Giving back to the web community
von Mark Howells-Mead
The term “Web 2.0” refers to the mass acceptance of interactive websites and communities, and a major shift to interactivity in popular web culture. In the last decade, online fora and chat rooms – once the reserve of technologists and geeks – have been opened up and embraced into mainstream culture. Most people who spend any time online have heard of the most popular communities: from Facebook, LinkedIn, Xing and Bebo to MySpace, Friendster, Flickr and YouTube. Virtual communities have grown up around messaging services like Twitter, which replicate the groups and friendships which grew up around an increased use of online newsgroups in the mid- to late 1990s.
These days, the ability for the common web user to share information is one of the cornerstones of the commercial web, with many companies across the world earning their money by providing services to allow “friends” to connect to one another. Where people used to send a link to a web page via email, when they wanted to show their friends something interesting, now they just click a little button which says “share” and all is done for them. For the more ambitious, and for the more commercially minded publisher, the email newsletter remains a mainstay, especially for those who don’t have time to seek out information on a company or product. For those whose online expertise doesn’t yet encompass the still-growing technology of RSS, the option to subscribe to an email newsletter is much easier and tangible.
With the rapid increase in the use and membership of online communities came an increase in the amount of people taking their friendships to the next stage: taking online gatherings and friendships into the “real world”. With this transfer into the real world, a massive number of groups began meeting offline and the prospect of meeting an “online friend” changed from something which only weirdos did, to something which more and more mainstream internet users consider. Groups of people with similar interests – from games players to computer geeks, from photographers to artists – form associations and organize meetings where anything from a handful to a few hundred people meet. An event organized in Paris during 2007 by the staff of photo sharing website Flickr, aimed at gathering photographers for a social event, garnered nearly 200 registered attendees.
The current state of world finances has caused many organizations to re-think their strategies, particularly on how they can achieve more visibility and gain more customers without spending much money. By identifying and targeting their audience, analyzing their needs and doing what they can to help those communities, a goodwill gesture often goes far in creating a stir and creating more visibility for a product or service. In difficult times, word of mouth can be just as valuable as an intensive marketing campaign: web designers and technical project managers are grateful to hear of great low-cost tools, and hearing about them through a community is often a key selling point.
Australia-based Campaign Monitor – which we at Burson-Marsteller Crossmedia use for our own and for client email newsletters after hearing recommendations – have initiated a great programme which they’re calling “Giving Back”: in essence, a sponsorship of web design comunity events, from meetups to conferences. Their offer, which has been taken up by groups across the world such as the Australian Web Industry Association, New York City ColdFusion User Group, London Social Media Camp and BathCamp, can cover costs such as the dispatch of newsletters and even (as they say themselves): some pizza, beer and soft drink! On the technical side, they’re “giving back” to the web community in other ways too: their launch of an Email Standards Project to help both newsletter designers and email programme developers is an excellent initiative, reminiscent of the not-for-profit Web Standards Project which has achieved so much since 1998.
Geschrieben von Mark Howells-Mead am 16. Februar 2009 um 11:59 | Permalink
Tags (Schlagworte): campaign monitor, communities, email, english, newsletter, sponsorship, web 2.0
Hey Mark,
Thanks so much for the mention, we’re really excited to be able to support so many cool design events around the world!
17. Februar 2009 um 00:13