MastermindMarketingTeam.com - Online Communities and ForumsMastermindMarketingTeam.com publishes a mastermind video portal with an Affiliate Network Guide, Customer Support Guide, Goal Settings Guide, E-Commerce Guide, Product Creation Guide, Promotion Guide, Marketing Mix Guide, Info Product Guide, Making Money Online Guide, MLM Guide, RR-MRR Guide, Viral Marketing, Private Label Rights Guide, Pricing Guide, Online Communities and Forums Guide, and Working From Home Guide. MastermindMarketingTeam.com is for marketing professionals who are interested in learning more about their profession. https://www.mastermindmarketingteam.com/online-communities-and-forums.feed2024-03-29T04:38:00+00:00mastermindmarketingteam.comdebstgeorge@comcast.netJoomla! - Open Source Content ManagementYour Privacy in Online Forums and Communities2013-07-26T02:44:19+00:002013-07-26T02:44:19+00:00https://www.mastermindmarketingteam.com/online-communities-and-forums/161-your-privacy-in-online-forums-and-communities.htmlAdmindebstgeorge@comcast.net<p>
In today's Internet lives, online communities have become a medium of exchange of information or general chatting and keeping up with friends. Whatever is your area of interest, you are most likely to be part of some online community. But how do you protect your privacy in this very open environment? This article aims in telling you just that.<br />
<br />
One of the most important things you need to do before start using a community is to read its Privacy policies. This will give you a general idea about how much information you need to revel to the site and other privacy options available to you. You should also read the 'terms and conditions' of using the site which essentially tells you the policy of the community .If you find somebody who is breaking the community rules you can complain of them and they can be suspended or blocked from using the site. Once you are satisfied with these basic criteria you are ready to sign up for the site.<br />
<br />
Most of the online communities require your full name and email address for creating your user account. If it is a social networking site it might even ask you to create your profile with many personal details like your date of birth, relationship status, home or office address and phone numbers. First of all, if you are uncomfortable in giving these details in an open forum where others can come and view, don't fill up these columns as most of them are optional anyway. In case you want to be selective while giving these details, you can also use the privacy settings provided by your networking site and customize your settings as per your preference .You can also choose to protect your photos and videos from general view by selecting the appropriate settings from them.<br />
<br />
There are other facilities given by most of the online communities to make you feel safe online. In most of networking sites you can block your profile from the general profile search of the site or you can reject the friend request of the person you don’t want to talk to. You can even block a person from sending private messages to you. You can also create a private community with your friends.<br />
<br />
Always leave your email id after lots of thoughts in an online community .These email ids in a public forum are a blessing for the spammers. They just take these email-ids and bombard your mailbox with spam mails.<br />
<br />
{loadposition communitiesforums}</p>
<p>
In today's Internet lives, online communities have become a medium of exchange of information or general chatting and keeping up with friends. Whatever is your area of interest, you are most likely to be part of some online community. But how do you protect your privacy in this very open environment? This article aims in telling you just that.<br />
<br />
One of the most important things you need to do before start using a community is to read its Privacy policies. This will give you a general idea about how much information you need to revel to the site and other privacy options available to you. You should also read the 'terms and conditions' of using the site which essentially tells you the policy of the community .If you find somebody who is breaking the community rules you can complain of them and they can be suspended or blocked from using the site. Once you are satisfied with these basic criteria you are ready to sign up for the site.<br />
<br />
Most of the online communities require your full name and email address for creating your user account. If it is a social networking site it might even ask you to create your profile with many personal details like your date of birth, relationship status, home or office address and phone numbers. First of all, if you are uncomfortable in giving these details in an open forum where others can come and view, don't fill up these columns as most of them are optional anyway. In case you want to be selective while giving these details, you can also use the privacy settings provided by your networking site and customize your settings as per your preference .You can also choose to protect your photos and videos from general view by selecting the appropriate settings from them.<br />
<br />
There are other facilities given by most of the online communities to make you feel safe online. In most of networking sites you can block your profile from the general profile search of the site or you can reject the friend request of the person you don’t want to talk to. You can even block a person from sending private messages to you. You can also create a private community with your friends.<br />
<br />
Always leave your email id after lots of thoughts in an online community .These email ids in a public forum are a blessing for the spammers. They just take these email-ids and bombard your mailbox with spam mails.<br />
<br />
{loadposition communitiesforums}</p>
What are Online Communities?2013-07-26T02:43:23+00:002013-07-26T02:43:23+00:00https://www.mastermindmarketingteam.com/online-communities-and-forums/160-what-are-online-communities.htmlAdmindebstgeorge@comcast.net<p>
What are online communities? An Online community is nothing but a group of likeminded people who decide to interact virtually through internet on some common subject. The strength of this group can vary from two to thousands of people and the subject of interest can be just anything. They can either form a group to discuss cooking recipe or may share their experiences related to a common disease or rather express their opinion about a recent event they strongly feel about. The tools of online communities can be mailing lists or newsgroups or Web conferencing platforms.<br />
<br />
These online communities are not formal structures and the strength of these can vary as any member can decide to draw back his membership at any point of time. The members also do not have any liability to actively participate in day to day activities of the community as these people are from diverse background and may or may not have ever met each other in their lifetime. An example of online community could be employees of an organization, forming a mail group over the intranet provided by their organization.<br />
<br />
The concept of online communities evolved through the proliferation of internet resulting in likeminded people assembling virtually to share their anecdotes. The initial Online communities were TheGlobe.com, GeoCities and TheGlobe.com , GeoCities and Tripod .Later on Yahoo groups ,Google group ,lotus connections took this idea to next level . Recently with the wide spread use of Web 2.0 technologies Orkut, MySpace and HiFive have emerged as big tools of the online communities. Blogging is also a variant of online community pedestal.<br />
<br />
The reasons behind the formation of online communities are many. The primary one being the benefit of large sample of society through formation of a common pool of knowledge regarding a subject. The second but equally important reason being happiness one gets in sharing an anecdote with other likeminded people who are spread all over the world ,who can further enrich the experience through their insight. The third reason is that the online community provides a platform for the expression of though related to a sensitive topic, as people can share their opinion about anything without giving out their personal information.<br />
<br />
Online Community has its own peculiar glossary of terms. The membership can be categorized as Peripheral, inbound, outbound, insider or boundary depending upon the pattern of participation by an individual in day to day activities of community.<br />
<br />
{loadposition communitiesforums}</p>
<p>
What are online communities? An Online community is nothing but a group of likeminded people who decide to interact virtually through internet on some common subject. The strength of this group can vary from two to thousands of people and the subject of interest can be just anything. They can either form a group to discuss cooking recipe or may share their experiences related to a common disease or rather express their opinion about a recent event they strongly feel about. The tools of online communities can be mailing lists or newsgroups or Web conferencing platforms.<br />
<br />
These online communities are not formal structures and the strength of these can vary as any member can decide to draw back his membership at any point of time. The members also do not have any liability to actively participate in day to day activities of the community as these people are from diverse background and may or may not have ever met each other in their lifetime. An example of online community could be employees of an organization, forming a mail group over the intranet provided by their organization.<br />
<br />
The concept of online communities evolved through the proliferation of internet resulting in likeminded people assembling virtually to share their anecdotes. The initial Online communities were TheGlobe.com, GeoCities and TheGlobe.com , GeoCities and Tripod .Later on Yahoo groups ,Google group ,lotus connections took this idea to next level . Recently with the wide spread use of Web 2.0 technologies Orkut, MySpace and HiFive have emerged as big tools of the online communities. Blogging is also a variant of online community pedestal.<br />
<br />
The reasons behind the formation of online communities are many. The primary one being the benefit of large sample of society through formation of a common pool of knowledge regarding a subject. The second but equally important reason being happiness one gets in sharing an anecdote with other likeminded people who are spread all over the world ,who can further enrich the experience through their insight. The third reason is that the online community provides a platform for the expression of though related to a sensitive topic, as people can share their opinion about anything without giving out their personal information.<br />
<br />
Online Community has its own peculiar glossary of terms. The membership can be categorized as Peripheral, inbound, outbound, insider or boundary depending upon the pattern of participation by an individual in day to day activities of community.<br />
<br />
{loadposition communitiesforums}</p>
Using Online Communities to Leverage Your Business2013-07-26T02:42:27+00:002013-07-26T02:42:27+00:00https://www.mastermindmarketingteam.com/online-communities-and-forums/159-using-online-communities-to-leverage-your-business.htmlAdmindebstgeorge@comcast.net<p>
Companies today work in a highly competitive environment and getting an edge over the competitors is vital for its success. Traditionally, the tools used for doing that included marketing gimmicks like advertising, street shows, posters, T.V and radio commercials etc. Other things that could directly affect repeat customers are after sales support, warranty coverage period etc but if one of the most important factors that influence sales and repeat sales is word of mouth of the customers. This is one thing that is available free of cost for the company as an advertising medium that is so effective that it can even surpass the effectiveness of traditional advertising. Companies have realized this long ago and have always leveraged it for their profit. There are even some business models that have become successful and rely solely on this medium, for example the Direct Selling industry.<br />
<br />
Now with the changing times, as more and more people have started going online for most of their day to day tasks and as online shopping is gaining popularity among general users, word of mouth marketing has found a new avatar for itself and all this takes place inside online communities and forums. Online communities are places where people come to share their idea and experiences with other users around the globe that have same areas of interests as them. Also, online communities are the places where people look out for support before going anywhere else. These online communities serve as a hub that connects people around the globe and help them immerse into deep discussions that sometimes results in exploration of great new things.<br />
<br />
Now, since the experience is so engaging, there is obviously a chance for companies to leverage this for their own profit as well as for the benefit of their customers. First of all, setting up a community around a product or service provides the company cost benefits as it empowers word of mouth advertising scenarios over the internet, but apart from that, reduces the number of support calls for the company as most of the issues are resolved by the community experts. A company can support this process by organizing contests, centered on their products lines and/or giving out their products as prizes. Plus creating a panel of experts for the forum out of the users selected from it also provides a great boost to support system of the company, at negligible or no cost.<br />
<br />
Apart from all this, traditional modes of advertising such as banner ads and link exchange programs can also be used on forums to leverage the direct monetary benefits out of it.<br />
<br />
{loadposition communitiesforums}</p>
<p>
Companies today work in a highly competitive environment and getting an edge over the competitors is vital for its success. Traditionally, the tools used for doing that included marketing gimmicks like advertising, street shows, posters, T.V and radio commercials etc. Other things that could directly affect repeat customers are after sales support, warranty coverage period etc but if one of the most important factors that influence sales and repeat sales is word of mouth of the customers. This is one thing that is available free of cost for the company as an advertising medium that is so effective that it can even surpass the effectiveness of traditional advertising. Companies have realized this long ago and have always leveraged it for their profit. There are even some business models that have become successful and rely solely on this medium, for example the Direct Selling industry.<br />
<br />
Now with the changing times, as more and more people have started going online for most of their day to day tasks and as online shopping is gaining popularity among general users, word of mouth marketing has found a new avatar for itself and all this takes place inside online communities and forums. Online communities are places where people come to share their idea and experiences with other users around the globe that have same areas of interests as them. Also, online communities are the places where people look out for support before going anywhere else. These online communities serve as a hub that connects people around the globe and help them immerse into deep discussions that sometimes results in exploration of great new things.<br />
<br />
Now, since the experience is so engaging, there is obviously a chance for companies to leverage this for their own profit as well as for the benefit of their customers. First of all, setting up a community around a product or service provides the company cost benefits as it empowers word of mouth advertising scenarios over the internet, but apart from that, reduces the number of support calls for the company as most of the issues are resolved by the community experts. A company can support this process by organizing contests, centered on their products lines and/or giving out their products as prizes. Plus creating a panel of experts for the forum out of the users selected from it also provides a great boost to support system of the company, at negligible or no cost.<br />
<br />
Apart from all this, traditional modes of advertising such as banner ads and link exchange programs can also be used on forums to leverage the direct monetary benefits out of it.<br />
<br />
{loadposition communitiesforums}</p>
The Most Popular Forums and Communities2013-07-26T02:41:31+00:002013-07-26T02:41:31+00:00https://www.mastermindmarketingteam.com/online-communities-and-forums/158-the-most-popular-forums-and-communities.htmlAdmindebstgeorge@comcast.net<p>
Internet offers a broad range of possibilities for individuals to express themselves to the world. These range from websites, web logs to online graffiti and of course, online forums and communities. All these together form the synergies of the new world of communications over the internet with innovative, new forms of interactivity, across the globe.<br />
<br />
Online forums have played an important part in making the web's collaborative features popular as these provide people with common interests a platform to take part in discussions and share their ideas with the world. Online forums sometimes act like a discussion board, then on the other can also act as a support zone for a company’s website where customers can gather and get their problems solved by experts from companies as well as other users like them. Communities on the other hand, give people a way to get together in a different way, which looks like passive in nature but remains quiet active due to always happening user activities. Communities exist in many different shapes and sizes including social networking websites to presence services and online gaming communities etc.<br />
<br />
Some of the most common online forums and communities on the internet as of now include YouTube, Dailymotion.com, Metacafe.com, Facebook, Orkut, Linked In, Twitter, ArsTechnica.com, Neowin.net, MSDN Forums, Thinkdigit.com forums, Microsoft TechNet forums, XDA Forums, Demanoid.com, Xbox Live community etc, to name a few. The fact is, these services account for at least 60% of the total internet bandwidth usage, and that is saying something. Broadly these services can be categorized into video sharing sites, gaming communities, social networking sites, mobile forums, file sharing communities, presence services, technology forums and blogs etc. But the underlying concept of all these is same, to let users of matching interest interact with each other in the way they want, anonymously if they like, from any part of the world.<br />
<br />
Online gaming has also made popular another form of communities that work quiet differently from these but serve the same purpose. The advent of MMORPG games (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games) has brought forward this change. Games such as Second Life and Warcraft have become so much popular due to their collaborative nature and the element of global collaborating community based efforts that it becomes impossible for one to get out of it once they are in. Users of these games collaborate using the forums, chat and social networking communities forming a type of virtual global colony.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>
{loadposition communitiesforums}</p>
<p>
Internet offers a broad range of possibilities for individuals to express themselves to the world. These range from websites, web logs to online graffiti and of course, online forums and communities. All these together form the synergies of the new world of communications over the internet with innovative, new forms of interactivity, across the globe.<br />
<br />
Online forums have played an important part in making the web's collaborative features popular as these provide people with common interests a platform to take part in discussions and share their ideas with the world. Online forums sometimes act like a discussion board, then on the other can also act as a support zone for a company’s website where customers can gather and get their problems solved by experts from companies as well as other users like them. Communities on the other hand, give people a way to get together in a different way, which looks like passive in nature but remains quiet active due to always happening user activities. Communities exist in many different shapes and sizes including social networking websites to presence services and online gaming communities etc.<br />
<br />
Some of the most common online forums and communities on the internet as of now include YouTube, Dailymotion.com, Metacafe.com, Facebook, Orkut, Linked In, Twitter, ArsTechnica.com, Neowin.net, MSDN Forums, Thinkdigit.com forums, Microsoft TechNet forums, XDA Forums, Demanoid.com, Xbox Live community etc, to name a few. The fact is, these services account for at least 60% of the total internet bandwidth usage, and that is saying something. Broadly these services can be categorized into video sharing sites, gaming communities, social networking sites, mobile forums, file sharing communities, presence services, technology forums and blogs etc. But the underlying concept of all these is same, to let users of matching interest interact with each other in the way they want, anonymously if they like, from any part of the world.<br />
<br />
Online gaming has also made popular another form of communities that work quiet differently from these but serve the same purpose. The advent of MMORPG games (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games) has brought forward this change. Games such as Second Life and Warcraft have become so much popular due to their collaborative nature and the element of global collaborating community based efforts that it becomes impossible for one to get out of it once they are in. Users of these games collaborate using the forums, chat and social networking communities forming a type of virtual global colony.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>
{loadposition communitiesforums}</p>
The Importance of Online Communities and Forums2013-07-26T02:40:19+00:002013-07-26T02:40:19+00:00https://www.mastermindmarketingteam.com/online-communities-and-forums/157-the-importance-of-online-communities-and-forums.htmlAdmindebstgeorge@comcast.net<p>
Online communities and forums have become a large part of internet these days. These communities and forums provide a great way to interact with different people using internet and share their interests or expertise.<br />
<br />
Communities and forums provide platform for knowledge sharing .Since many times in today’s world we do not have time to look for answers or we do not know where to find the answers, but by means of online forums or communities we can put our query across these boards and can get answer from someone who has knowledge about the issue. Broad participation and engagement in these chats and forums ranging from a novice to an expert provides an enriching learning experience.<br />
<br />
Communities and forums allow companies to advertise and sell their products. This could lead to lower customer service costs and increase in sales. The medium offers them opportunity to provide information to customers about their product and services, reply to customer queries and interact with them to know about their feedback on the product. Hence they offer perfect medium to companies to display their expertise in the field and generate confidence in the company.<br />
<br />
They also help in bringing together of people with same common interests such as photography, gardening etc. Here they can share ideas, provide and seek information even provide link to other sites related to the topic.<br />
<br />
Some communities like social networking sites offer a medium where people (known and unknown) can come together and share their personal experiences in an informal way and develop a sense of belonging which further leads to building of a long term relationships.<br />
<br />
There are communities and forums which are based on social and health issues like cancer, AIDS, addiction, rape, domestic violence and offer support and information to patients or victims. Since these sites are online the victim/patient can chose to remain anonymous while seeking assistance. There are communities which offer help in finding suitable candidates to marry which is a real difficult task in the real world. In these communities user can get information about other person and his interests and interact with him/her to know about him more.<br />
<br />
Communities also help people in just relaxing and rejuvenating as there are many communities where user can listen to music, watch videos, play online games and get a break from a normal tensed busy life.<br />
<br />
Since there is a varied range of activities offered by communities and forums they form an indispensible part of our internet life.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>
{loadposition communitiesforums}</p>
<p>
Online communities and forums have become a large part of internet these days. These communities and forums provide a great way to interact with different people using internet and share their interests or expertise.<br />
<br />
Communities and forums provide platform for knowledge sharing .Since many times in today’s world we do not have time to look for answers or we do not know where to find the answers, but by means of online forums or communities we can put our query across these boards and can get answer from someone who has knowledge about the issue. Broad participation and engagement in these chats and forums ranging from a novice to an expert provides an enriching learning experience.<br />
<br />
Communities and forums allow companies to advertise and sell their products. This could lead to lower customer service costs and increase in sales. The medium offers them opportunity to provide information to customers about their product and services, reply to customer queries and interact with them to know about their feedback on the product. Hence they offer perfect medium to companies to display their expertise in the field and generate confidence in the company.<br />
<br />
They also help in bringing together of people with same common interests such as photography, gardening etc. Here they can share ideas, provide and seek information even provide link to other sites related to the topic.<br />
<br />
Some communities like social networking sites offer a medium where people (known and unknown) can come together and share their personal experiences in an informal way and develop a sense of belonging which further leads to building of a long term relationships.<br />
<br />
There are communities and forums which are based on social and health issues like cancer, AIDS, addiction, rape, domestic violence and offer support and information to patients or victims. Since these sites are online the victim/patient can chose to remain anonymous while seeking assistance. There are communities which offer help in finding suitable candidates to marry which is a real difficult task in the real world. In these communities user can get information about other person and his interests and interact with him/her to know about him more.<br />
<br />
Communities also help people in just relaxing and rejuvenating as there are many communities where user can listen to music, watch videos, play online games and get a break from a normal tensed busy life.<br />
<br />
Since there is a varied range of activities offered by communities and forums they form an indispensible part of our internet life.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>
{loadposition communitiesforums}</p>
Review: The Twitter Online Community2013-07-26T02:39:05+00:002013-07-26T02:39:05+00:00https://www.mastermindmarketingteam.com/online-communities-and-forums/156-review-the-twitter-online-community.htmlAdmindebstgeorge@comcast.net<p>
The notion of online communities is a fascinating new concept that has emerged in this era itself. Online communities are the base of all the emerging ways of socializing on the web and depending upon their type, these are categorized into many forums like Social Networking Sites, Presence Services, Gaming Communities, Technology Discussion Communities and Forums etc. These are mostly used concurrently by people to stay connected in different ways to people they care about the most.<br />
<br />
Twitter is one such online community which takes the form of a presence service. A presence service basically is one which provides the status information of a person at a given point of time to a list of authorized people, on multiple devices including computers, mobiles and PDAs, music players, Kiosks etc. In other words, or more correctly in the words of developers of Twitter:<br />
<br />
“Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?”<br />
<br />
Twitter.com basically gives a user, the ability to provide their one or two line status information to their friends and families so that they can always know when the person is available and when not. This is similar to the concept that some phone companies including Nokia came out with few years ago in their phones and named it “Presence”. This service was basically based on GPRS based short text notifications sent to a server where it is stored and all users connect to it to share this status information. Twitter users also have the ability to send private messages to each other, much like in other communities like forums and gaming communities as well as in social networking sites like Orkut and Facebook.<br />
<br />
The service of twitter is also available on almost all the phones that have GPRS enabled on them. Going one step further, most PDAs of today like Windows Mobile Based PDAs by HTC, O2 and XDA or Palm OS based systems from Palm Inc. and many others have specially crafted applications for these phones to make the task more enjoyable and functional on these devices. Other some devices that have the capabilities of providing Twitter services include music players such as iPod from apple, some kiosks etc.<br />
<br />
All this multiplatform access is possible due the fact that Twitter uses a standard API (Application Programming Interface) for all the communications that are done with its servers. This API is based on HTTP, XML, SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) and REST based technologies which are established standards. So it becomes very easy for the developers to develop applications around it as almost all modern computer languages have support for these standards.<br />
<br />
{loadposition communitiesforums}</p>
<p>
The notion of online communities is a fascinating new concept that has emerged in this era itself. Online communities are the base of all the emerging ways of socializing on the web and depending upon their type, these are categorized into many forums like Social Networking Sites, Presence Services, Gaming Communities, Technology Discussion Communities and Forums etc. These are mostly used concurrently by people to stay connected in different ways to people they care about the most.<br />
<br />
Twitter is one such online community which takes the form of a presence service. A presence service basically is one which provides the status information of a person at a given point of time to a list of authorized people, on multiple devices including computers, mobiles and PDAs, music players, Kiosks etc. In other words, or more correctly in the words of developers of Twitter:<br />
<br />
“Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?”<br />
<br />
Twitter.com basically gives a user, the ability to provide their one or two line status information to their friends and families so that they can always know when the person is available and when not. This is similar to the concept that some phone companies including Nokia came out with few years ago in their phones and named it “Presence”. This service was basically based on GPRS based short text notifications sent to a server where it is stored and all users connect to it to share this status information. Twitter users also have the ability to send private messages to each other, much like in other communities like forums and gaming communities as well as in social networking sites like Orkut and Facebook.<br />
<br />
The service of twitter is also available on almost all the phones that have GPRS enabled on them. Going one step further, most PDAs of today like Windows Mobile Based PDAs by HTC, O2 and XDA or Palm OS based systems from Palm Inc. and many others have specially crafted applications for these phones to make the task more enjoyable and functional on these devices. Other some devices that have the capabilities of providing Twitter services include music players such as iPod from apple, some kiosks etc.<br />
<br />
All this multiplatform access is possible due the fact that Twitter uses a standard API (Application Programming Interface) for all the communications that are done with its servers. This API is based on HTTP, XML, SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) and REST based technologies which are established standards. So it becomes very easy for the developers to develop applications around it as almost all modern computer languages have support for these standards.<br />
<br />
{loadposition communitiesforums}</p>