Community Building Insights

[StevenCoffey]

Martin Reed is an online community builder who got in touch with us recently. He’s been in the industry for quite a while now and started his latest community, aimed at women and called Female Forum, last year. His blog, Community Spark, is a mine of information and intelligent discussion on the subject. Read: www.transcriberry.com
He kindly agreed to an interview and has some great insights and practical advice for anyone interested in the art of online communities. In particular, I like his closing advice about building relationships online: be honest, professional and generous. If you like this interview and want more, check out our interview with Rich Millington.
1. Please introduce yourself. Any hobbies or habits we should know about?
Well, my name is Martin Reed, I am 28 years old and have been developing online communities for about nine years. They have become a real passion of mine – I love the unpredictability of online community development and the fact that there is no ‘right way’ to develop them. Every community is different (or at least it should be) which keeps things interesting!
Read: Podcast Transcription Service - Interviews, Webcasts, Researches
I love to travel; I am originally from the UK but now live in New York City with my American wife. I have also lived and worked in Australia and Canada. I ran the London Marathon and raised around $2,000 for charity – a real buzz.
2. How did you get into the area of building communities?
It was a complete accident! I got my own Internet connection in 1999 and found online chat rooms absolutely fascinating. The fact I could communicate with someone on the other side of the world in realtime floored me. I began to get frustrated however, with all the chat sites that made you register just to gain access so I started up my own website, Just Chat as a place where people could chat without registering data transcription. The site is still going strong to this day, although it now has the addition of message boards, a free email penpals section and free ecards.
3. How would you describe your role as a ‘community builder’?
A community builder is someone who facilitates the development of relationships. It is all too easy to forget that behind every successful online community are real life people. All too often community builders focus on technology and advertising to bring in new members. This is a mistake – your focus should be on developing relationships amongst your existing members. If you build a successful community, your members will do the majority of your external promotion – free of charge.