Ultra Local Social Networking

Posted by Matt Rajkowski on November 25, 2009, 8:55 AM EST

Concursive has put together a model community for neighborhoods, small businesses, politicians, and for those that live, work, or visit the area... we call it Connect757 to emphasize the ultra localness of the 757 area code: Hampton Roads Virginia.

We've come up with a way to tell a story that may be useful for other markets and we're leveraging the latest features in ConcourseConnect 2.0.

Some key areas of the implementation:

• Neighborhoods - An easy way for people to associate, learn and collaborate where they live
• Businesses - A web presence for small businesses that gives them Micro-blogging, Blogs, Wikis, and CRM Tools
• Organizations - Similar to Businesses and promotes important local organizations
• Groups - An area in which people can form and participate around their own topics of interest
• People - A simple directory for finding others
• Events - A way to learn and subscribe to local events in the community
• Clusters - an idea hub where we emphasize Innovation, Lifestyle, Managing, Marketing, and more.
• Voices - spotlighting local politicians and celebrities and following their agendas

If you would like more information about building your own community, contact us and we'll help you out.

Are there other examples of ultra local communities that you'd like to share?  Please leave your comments.

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Complementary Uses for a Community Site

Posted by Fred Engelmann on June 7, 2009, 8:10 PM EDT

When we moved to rural upstate New York from sunny southern California, everything changed. Now we have clean air, little traffic, plenty of fresh water - and a much smaller local market for my core business of network design, implementation and management. So we put our heads together and created a new business, specifically for this area.

The model is simple, but not the marketing. As a family business, we design, implement and manage networks (surprise!) - which also offer public Internet access to visitors and guests. The network infrastructure is owned by the venue providing access, and the Internet access revenues cover the network management expenses.

That means we serve two distinct customer bases; our end users that purchase Internet access, and our venue partners whose networks we manage. In our area, the venues are generally small businesses, which serve the same visitors and guests. Those small business owners and managers are also our friends, neighbors, vendors, customers, or competitors (or all of the above) - one of the many benefits of rural living.

Here's the challenge: How can we engage our diverse constituents; provide value for our venue partners, communities and visitors; and build brand awareness? Not the old-fashioned way.

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