You hear so much about engaging people online and how important it can be to your business. If you can create a community of your fans or a community of people around a specific company, organization, idea, individual or subject, it can offer tremendous value. But, what does it take to get to that point? Behind the scenes at any successful community is an individual or team of people who works hard to make it all happen. What are the nuts and bolts of this operation? How does it all work?

You don't want people to use your community in a manner that would tarnish your brand. No matter the platform, whether it be forums, blogs or other types of social interaction, the moderation of content and of contributions is a crucial element to the success of an online community. Moderation requires set policies, a set process for handling troublemakers and a team versed in that process, fairly enforcing and executing these objectives.

This is what Community Direction is all about. If you are looking for help setting up your infrastructure or enhancing it, maximizing the benefit of your community to your business, training your administrators and moderators, or if you are simply dealing with a specific problem that you need the solution to, I can help. I'm Patrick O'Keefe and I've been managing online communities since 2000. Longer than that, I've participated in them from every angle. I've been the user, the moderator, the administrator and the owner.

I've seen the challenges that communities face and I've dealt with them. I own the iFroggy Network, which includes communities like KarateForums.com, phpBBHacks.com and SportsForums.net.

I'm also the author of "Managing Online Forums: Everything You Need to Know to Create and Run Successful Community Discussion Boards," a book published by the American Management Association in 2008. It's a practical guide to managing online communities and social spaces, with an emphasis on the actual management - the human side - and not so much the technology. If you'd like to talk, please contact me today. I appreciate your time and interest. Full site coming.