I was asked last week to provide feedback on the online community that the Institute of Chartered Accountants (ICAEW) has set up and of which I should confess I am a paid up member from a former life as bean counter.

I think they have done a great job at IT Counts (what the site is called) and thought it would be worth publically sharing my views:

The challenge with any community site is finding sufficient fresh interesting relevant content that its users find sufficiently compelling to encourage them to want to return on a regular basis. If the content and the topics are too broad the site tends to lose the interest of its readers as it doesn’t address their issues; if it is too narrow, it presents challenges in terms of producing sufficient quality content.

A simple way for me to judge content suitability is the measure of how many comments get left on posts on a regular basis – what I observe on IT Counts is that there is a good flow of comments and postings which are a good indication of the content being suitable for the audience.

The site design is simple and effective – it uses all the space and allows for a consistent mental map so that I can continue to find key information as I navigate through the site

IT Counts is a great initiative to get CA’s more connected and sharing information – the web is happening all around us and the advantage I believe moves with the innovators – ICAEW have taken a great step with this initiative.

I look forward to seeing how the site continues to develop and engage with its members (not always the most innovative of thinkers from my experience!)

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Social networking - so tantalising for all those brands out there - millions of people in your target market all in one place - how do I get in there and sell to this captive market.

I can see lots of brand managers grappling with this one - spurred on by their directors - we have to get into this social networking thing - its where all the buzz is.

Here’s the view of one blog commentator:

http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2008/06/17/how-brands-can-buy-social-media/

In essence - the article outlines that value comes from three areas:

- Advertisements - straight purchase of ads

- Sponsorships - longer term form of advertising

- Social Media Optimization - using the social media platforms to optimise your brand and content (part of what Trovus does)

I would add several other areas;

- engage with the discussions - this is a battle for mindshare - this is’nt about you the brand, its about what the people want - run with what they want and help them get - its the best way to get engagement;

- create things (content and tools) that are of interest to your target market - its about what you can do for your market, not how much you can sell them.

The key thing - its not about you - its about them. Thats why I dont believe that advertising on social networking platforms works - it just jars as its an intrusion and doesnt add to the value of the platform for the users.

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Its the biggest question around social networks. Are they actually worth the coin?

USA Today wades into the debate with this article. Having read the article which reviews all the social networks and how they are making money, the key areas the article points to are:

1) Advertising. Clearly. Advertisers follow people and that means large concentrations of people in one place are an attractive proposition for those with ad budgets. The big question for me on the efficacy of this is whether that ad spend converts in value for  the advertisers;

2)  Premium Services - sell additional services such as ringtones and other subscription based services;

3) Sell - sell it to someone else who thinks they can make more money with it.

So the bottom line is these are media platforms, with the most powerful revenue streams coming from advertising - the more focused and contextual it is, the more likely you will get better revenues. If you can differentiate your offerings enough and persude subscription based services, so much the better, then but not many people are able to do this. [I note this week that Friends Reunited are now moving to a free model rather than a paying model].

It remains a battle for mindshare, but some networks need to start proving the coin behind the model to keep the buzz sustained for the longer term.

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