An online community is a collection of people with a shared common interest. At the heart of any online community there is a website where a two way dialogue between members can occur. This dialogue can take many different forms and facilitates the building of relationships.
In truth many business are still unsure. For many people a website is simply their corporate brochure on the internet. Our view is that for almost any business it can be much more than that - it has the potential to start a dialogue and conversation with people long before you might meet in person. We think that a website could be the most valuable marketing tool you can own.
The simple answer is to have a clear reason for the community to exist and a rigorous and disciplined approach to establishing and building it. Trovus have developed a detailed process to do just that, build valuable communities. This process draws on the Founders experience of publishing, building online social networks, collaboration technology and search marketing.
One thing...technology is NOT the most important part and does NOT have all the answers...and don't let anyone try and convince you otherwise.
Only in the same way that customers, staff and suppliers are valuable.
We certainly think so - as with the traditional "offline" world, much of the value that exists within businesses is about relationships, dialogues, conversations and interactions.
If your website could bring you qualified leads, help you retain customers, help you sell more, help you retain and get more from your staff or help you manage your suppliers better - would that be valuable to you?
No, the Internet is the name given to the connections made between the computers that together make up the infrastructure behind the Internet. The internet "carries" the World Wide Web. The World Wide Web is the name given to the connections between the websites and pages that people create.
Social networking is the collective term for all the online companies and organisations that have offerings that help groups of people come together and share ideas on the internet. Social networking is young by virtue of the fact that the internet needed to get to a level of maturity (saturation) before the concept of social networking could take hold.
Everyone can benefit from social networking, particularly those in business. Companies like Linked In offer great potential to meeting old contacts and find new ones.
We believe that every business can take best practice from the world of consumer social networking and when combined with process and some simple technology, begin to draw commercial value from this 21st century phenomenon.
Well it depends on where your website is in regard to the Trovus Website Lifecycle Model ©. This model allows any business to see exactly how their website has developed over its lifecycle and gives a clear perspective on what can be done next to get more value out of it.
The easiest concept to think about when wanting to more out of your website is to think of your website as another communications device that you can work within, alongside the more traditional tools you have such as the telephone, email or letters. It is possible to turn an existing simple website into a tool through which you can have a two way conversation with many, many people. You can either talk to people one to one or you can talk to people one to many. When you get people talking to each other and you are watching, steering and managing the conversations, then you will have something of ultimate value in your marketing strategy.
What question would you like answered: Email us your questions to and we will answer your questions on the website and add a link to your website if you would like.