One of the coolest features about Mixx is that you do not always have to stay on the main popular pages. You can roam off the beaten path and into some fresh terrain of specific content that you might be interested in. And what's more, is you can actually be a part of this feature; in fact, you could be a driving force behind it.
I am speaking, of course, of Mixx Communities. To the uninitiated, Mixx Communities is somewhat like Ning for Social News. You pick a specific niche topic, build a community around that, and get members into your community so they can post cool stuff to it.
What's more is that you can actually also set up your community to automatically bring in content from the main Mixx.com site based on the tags used on the submissions.
Building a Mixx Community is really easy to do, and there's a bunch of great ones on the site worth checking out. In spite of this, it’s one thing to make a community – it’s another to build a KILLER community. And that is what I am going to talk about here.
A lot of people, when making their communities get the initial few steps right. They select a topic (or niche, if you will), build their community, get the content kicking, and there you go. It is after this that some people stop, and that's where they are "doing it wrong".
Allow me to use an analogy. If you get some soil and seeds, place it all in a pot, and provide water for the seeds for them to rise above the soil, then you have made a start. But once you've seen this happen, if you walk away and forget about your new plant, it will become weak and die. If you want your plant to thrive and grow, you need to put some attention and care into ensuring that it will endure.
It is the same with a community. You can set one up, but if you walk away there is potential for it to decline and die. Yet, if you continue working on your community, maintain it, update it, and care for how it runs and works; I promise you will have a thriving community that will kick a lot of ass.
So how do we do this? Let's start at the top, shall we?
Stop! Collaborate and Listen!
Yes, I really used that phrase for a subtitle. Now that you are over your cheesy Vanilla Ice flashback, the REAL work in building a Mixx Community begins in the planning phase. As the old time management cliché goes, if you fail to plan then you plan to fail. A number of people are comfortable going it alone and making their community their own place. And this is fine. Having said that, it is always a great idea to bounce your ideas off somebody else; check with another Mixxer, and find out what they consider about your idea for a community. Actively listen for any suggestions they may have. On another note, it is also handy to work with others in setting up a community. Collaboration can help make a dream grow stronger.
Avoid adding to the noise
You may have a smashing suggestion for a community, and I really hate to burst your bubble so easily and so early, but the reality is: someone might have previously thought of the idea before you. Your best bet is to go hunting through the available communities on Mixx and see if someone has already created a community based on your ideas. If so, take a look at the group they've made. If it looks pretty dormant and unused, then you are probably safe enough to proceed.
But let us say you come across the disheartening news - somebody already has a thriving community based on the idea. If this is the case, it is time to step back to the drawing board and dream up further ideas. Or perhaps you need to work on your idea and be more specific. The whole purpose here is to ensure your community stands apart from everyone else's, and does not "add to the noise". Oh, and one tip: steer clear of making a community about "Social Media". There are plenty of them already, and while some of them are exceptional, there are others that just add to the noise and don’t stand apart. If the big idea you had was Social Media, then revisit and refine it.
Be SPECIFIC as possible
Your Community MUST have a function or focus. If you set up a community that is generalized and lacks a specific focus, not many people are going to be engrossed, because they can get generalized submissions from the Mixx popular page. Be as specific as you can with your thought. Instead of making a Music Community, pick a genre. Instead of picking a music genre, pick a band. At the end of the day how specific you want your focus to be is entirely up to you, but the more specific you are, the better.
Know Community Specifications before Diving In
When you later get the chance to dive into customizing a community, you will get to change some images if you want to help give your place a distinctive look and feel. You might even start dabbling in Photoshop or another program to brainstorm some designs. Prior to diving in, know what specifications and dimensions you'll be looking at. Banners for Mixx communities are 400 x 67 pixels. Header background images, if you use one, are specified at 1024 x 100 pixels; and centered.
Got your idea? Good - let us proceed!
Creating your Mixx Community is actually a very easy process. It's straight forward, and all the prompts on the screens will inform you what you need to do. Once you've finished the main setup, you will be taken to your community and that will have a very basic default design. It's now up to you to customize it! Go into the Community Management section and start playing with how you want it to look.
Your Community Keywords and Twitter Integration
The finest part of the Mixx Communities is the ability to automatically import stories that match your theme into the community itself. You can do this in Community Management, from the Customize Navigation and Content section. In this area, you can provide up to ten tags that are based on your theme. But think carefully about what tags you use. Every now and then, the tag itself might have more than one meaning, and you might get a lot of off-topic stuff imported. One illustration on this is with the KISS Fans community I made. The first time I set it up, I used the "kiss" tag without thinking. In a very brief time, I had all kinds of stories that… well I will just let you use your imagination on what got imported. But it was an indispensable learning experience: be specific with your tags. It will help keep your community on-topic. Also, use the same tags for the Twitter integration tool.
Ad-Sense Etiquette
One of the nicer characteristics of Mixx Communities is that, using your Google Ad-Sense account, you can share in some of the ad-revenue. It is important to note that in some communities, this might not be appropriate to use. For example, recently I created the Mixx Breaking News Archive community. The purpose behind the community was to import stories that had been flagged by SuperMixxers on the main site as Breaking News. In this manner, the intent was to create a place that would be of benefit to the larger Mixx community, and not just me. It would not have been appropriate for me to hook up my Ad-Sense account with this one. Having said that, if your community is an exceptional niche, and something you came up with on your own, then by all means, go ahead and get your Ad-Sense a-cookin'.
Inviting Others
So, you are happy with how the community is looking and you've got some content imported. Excellent work, bud... Now you are ready to kick it open and let everyone come flooding in. Once you are at this stage, you can invite your friends and followers to your community, and you can discover how to do this in the Community Management section. You just need to send the one invite; and don't be disappointed if someone rejects your invitation... not everyone is into what you dig, and that is okay.
Ideas to initially promote your community
You've made your modest place and you have new people coming in... but you would like to get a few new faces popping in. How can you do this? Let us get the negative stuff out of the way first - DON’T spam your community via Mixx Mail or in random comments on posts that bear no relation to your community.
Instead, when you find a submission that suits your community; add the post to your community, and then comment about why you added it. It does not need to be an essay. Something like, "WOW, this submission was right up my alley - and would be perfect for my (insert name here) community". Odds are the submitter is also interested in this content and might want to check it out.
Another idea is to keep your eyes open for new Mixxers and their profiles; Mixxers will often post their interests on their profile - and if they match your community, then send them a Mixx Mail Message. Do not come off as spammy, just mention that you saw they were interested in the subject matter, and that you have a community set up for it.
This is the part where n00bs get it wrong!
This section is perhaps the most important part of the article. Once you have finished working on your Community, don't walk away from it and forget it, and hope that stuff will just automatically import and everything will be great. You need to keep at working on your community TO KEEP PEOPLE INTERESTED IN IT. If you put in the labors to regulate, update, and maintain your community; your hard work will pay off. The community will thrive and be a little spot of the web where people really want to hang out at. So - how do we keep working on the community to keep it developing? There are two actions you need to do: continue promoting your community, and monitor your community. Let us take a look at these actions in some detail...
The best way to continually promote your community is...
...in submitting content to it! That might sound painfully obvious to some, but believe me; some folks forget they should keep submitting to it. The best tip to follow is to add the topic that your community focuses on to your list of stuff you want to submit to Mixx. For example, a community I enjoy participating in is the Obama community. When I am on the hunt for content to submit to Mixx, I am not only looking for content that I am interested in sharing; but I am also looking for something I can also submit to a Community... in this case, an article about Obama, the election, or the presidency.
Another great way to promote your community is to keep an eye out for related content that gets submitted to Mixx. You might assume that your Community will automatically suck in your content - but it does not always work out that way: some Mixxers forget to tag their stories. So keep an eye out... if you find something that fits your Community, ADD IT; and then comment on the public story about it.
Finally, you can keep on promoting your community by using the wonderful and fabulous widgets that Mixx has set up for Mixxers to use. Add it to your blog, your site, your MySpace page, wherever. Or even better... if you find a popular web site that looks on the same content as your community, then tell them about the widget and your community. You never know, they might just attach a widget about it to their site!
Monitor and Tweak
Within communities, people want to see new content, all the time. Not just in submissions, but in the whole lot. Change your video selection often at your community; and continue to add community messages to the top of the page. I aim to do this in my communities on a weekly basis; just to give the viewers something new. How do I select the content? Usually I take a look at the most popular submits in the community for the week, and choose the video and header messages that way.
Some communities might benefit from new banners as well. Take, for example, my community called Beyond Legend. This community focuses on comic books, graphic novels, and movies based on them. With fresh comic book movies coming out all the time, I regularly change the banner to reflect the next upcoming or currently screening movie. As it turns out, this also requires me to fine-tune my color scheme as well - but that is all advantageous; it keeps the community looking fresh and regularly updated; and THAT is what your visitors WANT to see.
Also, supervise your community for off-topic posts. Make sure you delete them, and send a message to the submitter to courteously explain that it was removed because it was off-topic. If you politely remind them of the community rules, people respond positively in kind. This is your corner of the web we are talking of here; the last thing you want to become is the community with a banhammer worse than Digg's!
Communities that are DOING IT RIGHT
Here's a few examples of some Mixx Communities that are doing it right. Check them out by clicking on the screenshots below...
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Some Essential Mixx Communities
Here's a few Mixx communities that are very helpful to be members of. They focus on Mixx in general, and are very handy resources. The last in the list is Digg Refugees, a community for former and/or banned Diggers who moved to Mixx. Check them out by clicking on the screenshots below...
Got it? Now, get out there, and dazzle us with your new communities!!!!!
Stop! Collaborate and Listen!
Avoid adding to the noise
Be SPECIFIC as possible
Got your idea? Good - let us proceed!
Ad-Sense Etiquette
Inviting Others
Ideas to initially promote your community
This is the part where n00bs get it wrong!
The best way to continually promote your community is...
Monitor and Tweak
