Building Robust Online Communities: Exploring Instagram, Foursquare and Pinterest (my upcoming IABC/BC Media Lunch Hour Talk)

You may remember that I co-authored an e-book with my good friend Arieanna Schweber (Active Mama) on building robust online communities. As we both have accumulated years of experience blogging, in the e-book we focused primarily on building community using your blog as a base. Last year we thought of expanding the e-book and constructing a database of case studies of specific industries, for the paper version of our book (which we are still considering, though that book has been a bit delayed due to other commitments).

One of the ways in which I sharpen my thinking and test my new ideas is by creating a new talk, and this is a completely new one, that I was asked to give at the International Association of Business Communicators British Columbia Chapter (IABC/BC) Media Tour on April 17th. When I was invited to speak at the media tour, I started thinking about what could I talk about that would be new and fresh. I have spent the last 6 years of my life strengthening a community around my blog, and with the emergence of Twitter, Facebook and Google Plus, I’ve focused on those three platforms. But I have noticed an increasing trend in the use of other social platforms such as Pinterest, Instagram and Foursquare. And I figured that the best way to offer fresh ideas is to explore newer platforms and their uses.

While there’s still a lot to be seen (and said) about the big four social platforms (Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus, and I usually include blogs here), I’m interested in exploring the potential of Foursquare, Instagram and Pinterest to build communities. This talk will give an overview of basic online community building techniques (much like what Arieanna and I presented at Northern Voice 2011 and what I spoke on at WordCamp Victoria 2012) but will expand by proposing ways in which we can grow and strengthen our online communities via Pinterest, Instagram and Foursquare). I will show a few case studies of interesting ways in which each platform is being used by brands and draw attention to potential challenges that each platform poses for community building.

My lunch time talk will take place on Tuesday April 17th in the context of the IABC/BC Media Tour. You can register via the URL provided (and from what I hear the event is almost sold out!)