Blogs | Social Signal

The year that started with Angry Birds and wrapped up with Angry Delicious Users is finally over.

Last week, the Vancouver Police Department launched their Twitter presence with a day-long marathon of tweeting the calls that came into the force. It was a success, rocketing them from zero to well over 1,800 followers that afternoon.

It's come up three or four times at workshops I've conducted in the past few weeks: people who work for organizations with an entry in Wikipedia, wondering whether and how they can edit it - if, for instance, misinformation creeps in. (I'm assuming you're not trying to sanitize your entry.

My friends Maddie Grant and Lindy Dreyer have just launched Open Community, "a little book of big ideas for associations navigating the social web". (I was fortunate enough to get to do cartoons for the book, which meant I got a sneak peek – and I was impressed with both the scope of their vision and the practical suggestions they have for their readers.)

I had something of a happy mystery yesterday: a huge surge in traffic on one of my Noise to Signal cartoons with no apparent reason why.

That's the kind of mystery I dearly love to solve. Not just because I'm nosey, but also because I'd like to thank whoever's responsible. So I donned my deerstalker, broke out the virtual magnifying glass and started an investigation.

I solved that mystery... but discovered something a lot more important in the process.

Here's how I proceeded:

Part 6 (and conclusion) of a series. Originally posted on AlexandraSamuel.com.

Part 5 in a series. Originally appeared on AlexandraSamuel.com.

Organizations with a limited audience (fewer than 100,000 people) or limited budget (less than $100k) face equally limited possibilities for eliciting user-generated content.  One strategy for developing an effective social media presence within these limitations is to create a site driven by RSS aggregation.

Another option is focus on developing your own content on a regular (ideally daily) basis; for a small membership organization, 2-3 posts per week is entirely reasonable.

Part 4 of a series. Originally appeared on AlexandraSamuel.com.

The rule of 90-9-1 means that small organizations with focused audiences are unlikely to create highly participatory, self-reinforcing online communities. But they can still benefit from using social media tools to engage their audiences in online conversation. And one of the most exciting options is very useful to large organizations and businesses, too.

Part 3 of a series. Originally appeared on AlexandraSamuel.com.

The 90-9-1 principle popularized by Jakob Nielsen says that if you have 100 visitors to your online community site or social media presence, your visitors' participation will look like this: