Resources

Connections Vol. 3 Issue 1 Winter 2008

Community Building 101

User Communities Create Repeat Visitors, Buyers

By: Blaine R. Hilton

1-877-5-BLAINE

An ongoing issue for many web site owners is how to keep people on their sites for a longer length of time, and have them keep coming back for more. Repeat visitors have a greater tendency of becoming buyers, and buyers that keep coming back tend to buy more each time.

One of the best ways of reaching out to your existing users and keeping them coming back is by making them feel welcome and making them part of your user community. Community is defined as a group of people with common characteristics. In the past, this was largely defined by a geographic sense. However with the advent of the internet and globalization, community today can also refer to people who have other common characteristics, such as a group of plant workers across the globe who face the same problems.

Turning your web site visitors into members of a well built community is an extremely powerful tool that can position you and your company to be thought of as a thought leader in your field.

Before talking about the various methods that you can use to build this virtual community, you must first realize that any of these methods require time and dedication. Rome was not built in a day and neither will your community. Any of these techniques must be thought out and implemented for the long term. If you try it for only a month or two you will fail.

Mailing List

Most people are familiar with the concept of mailing lists. On your web site, you have a small form that asks the visitor for their email address (and possibly other information) and then they get added to your list. You then create messages that when sent to the list go out to all of the people who have signed up, which is called 'opting in'.

Mailing lists are a great way to keep a large number of people informed about what is going on with your organization on a regular basis. The users usually have no way to interact with each other; they only receive what you send out.

The nice thing about this is that you do not have to worry about monitoring what other people are saying, because they can't say anything. It is also the easiest for both you as the one creating the messages and your users who have the easiest registration process.

Message Board / Forum

For situations where you want your community members to not just be able to listen to you, but to talk to others and share content and ask questions, then a forum is a great way to do that. Forum software is very powerful, while still being pretty easy for anyone to learn and use.

The basic principle behind a forum is you have an area on your web site where users can post messages and then others can reply to those messages. The messages are viewed on the web site. Depending on your settings there are many possibilities in regards to permissions. You can require that users sign up before they can post, or even read anything on the forum. You can also configure it to not allow a posting to be posted live for the public until it has been reviewed and approved by a moderator, which can be you or others that have your permission. The great thing about a forum is that it allows your community members to interact with each other. You can have people sharing like experiences and learning from each other. The downside is you (or someone you appoint) will need to monitor what goes on to ensure that inappropriate content is not posted.

Wiki

A wiki is a great tool that allows your community members to not just post messages as with a forum, but to truly create whole pages of content. The best example of the power behind a wiki is Wikipedia (www.wikipedia.org). The entire site was created by volunteers working together.

As with a forum, you will need to monitor what is happening on your site and you can also configure permissions. Many organizations can also benefit from installing a wiki based system internally to be used by staff members. Wikis used in this fashion are a great way of breaking down silos between departments and pooling stored information and processes from staff into something that is documented and repeatable.

Blog

Online journals, weblogs, or just blogs have taken the internet by storm recently with their growing popularity. At its root, a blog is simply a series of chronological entries by a single author. is is usually in the form of a journal where a corporate official will regularly make entries and then other visitors can comment on the entries.

The main downside to blogs is that people start them, but do not realize the amount of time and effort to regularly publish high quality entries.

Chat Room

Chat rooms provide live interactive discussion by people who are gathered together at the same time. As soon as you enter your comment it is posted for everyone in the room to see and they can likewise reply immediately.

Chat rooms have really lost popularity because it is hard to get enough people in the room at one time. If a visitor goes to your site and enters a chat room that is empty, chances are they will not be returning.

Where they shine is when you have set times for scheduled meetings and you have a large user base. Once you have users in the room, you also need to be aware of what can happen. Someone that is chatting may make inappropriate comments, and while you can block people and kick them out it may be that the damage is already done.

Webcasts

Webcasts are usually done through a service provider such as WebEx that allows you to set up the meeting in a variety of ways. You typically would schedule a time for the webcast and you, as the presenter, would be able to communicate with all of the people listening in. However, they generally can not talk or interact with each other. All of the listeners will have a web site that they go to and sometimes there is also a phone number that they will dial into using their telephone to hear the audio portion.

Webcasts can be a bit expensive to conduct, but they are a great way of presenting to people from across the country, and the globe. If you compare the costs of conducting a meeting through a webcast verses travel costs then this way is much cheaper.

Typically you would have a link and/or form on your own web site where potential attendees would register. The webcast itself would not take place directly on your web site, but rather through the software provided from the service provider you choose.

Extended Validation Certificates

and What They Mean to You

By: James R. Dragoo, Jr.

1-877-5-BLAINE

Have you ever been shopping online and noticed that when you checked out or put in your credit card information that a padlock icon appeared in the bottom of your browser? This icon indicates that the site you are using has a valid Secure Socket Layer (SSL). This SSL certicate veries that your credit card and other data that you enter is being encrypted and transmitted through a secure server.

The way that these SSL certificates work is quite simple. A company applies to have an SSL certificate added to their web site. They submit this information to the Certificate Authority, the committee that governs security certicates and the guidelines for issuing them. If the information that they supply matches the registration information associated with the domain name then an SSL certificate is issued to that site. The problem is that some "phishing" sites have started to use SSL certificates to make their sites look more credible. "Phishing" sites pose as legitimate sites but in actuality steal your credit card and identity information. The fact that these sites are beginning to use SSL certificates is bad news.

In an attempt to remedy this situation, the certificate authority has introduced the Extended Validation (EV) Certificate. An Extended Validation Certificate is a special type of X.509 certificate, which requires more extensive investigation of the company that is applying for the certificate before being issued.

Unlike the standard SSL certificate, applicants of an EV certificate must verify much more than just their domain information. They must verify their legal identity as well as their operational and physical presence. They must also prove that they have exclusive control over their web site. If an outside company maintains the web site, documentation about this outside company must also be submitted and verified. All of this information has to be signed by an authorized officer of the company.

As of right now the biggest problem with the EV certificate is that it can not be issued to sole proprietorship or partner companies. Many people believe that this can hurt smaller "Mom and Pop" companies as they may not be able to get a certificate at this time. The Certificate Authority is currently working to come up with guidelines for validating these forms of companies so that they may also be included. Even when the Certificate Authority comes up with guidelines for these companies the price of the EV certificate may be a hurdle for some small companies. The price of a standard SSL certificate is approximately $50 annually as opposed to the EV certiifcate that costs around $500 annually.

You may be saying to yourself "what is the advantage of paying at least $450 more for this EV certificate?" Starting very soon internet browsers will be able to tell which sites have these EV certificates and which do not. Internet Explorer 7 (the current version of Internet Explorer as of this article) has an add-on that can tell if a site has an EV certificate or not. If the web site has an EV certificate the address bar will turn green, telling the user that it is safe to purchase from this site. In addition, this same add-on shows the address bar in red if the web site has been identified as a "phishing" site. If your site has the standard SSL certificate the address bar will remain white. Most of the other major browsers such as Firefox and Opera have announced that they will offer similar EV certificate recognition in future releases.

Many people suspect that internet users will be more likely to purchase from web sites that show a green address bar rather than a white. It will also be a blow to the "phishing" sites as they will display in red. However, some early studies have shown that while internet users avoid "red sites," they are just as likely to buy from a "white site" as a "green site" as long as they trust the "white site."

It remains to be seen whether these new EV certificates will make a significant difference as to what sites internet users choose to buy from. However, it is important for business owners and others who sell on the internet to be aware of this new security certificate and make an informed decision as to what course of action their company will take.