Community – Principles of Successful Blogging #4
Today’s principle in our series on successful blogging is all about building community on your blog. Let me share how I discovered that community was possible in the online space with a story:
I discovered the power of online community on the very first day that I went online (I think it was in 1996).
Up until that point I’d always been quite sceptical of people who talked about ‘relationships’, ‘friendships’ and ‘community’ when they talked about their online experience.
I just couldn’t see how people could ever call online interaction any kind of community – but I quickly discovered how wrong my assumptions were.
I still remember the moment – the guy who’d come to install my new computer and modem (dial up) gave me a quick tour of how to access the web – Netscape, hotmail and then he opened up a little program called Comic Chat and told me it was for chatting to people online using a system called IRC.
I promptly told him that I wouldn’t be wasting my time with that and closed it down.
Later that day on a whim I opened it up and joined the first ‘room’ that I came across – an Aussie chat room. I used the handle of ‘oziii’ on a whim and entered the room. Within seconds I’d been noticed, welcomed and drawn into the conversation.
3 hours later my view of how community could be developed online was completely changed. 3 months later I’d spent an hour a day (minimum) in this room […]
Read the rest of this great post here
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