The Community Girl is a catalyst to inspire enthusiasts like you to learn how to harness the power of online communities. The purpose of this community is to share, ask questions and learn. You'll find blog articles, discussions, links to other blogs, books, videos, events, white papers, websites and experts contributed by all of us.

3 ways to best use this community:
1. Browse through blog articles on this main page (scroll down below forums) and comment
2. Go to forums and start out by posting a question
3. Reference recommended links on main page

Content is Not King
by Andrew Odlyzko

Six Degrees of Lois Weisberg She's a grandmother, she lives in a big house in Chicago, and you've never heard of her. Does she run the world?

GOLD - Getting OnLine communities to Develop: What makes an online business community successful? How is success measured and what are the determinants of that success? And finally, is there a predictable pattern in communication tool use, and is that pattern related to either the types of relationship that exist online, or the types of information exchange that take place within and between online communities?

"Don't speak. Point!" - Three ingredients of the future of journalism by Bruno Giussani takes an interesting look at the future of new media and how people communicate.

XING is a professional network of over 5 million members predominantly European however very quickly spreading in Asia and America. What I love about XING is the professional focus and minimal spam due to their strong support team.

Facebook originally started as a student social network has become one of the leading communities on the web today. You can connect with your friends, new people, join groups and discussions, upload photos and access some of the coolest applications to enhance your experience.

Zaadz is a community people interested in improving the world. You'll find high quality members, discussions, groups, book recommendations and topics of interest.

LinkedIn is an online network of more than 12 million experienced professionals from around the world, representing 150 industries. I don't use it as often as XING because most members are from the United States and the network is predominantly used for job hunting. It has some super cool features like advanced statistics however I don't have the time or patience to have to go through a 'middle person' to connect with another person.

A Small World is a super exclusive network by invitation only that was originally started by Swedish playboy Erik Wachtsmeister to bring his rich and famous friends together to share their contacts and inside scoops on what's hot and what's not. Early members include people like Naomi Campbell and Paris Hilton. It's designed for people who already have strong connections with one another. Unfortunately I do not have any invitation left :-(

Chris Brogan's A conversation with a Community about Digital Relationships is the closest example of somebody that 'gives it all away'. Spend an hour on Chris's blog and you'll be up to speed on just about everything to do with online communities and blogs.

Marc's Voice. Founder of People Aggregator has the inside scoop on much of what is going in the online community space.

Cruel to be kind by Nicole Simon is about a passionate but pragmatic approach for using blogs, podcasts and other tools in professional and private endeavors. And some other stuff she is passionate about. Nicole lives in Lübeck, Germany and likes to facilitate a broader perspective for some readers.

Nicole has also taken on an active role at Blognation one of the first sites that technology-enthusiasts, bloggers, early adopters, fellow entrepreneurs and investors visit to find daily updates on Web 2.0 technology, mobile and enterprise news from all over the world. The English-speaking part of the world is language-challenged: there are many excellent blogs in Spanish or German about Web 2.0 start-ups, but if you don't read these languages, you're stuck. Blognation solves that problem by offering news about those start-ups only in English.

Blog.Pmarca.com is a blog by co-founder of Ning Marc Anderson - probably one of the most successful web 2.0 entrepreneurs.

Web-Strategist by Jeremiah by Jeremiah Owyang includes useful blogs listing white label communities, interviews and commentaries.

Sachi Studio by good friend Dean Hua covering subjects related to design, the people business, community building and marketing.

Techmambo is a weblog dedicated to profiling and reviewing new Online and Offline products, services and companies.

Jeff Ledoux has excellent links to cool sites, updates on applications and widgets and some very useful 'quickies'. Be sure to check out his daily beauties too :-)

I've hand selected and read most of the books I'm recommending below. Any proceeds received from the Amazon's affiliate program will go into purchasing and reviewing more books for you.

Please join the forum discussion on these books where I invite you to share your insights and ask questions.

100% ONLINE COMMUNITIES

IDEOLOGY

BLOGGING

USABILITY FOR THOSE BUILDING COMMUNITIES FROM SCRATCH

RELATED PEOPLE BOOKS