iNET Cares, a volunteer group within iNET Interactive, serving the communities where we live and work,  is supporting the Marine Toys for Tots Foundation this holiday season.   Between November 16 and December 11, the iNET Interactive corporate office in West Chester, OH, will be collecting new, unwrapped toys from anyone who would like to participate.   These toys will then be distributed via the local branch of the U.S. Marine Corps to needy children within the community.

According to the Toys for Tots Foundation’s website (www.toysfortots.org), the Toys for Tots Foundation is an IRS recognized 501(c)(3) not-for-profit public charity.  The program was started in 1991 and so far has distributed 81.3 million toys, valued at $487 million.  As stated on their website,  “The primary goal of the Toys for Tots Program is to deliver, through a new toy at Christmas, a message of hope to less fortunate youngsters that will assist them in becoming responsible, productive, patriotic citizens.”

With the iNET team spread across the world, virtual employees are also participating via the Toys for Tots website at: http://www.toysfortots.org/ or through local branches in their area .

The need is greater than ever—iNET Interactive is thrilled by the opportunity to brighten children’s lives this holiday season!

The company picnic started like most picnics do. Cars arriving full of people, food and games. Folks scattering about, setting up tables and making sure all the food, plates, and extras made sense. The kids gravitating to their groups, to do what kids do. Mat brought music for a little background. The weather was perfect – plenty of sun for those that want sun. But we had shade to hold those catching-up conversations. And even an air-conditioned building to eat (and rest) in.

Troy was burning burgers on the grill. Well, maybe not burning, just fanning some foot high flames. They were pretty! He was nearly finished when he had to track down Mat to move the music inside because it had started to sprinkle lightly. 20 minutes later it was a deluge. Hard rain, high winds, thunder, lightening and even some hail thrown in for good measure.

While there were some attendees that resembled taking a shower with their clothes on, we continued to picnic in the safety of the building we had planned on using only sporadically before. The picnic inside from the elements wasn’t even noticed by most. I’m sure the kids would rather have been outside. But even they made do with the hallway as their playground. Good thing we had that building!

Pictures of the even can be seen here.

I recently read an interesting blog post titled, Community building means making members feel special over at CommunitySpark.com.  The author, Martin Reed, made some great points about how to grow member engagement.  As he states in his closing paragraph, “Looking through the points above, I think they all come down to treating your members like human beings.”

This seems apparent but the virtual nature of the Internet is often at odds with human interaction. At iNET, we are working with fairly large communities with hundreds of thousands of members and sizable moderation teams.  I know at times it is a challenge to properly address the human side of the interaction especially with business-to-business communities where knowledge exchange is the primary intent.  After being asked the same question hundreds of times, members and moderators can get frustrated repeating the same response.  Often the interaction is a harsh, “did you search for it?”

Our community coordinator, Dennis Johnson and his team, continue to work hard to emphasize the human interaction among community exchanges.  For example, with one community we introduced community guides to help new members and visitors find their way through forum categories and sub-categories.  On another iNET community serving up discussions on all things Apple (e.g. Mac-Forums), the community leadership awards a “member of the month” to members who demonstrate a high level of assistance in helping visitors and other members fulfill their needs.

In any case, Martin is right that a community represents more than the technology platform it sits on.  It repesents a group of people sharing common interests with each individual serving a vital role in the overall community dynamic. It is certainly an area at iNET that we continue to focus on and work to improve. 

Exhausted but excited with the outcome of HostingCon 2008, the iNET team arrived back in the office after trekking back to Cincinnati from Chicago. Interjuncture, the original producers of HostingCon, managed this year’s event very well. During the close of HostingCon 2008, Interjuncture’s CEO, George Roberts, and our President and CEO, Troy Augustine, performed a ceremonious signing of the closing documents. As of July 31, iNET Interactive became the proud owners of HostingCon!

During HostingCon, the iNET event team (including newly hired and event veterans, Bev and Stephanie) went to work gathering feedback from all attendees about exhibiting, speaking and general event activities. Surveys were handed out at each conference session to better understand speaker and speaking topic preferences while another survey was delivered to each exhibitor. Post-show, iNET sent out an email to all attendees (including exhibitors and speakers) asking for their help in completing a HostingCon 2008 online survey to gather further feedback. Although HostingCon 2009 scheduled for Washington D.C., August 10 – 12, 2009, is a year away, the iNET event team has already started the planning and preparation process.

The flurry of announcements about the HostingCon acquisition and the location for HostingCon 2009 generated outstanding press coverage for iNET. Here are some of the many press reports:

TheWHIR – Interview with Troy Augustine

TheWHIR.TV – Video Interview with Troy

TheWHIR – HostingCon acquired by iNET

Talkhosting.net – “Hostingcon acquired by iNET Interactive”

Dawhb.com – Hosting acquired by iNET

Gawkwire.com – iNET Interactive acquires Hostingcon

Networkworld.com – HostingCon Conference Session Summary

If you didn’t attend HostingCon, check out the HostingCon 2008 photos or visit the Web Hosting Talk forums for the details.

There is little doubt that social media is transforming business. However, even as a marketer working within social media, putting it all together into a coherent framework is challenging. The other day I found an outstanding tool that has helped me “connect the dots” among all the various facets of social media, called, the, “Conceptual Map of the Social Web” developed by the brilliant group over at www.websocialarchitecture.com.

One component of the Social Web where we spend the majority of our time is in developing and nurturing communities. As stated on the blog post I linked to above, “Communities are different than social networks in that they are built primarily around groups of people, rather than individuals. Another way of saying it is that the group is the point in communities, whereas the individual is the point in social networks.” This explanation offers an excellent differentiation. I would add that social networks develop within communities and likewise, communities form through social networks because people have a natural tendency to attract likeness. For example, as individuals connect through a social network, similarities in occupation, interests, hobbies or other characteristics, become the common ground necessary to start a community. Other influences such as the individuals’ passion, span of their influence, and the size and strength of each individuals personal network, can lead to community growth and stronger attraction.

I highly recommend printing off the Social Web Map and hanging it on your wall or office cubicle. It is a great reference to help understand social media connections.