The Burning Need for Social Interaction

There are many people who always talk about being with the times. There is a need to accept new ideas and be in sync with things happening around us! Pull on a flowered shirt today and you are considered old fashioned! A desktop is no longer the most-sought after commodity with the arrival of laptops.

As we know that tastes change, preferences can change but there are some things that should hopefully never change. (Things that bring about a smile to our face such as sumptuous home-cooked meals or listening to the pitter-patter of the raindrops!)

As the Internet rules our lives, things surely have taken a different turn in the new age. The reason could be to shop, lookup information, bank online, search for a new eat-out, etc. The Internet serves as a medium for our every need. But then, in a fast-paced environment, how connected are we really? Actual interaction between people has reduced visibly, as users resort to social interaction online.

Social interaction is required not only on a personal one-to-one basis, but even online. Net addicts turn to chat to find friends and connect. A website that contains these modes to connect with users is most popular. Social networking sites such as Facebook or Orkut are therefore successful as users sign up to stay connected with old friends or discover new friends! It’s time we embrace the change and equip ourselves in the best possible way!

The Much-Needed Factor for Websites: Social Interaction

The other day, I was checking my mail and I realized I had received an email from a very earnest person. I wish to share some of his concerns with you.

It went in this manner….

“I have a very talented design team who has used their creativity to come up with an excellent design for my product site. The website includes a display of all the products with details required by my consumers. It also contains a varied range! Yet, I feel that I do not have the right kind of response that I wish to generate for this website. Please have a look at my website and kindly let me know where the problem exists for the site.”

The first thing that struck me after reading this post was that if the website is good then why should he seek feedback a person who has never visited his website before? It would definitely make sense to talk to his visitors directly and check out their views and opinions. Well, still wearing a critique’s hat I surfed through this website to see what could be the issue.

My first impression was exactly how the mail stated; it was attractive and interesting to look at. I could view all the pages with ease. Yet, there was an element that seemed missing from the picture.

I saw everything seemed fine in terms of design. The missing piece seemed the lack of activity on the web page! The web pages and their product display played the function of attracting the users. The thing about the website was that it did not create any action for the user!

The website basically lacked a very important factor - creation of social interaction amongst users. This is why the website owner did not receive the desired results. One may wonder what the importance of social interaction is! The answer lies in the results which are seen after the use of social interaction!

What happened here was that due to lack of interaction with the consumer, the website owner had to resort to seeking my advice. This not only created a longer channel for the website owner, it did not give him the chance of knowing the consumer opinions!

The use of social interaction on the web pages would solve many things! This gives the website owner a chance to interact with the users online. Users can put forth their views. This gives better and faster results once the changes are implemented. These changes when implemented also make consumers feel that their suggestions are valued. It only generates loyal traffic for the website!

One can use many ways to interact with users. The use of a Presentation slide show that showcases the latest achievements of the week may garner more interest. This can make a user take active interest and watch the slide show of the products, either to submit comments or view those from other users.

The website users should also get a chance to interact with each other that helps them to discover more about the options being offered on a website. There could be an FAQ, which users refer to for information posted on a website. They can also ask their questions to which other users or a website owner can answer. In this manner, live chats, sharing of images or links can be utilized to make the whole experience socially interactive!

Implementing social interaction on a website helps users to interact amongst each other, which in turn proves to be useful for a website. Apart from creative presentations, a website that obtains feedback from users will get better results!

This is what I finally replied to the email I had received. I received a long email thereafter that thanked me for everything!

Five Tips for Building a Successful Online Community

We are all aware about online communities and how they bring about like-minded people together. These are now touted as one of the busiest places online. Although setting up an online community is definitely not rocket science, there is more to it than meets the eye! A community manager needs to be prepared to tackle things in the appropriate manner to ensure active participation in the community to make it a ‘go to’ place for its target audience.

There’s no secret to building communities online…but there’s surely a basic formula for its success. Let me share with you five tips that you must get right to build a successful online community!

1. Content Should be Classified

An online community that contains a haphazard display of information only leads to more confusion! A user needs information to be classified properly while searching for it. A threaded discussion will increase interaction amongst users. A structured and organized approached ensures better participation from users.

2. Allow Users to Interact and Express their Opinions

To ensure you achieve a success rate for your online community, you must allow users to interact freely and let them be a judge of the activities. A user needs to be able to express her/his views freely. For example, if a user likes a particular post; he/she should be able to vote for it. Or if the user gets an answer to a query, he/she should be able to mark it as complete so that others know the thread has been ended successfully. Allow users to judge each other so that it builds an appropriate environment for the community.

3. Follow the Basic Rules of Netiquette

The basic purpose of a community is to provide an exclusive space online, for people to interact and discuss. In that case, every user needs to be given freedom to post his/her views as long as it adheres to the rules of the community. Answers that are posted to questions can be replied with a simple ‘Thank You’. This can work wonders! Appreciation for other users is important. That’s what netiquette is all about!

4. Easy-to-Use Tools/Features

To build a successful community online also requires the use of appropriate tools. Some of the most commonly used community building tools are chats, message boards, emails, etc. These tools should be easy-to-use to ensure easy social interaction amongst users. Social community tools should make interaction exciting and provide options such as email alerts that keep a user informed about any new post in a thread. Addition of useful features in a structured way without disrupting the natural flow of conversation is very important for successful community building.

5. Ensure Good Leadership

A successful community needs a good leader or a moderator who takes care of the content and the social interactions amongst users. A good moderator is one who ensures the right kind of attitude is maintained throughout the forums being discussed. A moderator who does not weigh down his/her presence yet ensures decorum is maintained is bound to have a more interactive and focused community. A community can have more than one moderator or expert panel to ensure that the responsibilities are divided.

A successful community thus needs the combination of right features and tools and all the points mentioned above. Eventually, community managers would hope for a tool that encompasses all the above points.

TeemingPod is a tool that is very apt for setting up a community for all the above stated reasons. With TeemingPod, you get to use different activities such as Presentation, Ideation, Spot Polls, Discussions, etc which are needed to keep a community informative and engaging. Apart from this, features such as email alerts and rating allow more options through one mode. It allows users to extract useful information in a PDF format for their future usage which is a unique advantage for community users. All this is possible without straying away from the main page. This ensures that attention is concentrated on one spot despite many activities being carried out by users.

Although the Internet trends have changed over the years, the bottom line remains that users love sharing and interacting online, amongst each other. After all, enhancing this user experience is what TeemingPod does best!