My Book Report: Online Communities Handbook: Building Your Business and Brand on the Web

Well I would have loved to do my book report on "Blogging for Dummies" since I have already sort of been through that book, but I was too slow on my decision and several other people already chose it so this was the substitute. Although it wasn't my first choice, I found out that this book was actually quite helpful in giving me a greater understanding of the capabilities of Web 2.0 and online communities. The two authors of the book, Nancy Strauss and Anna Buss, use a winning combination of simple and concise text to define what exactly Web 2.0 is and what an online community is without "dumbing things down" for the average reader or being to elementary for a reader with some previous knowledge of the subject.

The book is broken into two parts with each part consisting of nine chapters, eighteen chapters total. The first part, titled "Online Communities", talks about just that. It defines an online community (a group of people who regularly interact with each other on a website) and tells about the difference between an online community and a wiki or a blog. Although each of these types of websites offer users a way to contribute information to a website, they each offer different avenues in which that information is used. A wiki, for example, is a website that allows many users to collaborate on one project by submitting various entries that are all catalogued together and displayed on that website. This was the first of many things I learned from this book. I had no idea that a wiki was a tyoe of website, I know of wikipedia and how it worked but I didn't know there were other wiki-somethings out there. The first part also talks about social networking and discussion boards and how all of these different forms of online communication can spawn relationships and other business opportunities. There are many ways people can use social networking to advance their business, network with others in their field or even promote their services to an interested audience. There are also a few different places in the book where they tell little stories as side notes to demonstrate a point, like the case study about the results of comparing two German websites. One of the websites was for a newspaper, Spiegel Online and the other was for a social networking site named studiVZ. In the comparison, studiVZ boasted a higher volume of new and unique visitors because of the many more activities available for its users. Actually, there are several case studies throughout the book aimed at better explaining the benefits and pitfalls of the different options available for websites.

As you go through the chapters, the book addressing many issues including developing a website, basic design techniques and ways to use your website to generate revenue. After explaining the ins and outs of online communities, member-to-member interactions, setting up member profiles and what-not, the second part begins to delve into the real world application of these fundamentals that have been explained. It starts with a chapter about a site called Ciao.com, an e-commerce website that has integrated the community element to help further its usability and productivity with its users. The site is mainly for comparing products and services in price and value but the consumer community has become just as integral to the site. The book then follows with more real world examples of websites that utilize the benefits outlined in the book. Some of the websites such as 11870.com and M Power World use both online communities and social networking to attract new members and visitors on a regular basis.

All in all, the examples are plain and simple and the reading is fairly light. The definitions are clear and I found that after I was done with this book, I didn’t need to go back and read sections over again to make sure I got it. I would recommend this book to anyone out there who, like me, is trying to create a business online, promote themselves and their work or just trying to start a following for themselves. The ideas are very easy to follow and the relation of the topics to any situation can be made, meaning no matter who you are or what you are trying to do with the blog or website you are creating, this book can help.