Feed: Why building a successful online community requires time offline - AggScore: 10.7

Why building a successful online community requires time offline

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You've got the twitter followers, you're getting the thumbs up on Facebook and your stats are on the way up. But does anyone in the non-virtual community know who you are? There's no doubt having a good online presence is important for your hyperlocal site - and by that I mean a well-stocked Twitter feed, and tended Facebook page and all the other bells and whistles. But watch your stats go up when you get offline and make the connections. Like a good journalist, meeting people face to face is always going to be key. And face time is everything. People want to associate a person with a site, I want to know who the man behind this local website is, what he's doing, why he's doing it and I can trust him. If you're covering a local community, trust is everything. To do this you need to get offline. Walk the local parks, look at local noticeboards and attend local events. Drink in your local boozer, visit the local shops. If you can do something locally, do it. One thing I'm most proud of when starting up Blog Preston [1] was our commitment to running local events. I knew there was a growing number of people using Twitter but I wondered if I could get these people out from behind their keyboards and into a room. We started up 'Preston Tweetups [2]' and 'Preston Bloggers Meetups [3]'. These events were crucial in not only driving traffic to the site (you had to register via visiting Blog Preston) but also about relating our site with running successful events about community. I first had the idea for running a Tweetup after attending a 'Preston Geekup [4]'. It was a meet, with beers, for web developers and techies in Preston. It was run by the inspiration who is Gemma Cameron [5] and also gave me a base of people who I could invite, they also formed the early followers of Blog Preston and Twitter and were also able to provide some early guest posts - like this awesome one from David Perkins [6]. We got a bunch of people together in a local pub, from all different background and ages and we discussed the looming local matter of the Preston Guild [7]. How could we make it better? What could we do in 2012? But most importantly I got to know all the people there by name, so the next time I got an email from them I knew who they were. I'd looked them in the eye, I'd shared a pint with them and a smile. It makes a huge difference. To this day most of our biggest advocates and fans on Blog Preston are people I've met offline, and recently who Jo and Andy who now run the site, have met. If you put in the face time, you'll see a positive result in terms of your online community and their engagement. Plus, it doesn't feel quite so lonely running a local site. You'll release there's a big community out there willing to help you succeed and report on your local area, and they'll help you along the way. So, put down your keyboard this Sunday, and spend the day exploring your local area and seeing the local landmarks for real rather than just on Flickr slideshows. Image credit to niallkennedy [8] This post originally appeared as part of the excellent Hyperlocal Week on Wannabe Hacks. Go and check it out and also let me know what you think about building online/offline communities? What do you do? Do you run events? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below [1] http://www.blogpreston.co.uk [2] http://blogpreston.co.uk/tweetup/ [3] http://blogpreston.co.uk/2009/05/first-preston-bloggers-meetup-a-success/ [4] http://prestongeekup.co.uk/ [5] http://lancsrubygem.wordpress.com/ [6] http://blogpreston.co.uk/2009/02/whittingham-asylum%E2%80%A6-forgotten/ [7] http://blogpreston.co.uk/guild-2012/ [8] http://www.flickr.com/photos/niallkennedy/40727794/