Blaise Grimes-Viort

The lovely Tia Fisher of eModeration, international provider of outsourced multilingual community management and user generated content moderation services, got in touch this morning to let me know they have just published their latest white paper: Communities of Purpose.

A number of Online Community Builders, Strategists and Managers were interviewed for this white paper, including Alison Michalk, Director of Quiip and ex-community manager for Essential Baby at Fairfax Digital Australia, Vanessa DiMauro, CEO of LeaderNetworks, Patrick O’Keefe, owner of iFroggy Network and author of “Managing Online Forums“, Leah Williams, Community & Social Media Manager at Breast Cancer Care and myself.

[pullquote]Social media is providing unparalleled access to communities of purpose run both by brands and not-for-profits. We’ve seen some excellent examples of brand-administered communities of purpose, and brands can reap the rewards of these communities if they provide the correct balance of engagement, information, motivation and support for members. – Tamara Littleton, eModeration CEO[/pullquote]

All of the contributions are of very high value, helping to define what Online Communities of Purpose are and how they are being used, as well as provide helpful pointers on questions you should ask yourself or your team before trying to set up this type of specialist community.

As well as this, participants provide insights into how they approach managing this particular type of community effectively, such as Leah‘s wise words on how important it is to understand what community users want from their experience in a Community of Purpose:

People do want clear, accurate information, and our website provides that. But when they come to the forum, they want to talk to other people who understand what they are going through. Whether it‘s people who have been diagnosed at the same time, or with the same type of cancer, or who live in the same area, or who have the same type of family set-up, people want to give and get support, share experiences, talk about current issues and get practical tips. That‘s what brings people back day after day.

You can grab a copy of this free white paper from eModeration here or by clicking on the image on the left – be sure to check out their other publications for more useful information. You can read their post announcing this white paper over on their blog.