Ideate.co.za Is Not An Online Community, IF…

…IF the authors posting on www.ideate.co.za (about Small Business in SA) DIDN’T participate in the conversations taking place on each of their posts…

Fortunately, the “mild-mannered alter-egos” behind Ideate, Fred (The Heaviest Chef of them all!!), Andrew and Shane, as well as some of their other guest contributors, ARE participating - and this, to me, is the primary reason behind Ideate’s success.

Don’t believe me? Case in point, I randomly went throught 10 posts and this was the level of participation from them…

  • Total nr. of posts: 10
  • Total comments: 78
  • Total comments by readers: 57
  • Total comments by Ideate authors: 21

Thus, 27% of the conversation is done by the Ideate team. That’s some good interaction, believe me.

To add to this, I also made some other observations:

  • All (and I mean ALL) of the comments made by the Ideate team, where “response”-comments i.e. visitors to the site made some comments and the Ideate guys responded… thus, Ideate was listening.
  • All of the Ideate guys interact. It wasn’t a case of just Andrew or just Shane only making conversations - all of them do so.
  • The content of the conversations reflect a genuine relationship between Ideate and it’s readers. You get the feeling the Ideate team knows who their readers are…

All in all, Ideate.co.za is an excellent example of what characterizes being an online community is al about. If the team didn’t listen (and converse!) with their readers, then Ideate would not have had its loyal following.

Keep up the good work guys!

*NOTE: I work with one of the Ideate guys, Fred, at World Wide Creative and thus, I might be a bit biased… but believe me, when you work (and socialize!) with Fred… sometimes you’d like the opportunity to give him a bit of a roasting… unfortunately… this wasn’t such an opportunity… well, till next time then ;) !!

By Louis Janse van Rensburg | September 26, 2008
Posted in Recipes for Success
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2 Comments

  1. Fred
    Posted September 26, 2008 at 9:00 pm | Permalink

    Great post Louis! It would be great to do a few more analyses like this - a fun one to check out would be keo.co.za.

    With regards to the roasting… bring it, new guy! Let’s see what you got.

  2. Robert Jewell
    Posted October 24, 2008 at 10:15 pm | Permalink

    I met Fred and the team for the first time at their inaugural JHB Heavy Chef evening, and I left there with one conclusion: Fred and his team are there to serve entrepreneurs and to make a difference to their businesses and their lives. Keep it up guys. regards Robert Jewell, Accounting for Entrepreneurs

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