I remember once, out with a friend for dinner, ranting about the hectic day I’ve had. About the different difficult users I’ve had to deal with, when they suddenly jumped in and asked: “Do these people actually pay to use your site?”

I must say, this was rather deflating. I mean, why was I doing what I do, when there is no direct monetary value attached to it? But it’s a very simple business equation really: Traffic = Advertisers = Profit.

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‘NTK’ is one of our Social Networking Community Managers.
She moderates 24.com’s social networking sites, Blogs and Answerit etc. Ntokozo graduated in 2007 from Rhodes University with a degree in Bachelor of Journalism, specializing in New Media in her final year.

Being a community manager is not what it’s cut out to be. And because each community is unique – made up of dynamic personalities, which come and go – it’s hard to nail down a simple recipe on ‘how to be a good community manager’. But here are a few pointers I’ve collected through my own experience as a community manager. … Continue Reading

In 2008, Seth Godin published a book called “Tribes”. In it, he describes the way he thinks people will change the world from now on: by creating and leading Tribes. Finding and connecting a group of like-minded people, and showing them a path to where they want to go, will make them want to follow you. By building a Tribe like this, you’ll be able to wield enough influence to make change that matters.

At its core, a Tribe is a group of people with a common interest or goal, who connect and form a community around that idea, or who enable each other to move towards that goal. There are uncountably large numbers of such Tribes on the Internet today, of all sizes, and since everybody can produce content (whether it’s updating your Facebook status or writing a regular column on the Mail and Guardian website), everybody has the chance to build up a following of people who are interested in the ideas behind that content.
Webcomics build up Tribes of people interested in their strips, maybe because these people identify with the banality of office life, or maybe just because they love the quirky, funny tone behind the strip.
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