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LINKEDIN-2For quite some time now CNP Integrations has been discussing ideas and our experiences of building online communities with the Joomla platform. We do this because we are passionate about helping folks achieve successful online experiences and want them to connect better with their unique communities of interest. Though we specialize in the Joomla CMS as our web tools of choice, the principles for building effective online communities are universal and independent of the technology we specialize in. In fact most of the concepts around building sound communities are actually independent of any technology since it all boils down to human needs and how we interact socially.

I recently read a great book recommended to me by Brian Teeman, one of the founders of the Joomla community called “The Art of Community”. I thought the author Jono Bacon was very insightful and I found on his web site that he has started an annual event called the Community Leadership Summit. This event is for online community managers to interact with like-minded folks and learn from each other’s experiences. The unique way they structure this conference looks very interesting because as a participant you help define the topics discussed and elements about online community development that are explored.

The next event date was just released and I for one will be blocking these dates out on my calendar and I thought our friends that pass by our blog would see value in this as well. I also found it was very interesting how their choice for a logo below was similar to the direction we took in our identity graphics for building communities and our seven pillars of success campaign. We were completely unaware of their summit when we stated our collateral development and rebranding for our company and we must have gone through a parallel thinking process in a similar universe. Shhh... dose anyone else hear the theme from twilight zone in the background like I do?

COMSummitCommunity Leadership Summit 2013 July 20 – 21, 2013, Portland Oregon

Oregon Convention Center 777 NE Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd. Portland, Oregon 97232

Learn more at the web site:

http://www.communityleadershipsummit.com/

The Community Leadership Summit is FREE but requires registration.

http://www.communityleadershipsummit.com/register/

You can also get the book “The art of Community” here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1449312063/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=jobaho-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1449312063

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JD Boston-welcomeA hardy “Joomie” crowd gathered this past Saturday March 16th at the Microsoft NERD center for the first ever Joomla Day Boston event http://joomladayboston.com. Considering all of the other activities surrounding St. Patricks’ day the turnout was quite good and there were some great new faces on the scene. Kudo’s to Dianne Henning and the many others that contributed to making this a super fun, well organized and informative event.

JD Boston-CNP-TeamCNP Integrations was a sponsor of this event and I had the privilege to present seven pillars of success for building websites that connect with communities. Whether you have been around Joomla for a long time like I have or a newbie you always learn something interesting and make new friends. For us that work online most of our days it is nice when some of the folks you interact with online show up so you can put a face and personality with the often numerous chat conversations you have while mingling around the Joomla ecosystem.

We saw a lot of new faces to the community and even brought a couple folks from our team that have been old hands at working with Joomla but not yet had a chance to get to a Joomla Day event. An exciting part for me at these events is not only to see the diversity of the participants but once folks come to a Joomla event they cannot help but to get energized and interested in finding out how they can get more involved in the Joomla Community itself.

If you want to get more involved, there is a new community outreach initiative with the addition of David Hurley from the PLT and a new role created for Dianne Henning with the OSM. David has been campaigning at all of the Joomla Day events so far this year and moving forward they will now be collaborating on getting the Joomla message out and inspiring new folks to get involved in the community. For more info contact David: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

JD Boston Paul SaviorlabsThe highlight for me at the Boston Joomla Day was Paul D. Parisi’s presentation on site performance optimization. He is starting a new business around this service model and he had some great ideas and experience to share; http://www.saviorlabs.com. With the ever changing technology and platforms/frameworks they are built on there is a big need in my opinion for services targeted at performance optimization. I also liked Elin’s presentation about some of the great new features in Joomla 3.0 and the upcoming release of J3.1 (March 26th). I for one am looking forward to using the new Tags feature since this will provide a whole new dimension for organizing content and easily searching for it.

Paul Orwig gave the keynote and though his simple PowerPoint was derailed by technical difficulties in the beginning the proverb takeaway he left us with has really stuck form me. It is something we “Joomies” need to always keep in mind whether we are a team of one or a team of many. “If we want to go fast we go it alone but if we want to go far we go together” I am paraphrasing but this concept sets the stage for us to be thinking of the greatness we can achieve pooling our talents in a common direction. There are infinite possibilities ahead if we can keep enthusiastic, pitch in where we can, invite others to get involved and continue to make being part of the community a rewarding and fun experience for everyone.

We hope to see you all and the next Joomla Day events coming up. Stay tuned to the Joomla Event Page for more info. http://events.joomla.org/all-events/21-joomla-days.html

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Building Communities around your businessOne of the common misconceptions about online community building is really what it is and where it fits in. If you think about it just about any web site is part of a community. It is important to realize that your community already exists regardless of your web technologies, so the question to answer is how will you actually connect with it? If you run a business you have a community of customers, vendors and even competitors that you interact with. How you interact with these folks and what you do to help them feel more connected to you and each other can set you apart from your competition and build on your brand equity. Your web portal might be a missed opportunity in making these connections stronger.

Humans want to talk to other humans

You will most likely use your web portal and hopefully many other online tools to communicate and connect to your community and the degree of which your technology is part of this and which bucket you put your efforts into may vary but the one thing that is paramount to realize is that people do not want to talk to technology but rather they want to make some type of social connection with other humans. This is why you cannot just go through the motions with building a community. You have to truly care about the members you want to attract and you have to be giving back to them and listening to what they are asking for. The better job in doing this you can do then the more success you can achieve.

Manage relationships on your customers terms shows that you care

In business how you manage your customer relationships is one of the most important elements of success or failure. With social networks becoming more of a norm integrating customer relationship management, customer service and a social community will be not an option but an expectation if you are doing any business or interactions with your clients online. It is also important to remember that where you communicate and how you communicate is more and more being dictated by your customers and it is ultimately your responsibility to reach them where and how they want to be communicated with.

Mapping the right solutions to targeted needs can determine success or failure

There are a lot of advantages to building a community around your business and there are different approaches to doing so, all of which require careful consideration. For example there are great “Community Building” tools that manage activity streams, offer groups, likes, friends etc. but it is important to make sure you map out what tools will actually add value to your community and which will distract them or turn them away. Another example is; does your site warrant membership or not? If you compare self- publishing authors; one has a romance novel and the other a self-help both would not benefit equally from a subscription model. A self-help book could offer reasons for folks to be members of a community for benefits of consulting and perhaps memberships that would generate greater revenue than the book royalties. The romance novel you may need some creative angel to get this type of audience eager to be a member of this sight however you can leverage the site with social networks to generate interest for the next steps of the author’s career or follow on publications, radio television or movies, more publicity etc.. So the point here is to make sure the strategy and business model as they relate to the tools you use and how you use them should be considered very carefully.

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jdnc-debThis first of its kind one day event held at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business had a unique demographic to that of what I have seen at other Joomla events we have attended. The average age was older and there were more women. This is encouraging to see such a diverse group of folks with wide ranging backgrounds participating in these Joomla Day events. Duke University was a beautiful facility for delivering the educational tracks and the adjoining accommodations were first class. Kudos goes out to Jon Neubauer, Deb Cinkus and David Hurley and the many other volunteers for making this a great event and hopefully a growing community in the Southern Region of the US. http://www.joomladaync.org

CNP integrations was a sponsor and thought the JDNC was a great place for us to introduce our new Community Building Success Program where we break down elements of community building into seven pillars of success. The reception of our new approach was very positive and we look forward to improving upon this next workshop planned for Joomla Day Boston on March 16th. http://joomladayboston.com/ FYI: You can download our new brochure on the topic of Community Building here: http://www.cnpintegrations.com/communities/

jdnc-davidIt is always great to get feedback from so many other Joomla developers on common challenges they are facing. I particularly enjoy talking about their client engagements and uniqueness of how they run their businesses (but that is because it helps me run ours better). Steve Burges gave his presentation on the Joomla family tree and this is always interesting to hear how so many folks came into the Joomla project and to see how one person can inspire so many others whom in turn do the same. Another highlight for me was David Hurley’s new presentation on how to get involved in the Joomla community. This is great to see that there is not someone considered an official point of contact for jumping on the Joomla bandwagon and getting involved in a meaningful way. Joomla as a community has grown so large and somewhat complex in its organizational structure and if you are new and filled with enthusiasm you can now have someone to connect with and direct your energy where you can make the biggest contribution. If you are jazzed about getting involved in the Joomla community contact David; This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Overall Joomla Day events are always fun and it is hard to leave one without making new friends and learning something interesting. CNP integrations is proud to be a sponsor of both Joomla day Boston March 16th http://joomladayboston.com/ and Joomla Day New England April 13th http://www.joomladaynewengland.org.

  1. Building Communities With Style
  2. Managing Client Expectations: Part 2
  3. Why Joomla Days Are Important
  4. Top 10 Reasons to Use Joomla! CMS