share community content (including User Profiles, User Blogs / User Blog Entries, User Photos Albums / User Photos, User Video Albums / User Videos, as well as Group-linked Profiles, Blogs, Photos Albums, Photos, Video Albums, Videos, plus Event Profiles and Feed Roll Articles) with other social sites your organization utilizes. Another important asset of AddThis is that it creates the opportunity for you to market your private label community to your constituents’ existing networks.

Twitter News Feed – This new feature will allow registered Twitter members with a valid Twitter user name to display Twitter feeds on individual user or group profiles.