Big Board: Staying Up to Date in Today's Online Environment

[Kathy]

Kathy submitted a new Article:

Big Board: Staying Up to Date in Today's Online Environment

HysterSisters has been an online community since 1998. How do you keep the website and community up to date in today’s online environment?

What I do is not unique to the lives of other web-managers even if our topic is different than other communities. Staying up to date is a daily foot race. Since I launched HysterSisters in the early years of the Internet, I've continued to keep the website up to date by showing up each day, knowing my community, remaining a learner, determining to be the authority in our niche and expanding my brand. I remember WHY I do what I do - which fuels my passion.

What do I do specifically?

I show up each day

An online community won’t run itself – even with an awesome staff of moderators. I’m a daily presence within our staff forums and using text messages, iMessage and other chat platforms that were never available back in 2000 with access for our moderators. I meet regularly with our content team via phone, text or email. I schedule regular monthly staff meetings online. I show up today with a plan for tomorrow and an extended plan for my website for the next year. Each year, I plan a new expansion project. 2012 was the year of the APP (iPhone, iPad and Android). 2013 was the year of our video series using doctors. Because I set a yearly project in place, I make daily plans that lead to weekly plans that lead to my big projects goals.

I know my community

And as I show up every day, I’m on hand when the moderator staff is making decisions about a challenging member. I’m aware when a new topic of discussion takes off and I work with our editorial team to research and write a series of articles for our content. I read through the forums finding questions that we could use in our Ask the Doctor video series. Our newsletters go through me first for topic and then again for final approval before we send. News that pertains to our community will show up the same day it makes it to Fox News or CNN.

I am always a learner

Within the last year, organic search engine rankings were altered with new algorithms and it affected our incoming traffic somewhat. Instead of shrugging my shoulders, I started to make phone calls and sending emails in a search of what I might be missing with the changes in SEO. It turns out I needed to adjust and make use of the newer “toys” on the Internet. We already had a presence on Facebook and Twitter but we learned how to step things up. I learned how to make use of...

Read more about this article here...

 

[Zero Numbers]

Sounds like the search engine helped you a lot. I think I should see what your community is all about.

 

[mrdon]

You have built a great community/resource. My wife was on your site quite a bit a few years ago and still visits it from time to time.

 

[Kathy]

Thanks you mrdon. It's rewarding to hear from our members and their families directly.

 

[Joel R]

Just reading through this interview, the amount of dedication and passion you put into your community is both impressive and inspiring for other forum administrators. Congrats on the success of your site!

 

[dethfire]

Kathy, what CMS do you use?

 

[Kathy]

I use Logician's web-templates and his customized article management using forum threads.