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building a community/social network on your blog

by MusicMinCoach
7 replies
Hey guys,

Lately Iv'e been kinda thinking it would be nice to have a way for my followers to gather and communicate on my own site around my own brand, since FB is so fickle.
I don't want to be FB or anything, but it'd be nice if they could say, become a member, create a profile, friend each other and communicate. I know there are several plugins out there for WP. I was wondering if anyone here is doing anything similar and has any recommendations (or warnings)?
#blog #building #community or social #network
  • Profile picture of the author LillySage
    Definitely a good idea...check out bbPress it's a free wordpress plugin that probably has exactly what you need.
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  • Profile picture of the author Audrey Harvey
    I had a forum attached to my blog for a while, I used Simple Machines to power it. I found there was much more interaction on the Facebook page than on the forum and in spite of some good captcha, there was often spam posts to deal with.

    I now have removed the forum and just interact with people on the Facebook page, and there's a growing sense of community there, more so than on the forum. I think people visit Facebook for a lot of reasons and it's easy to follow posts there, rather than to go to a separate site and log into a forum.

    Your mileage may vary :-)
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    • Profile picture of the author MusicMinCoach
      Those are good points Audrey,

      I was wondering about controlling the spam myself. Also the thought of fans going to yet another spot to network. I have a fan page and while I have over 1150 fans "connected", only about 50 people see the average blog post. There is some community and regular interaction among that small group that visit regularly, but I guess I'm just wanting more control and ownership, you know what I mean?

      I think it sucks that FB deliberately hides my posts from 90% of the people who liked my page to see it, then charges me to show them to more people. Not to mention if something should happen to FB or they should go belly up or something (yeah nobody thought it was possible with myspace either) I'd lose all 1150 of those people because they really don't belong to me in the first place.
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      Ron Cross
      http://www.TheMusicMinistryCoach.com
      http://www.Facebook.com/TheMusicMinistryCoach

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  • Profile picture of the author lordspace
    I'd setup bbPress forums. It integrates well with WordPress.
    Actually, I use bbPress for my club/membership site where some clients get access to a client forum and others get community support
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    Are you using WordPress? Have you tried qSandbox yet?

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  • Profile picture of the author bougalo
    At some point, every IMers I've known think of doing such thing as building a community based Blog. There are few samples I'll point out:

    - Guest blogging | Raimundas M (I like it because it offers other Bloggers to contribute and get a link back)
    - Free Internet Marketing Tips & Lessons | Eric's Tips (This is my friend Eric's site)

    See how they manage to keep simple, yet inviting.

    Hope this helps.
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  • Profile picture of the author m00d
    Check out BuddyPress.org
    If I understand you correctly Buddypress should be exactly what your looking for.
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  • Profile picture of the author MusicMinCoach
    Thanks guys. I looked at BuddyPress first, actually. It seemed almost TOO much, lol. Plus lots of people were saying it's complicated. I saw two other ones besides BB Press (which I didn't know about so thanks ladies!)- one called Mingle and another one, Symposium I think it was.
    I'll keep you all posted.
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    Ron Cross
    http://www.TheMusicMinistryCoach.com
    http://www.Facebook.com/TheMusicMinistryCoach

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