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Customer Spotlight
Men’s Health Magazine “Transforms” Fit-Focused Challenge
Whether the goal is losing 20 pounds, gaining muscle, or sculpting our abs into a six-pack (who are we kidding, some of us would just be happy getting a flat stomach), many of us dream of changing the way our bodies look. We just need a little help. Someone to remind us what to eat and how to workout. And a way for us to share our stories and learn from one another.
Rodale’s Men’s Health magazine developed Transform, an online program that features participants willing to dedicate 8 weeks to building a better body. In the past, individuals submitted photos and entry forms – either electronically or via snail mail. Rodale had to manually download and review each one. Participants contributed a blog – in essence sharing a personal diary of their transformation journey with the audience. There was no involvement with the audience.
Transform 2007 is fittingly a ‘before & after’ story of their participants and Rodale’s technology platform. Neighborhood America is partnering with Rodale to transform the program into a truly interactive community. Now participants can upload their own videos, pictures, and stories; ask the fitness director questions through a forum; and rate/comment on the other participants in the community. Neighborhood America enables Rodale to create greater opportunities for participation, while making it easier for them to capture submissions and manage the community.
Tour the Transform community and check out why already thousands of people are driving hundreds of discussions.
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Industry Spotlight |
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  Injecting Fresh Ideas into Community Journalism
If you’ve ever had an idea of how to improve life in your community, sharing it with the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation may mean big bucks.
The Knight Foundation sponsors the Knight News Challenge, a worldwide contest for grants that awards as much as $10 million to individuals, organizations, and businesses with ideas that use digital news to help citizens better connect within their communities. Last year, nearly 1,650 applications came flooding in. This year, organizers are streamlining the process.
Neighborhood America is partnering with the Knight Foundation to provide the entire infrastructure for managing the contest – from the application submissions to the judging process. The process will be handled completely via the Web. Now applicants can choose to make their submissions available online for anyone in the world to see, comment on, and rate. Based on feedback, they can decide to make changes to their application for consideration. Or they can keep their projects private, but the finalists’ proposals will be open for the world to critique. The opportunity will create an experience that will seamlessly involve the audience of applicants and the judges in a way that most effectively manages the contest, while building community.
See for yourself what the Knight News Challenge is all about.
 Colorful Quilts Converge on HGTV.com
Chickens and cherries. You’ll agree that they’re an unlikely combination. But for one passionate quilter it was her inspiration, and now thanks to HGTV.com, she gets to share her colorful designs with the world.
Following the enormous success of "Rate My Space," Scripps Networks launches "Rate My Quilt." This new online community builds on the success of its predecessor, which allows interior design enthusiasts to connect online, upload videos and pictures of their rooms, and gives them the opportunity to rate/comment on the rooms. Instead of rooms, it’s quilts.
Don’t believe there’s enough of a following to warrant a community? Guess again. According to a Quilting in America™ 2000 survey, there are nearly 20 million adult quilters nationwide. Many of them watched the HGTV show "Simply Quilts," but when the show was canceled recently, HGTV decided to move its audience to a new outlet, hence “Rate My Quilt.” The online community will provide a place for quilters to connect and catch up on episodes of the show, and reflects Scripps' strategic approach to building communities for a purpose, an approach shared by its technology partner Neighborhood America.
Check out the amazing work on display at Rate My Quilt.
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NA Point of View |
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  Communities in Focus Present Clear Results
By Reneida Leon, Online Community Builder
Let’s face it. Social networking is not so new anymore. It has grown rapidly during the last three years, long past the days of market introduction. The widely celebrated technology now leaps into its healthiest days of growth. The topic of social networking has captured the headlines of almost all national publications and made its presence clear in an increasingly powerful blogosphere. You can now find most of your business contacts signed on as active members within LinkedIn or easily connect with your friends in a casual way through Facebook. There are social networks in place for professional woman, pets, music lovers, design lovers, do-it-yourself types, and the list keeps growing every month without the need to even mention the biggest and most frenetic platform of all: MySpace.
This proliferation of platforms points to a predictable trend toward focused social networks. In other words, there is a business preference for finding the right, focused communities to serve, satisfy and thrive on. After all, social networking is one of the hottest and most promising tools for functions such as marketing, CRM, recruitment and product development.
Although many business leaders want to be part of this Web 2.0 phenomenon, most have realized that throwing themselves into the “big pool” of existing platforms might not be the best solution. Moreover, those who have seen the need to own their private, branded social networks have rapidly understood (through success or failure) that “focused” is now the prevalent strategy in an environment loaded with generic platforms and technology.
But what does owning a focused community mean? It means that you cannot be MySpace. Put simply, you cannot be everything to everybody. Owning, or in more proper terms, managing a focused community is to understand the needs, values, culture and objectives of a carefully defined audience and tailoring your platform to meet those standards in the most strategic way. The results-driven focused community does not necessarily spill its efforts into having the latest gadgets, wildest widgets and strangely amusing applications, as generics do. Instead, a smart community pays attention to its brand and individual definition of success, adding just the right tools to encourage participation and excitement among its users without sacrificing content relevance, purpose, and bottom-line results.
Neighborhood America has developed a successful model for online community building, combining secure infrastructure and technology solutions with proven advice for planning, promoting and administrating branded social networks in focused markets. Our work with customer projects such as HGTV.com’s “Rate my Space,” an online community for interior design aficionados, has proven the success and advantages of following a strategic approach to social networking.
If you are interested in learning more about our distinctive methods and techniques for successful community building, stay tuned for our upcoming event series this fall. We will feature a variety of industry experts sharing their business and technical insight.
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Company News |
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 Strachan Brings Strategic Vision to Account Relationships
Loyal, ongoing customers are the backbone of any business. Better yet, creating ‘champions’ - customers who are so enthusiastic about a company they not only buy more but they speak highly of its offerings to others – truly extends the value of a company.
Neighborhood America understands the importance of nurturing customer relationships. That’s where our team, responsible for building accounts, steps in - acting as the single point of contact to ensure their success as a customer within our company. Rounding out the team is Tom Strachan who joins Neighborhood America as the company’s new Director of Account Management. His strategic visioning will guide the team in growing our customer base and revenue.
“We look to provide the highest level of service in the software industry around our solutions," said Strachan. "Our customers are an integral part of how we view and build our communities. They are part of our entire process from development to training. They are indeed the stakeholders that are building Neighborhood America’s community and social networking platform.”
Strachan brings more than 10 years of experience managing sales programs and generating new business. Most recently, he served as Business Development representative for WCI Communities, a high-rise development in South Florida. Prior to that, he served as a Manager of the Global Account’s Group at Akamai Technologies, the largest internet content delivery network in the world.
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Conferences and Events |
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  The Now and the Next of Modern Marketing
Chicago’s Navy Pier, on the shores of Lake Michigan, has been a long-standing attraction for residents and tourists alike. A 148-foot Ferris wheel, alongside a 44-foot musical carousel with 36 hand-painted animals, brightens the pier’s skyline and emits spirited melodies. This entertaining environment is now home to the ad:tech Conference and Exhibition, an exciting event that brings together top marketers, agencies, and Fortune 100 companies.
Organizers sought the expertise of Neighborhood America’s Vice President of Mobile Solutions Dan Miller for a panel discussion on how leading businesses and institutions are generating greater value from their customers through the mobile platform. On July 31, Miller will share his insight on how to build customer affinity and brand recognition at a deeper level to develop stronger customer relationships. Neighborhood America has been instrumental in enabling interactive social networks on the mobile platform for major companies, including Adidas and Reebok, among others.
 Building Partner Communities that Fuel Market Growth
Neighborhood America President and CEO Kim Kobza had the privilege of providing a keynote address for the IDC Software Channel Leadership Council during the Executive Summer Summit. The Summit drew an audience of distinguished senior industry executives and leading IDC analysts together for a day in Palo Alto, California to explore how partner-to-partner networks are impacting channels.
Kobza shared his expertise to help attendees learn how social networking technology can be leveraged to nurture relationships with partners and to impact the success of their channel strategies.
“It was my privilege to facilitate the discussion on social media and partner-to-partner networks for IDC and industry leaders. Social media will transform how technology companies generate revenue through partner channels. The IDC Software Leadership Council is a wonderful forum for this most important dialogue,” said Kobza.
IDC helps IT professionals, business executives, and the investment community make fact-based decisions on technology purchases and business strategy by providing market research. |
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Reader Satisfaction |
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It is our goal to deliver quality information of value to you. We encourage you to share your thoughts and suggestions on how we can improve our newsletter. Click here
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Customer Spotlight
Men’s Health Magazine “Transforms” Fit-Focused Challenge
Whether the goal is losing 20 pounds, gaining muscle, or sculpting our abs into a six-pack (who are we kidding, some of us would just be happy getting a flat stomach), many of us dream of changing the way our bodies look. We just need a little help. Someone to remind us what to eat and how to workout. And a way for us to share our stories and learn from one another.
Rodale’s Men’s Health magazine developed Transform, an online program that features participants willing to dedicate 8 weeks to building a better body. In the past, individuals submitted photos and entry forms – either electronically or via snail mail. Rodale had to manually download and review each one. Participants contributed a blog – in essence sharing a personal diary of their transformation journey with the audience. There was no involvement with the audience.
Transform 2007 is fittingly a ‘before & after’ story of their participants and Rodale’s technology platform. Neighborhood America is partnering with Rodale to transform the program into a truly interactive community. Now participants can upload their own videos, pictures, and stories; ask the fitness director questions through a forum; and rate/comment on the other participants in the community. Neighborhood America enables Rodale to create greater opportunities for participation, while making it easier for them to capture submissions and manage the community.
Tour the Transform community and check out why already thousands of people are driving hundreds of discussions.
If you’ve ever had an idea of how to improve life in your community, sharing it with the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation may mean big bucks.
The Knight Foundation sponsors the Knight News Challenge, a worldwide contest for grants that awards as much as $10 million to individuals, organizations, and businesses with ideas that use digital news to help citizens better connect within their communities. Last year, nearly 1,650 applications came flooding in. This year, organizers are streamlining the process.
Neighborhood America is partnering with the Knight Foundation to provide the entire infrastructure for managing the contest – from the application submissions to the judging process. The process will be handled completely via the Web. Now applicants can choose to make their submissions available online for anyone in the world to see, comment on, and rate. Based on feedback, they can decide to make changes to their application for consideration. Or they can keep their projects private, but the finalists’ proposals will be open for the world to critique. The opportunity will create an experience that will seamlessly involve the audience of applicants and the judges in a way that most effectively manages the contest, while building community.
See for yourself what the Knight News Challenge is all about.
Chickens and cherries. You’ll agree that they’re an unlikely combination. But for one passionate quilter it was her inspiration, and now thanks to HGTV.com, she gets to share her colorful designs with the world.
Following the enormous success of "Rate My Space," Scripps Networks launches "Rate My Quilt." This new online community builds on the success of its predecessor, which allows interior design enthusiasts to connect online, upload videos and pictures of their rooms, and gives them the opportunity to rate/comment on the rooms. Instead of rooms, it’s quilts.
Don’t believe there’s enough of a following to warrant a community? Guess again. According to a Quilting in America™ 2000 survey, there are nearly 20 million adult quilters nationwide. Many of them watched the HGTV show "Simply Quilts," but when the show was canceled recently, HGTV decided to move its audience to a new outlet, hence “Rate My Quilt.” The online community will provide a place for quilters to connect and catch up on episodes of the show, and reflects Scripps' strategic approach to building communities for a purpose, an approach shared by its technology partner Neighborhood America.
Check out the amazing work on display at Rate My Quilt.
By Reneida Leon, Online Community Builder
Let’s face it. Social networking is not so new anymore. It has grown rapidly during the last three years, long past the days of market introduction. The widely celebrated technology now leaps into its healthiest days of growth. The topic of social networking has captured the headlines of almost all national publications and made its presence clear in an increasingly powerful blogosphere. You can now find most of your business contacts signed on as active members within LinkedIn or easily connect with your friends in a casual way through Facebook. There are social networks in place for professional woman, pets, music lovers, design lovers, do-it-yourself types, and the list keeps growing every month without the need to even mention the biggest and most frenetic platform of all: MySpace.
This proliferation of platforms points to a predictable trend toward focused social networks. In other words, there is a business preference for finding the right, focused communities to serve, satisfy and thrive on. After all, social networking is one of the hottest and most promising tools for functions such as marketing, CRM, recruitment and product development.
Although many business leaders want to be part of this Web 2.0 phenomenon, most have realized that throwing themselves into the “big pool” of existing platforms might not be the best solution. Moreover, those who have seen the need to own their private, branded social networks have rapidly understood (through success or failure) that “focused” is now the prevalent strategy in an environment loaded with generic platforms and technology.
But what does owning a focused community mean? It means that you cannot be MySpace. Put simply, you cannot be everything to everybody. Owning, or in more proper terms, managing a focused community is to understand the needs, values, culture and objectives of a carefully defined audience and tailoring your platform to meet those standards in the most strategic way. The results-driven focused community does not necessarily spill its efforts into having the latest gadgets, wildest widgets and strangely amusing applications, as generics do. Instead, a smart community pays attention to its brand and individual definition of success, adding just the right tools to encourage participation and excitement among its users without sacrificing content relevance, purpose, and bottom-line results.
Neighborhood America has developed a successful model for online community building, combining secure infrastructure and technology solutions with proven advice for planning, promoting and administrating branded social networks in focused markets. Our work with customer projects such as HGTV.com’s “Rate my Space,” an online community for interior design aficionados, has proven the success and advantages of following a strategic approach to social networking.
If you are interested in learning more about our distinctive methods and techniques for successful community building, stay tuned for our upcoming event series this fall. We will feature a variety of industry experts sharing their business and technical insight.
Loyal, ongoing customers are the backbone of any business. Better yet, creating ‘champions’ - customers who are so enthusiastic about a company they not only buy more but they speak highly of its offerings to others – truly extends the value of a company.
Neighborhood America understands the importance of nurturing customer relationships. That’s where our team, responsible for building accounts, steps in - acting as the single point of contact to ensure their success as a customer within our company. Rounding out the team is Tom Strachan who joins Neighborhood America as the company’s new Director of Account Management. His strategic visioning will guide the team in growing our customer base and revenue.
“We look to provide the highest level of service in the software industry around our solutions," said Strachan. "Our customers are an integral part of how we view and build our communities. They are part of our entire process from development to training. They are indeed the stakeholders that are building Neighborhood America’s community and social networking platform.”
Strachan brings more than 10 years of experience managing sales programs and generating new business. Most recently, he served as Business Development representative for WCI Communities, a high-rise development in South Florida. Prior to that, he served as a Manager of the Global Account’s Group at Akamai Technologies, the largest internet content delivery network in the world.
by James H. Burnett III
Neighborhood America joins the iPhone discussion, positioning itself as a leader in innovation.
Read the full article that appeared in the Miami Herald.
by Christina S.N. Lewis and Loretta Chao
Neighborhood America "champion" featured for success of online community.
Read the full article that appeared in The Wall Street Journal.
Chicago’s Navy Pier, on the shores of Lake Michigan, has been a long-standing attraction for residents and tourists alike. A 148-foot Ferris wheel, alongside a 44-foot musical carousel with 36 hand-painted animals, brightens the pier’s skyline and emits spirited melodies. This entertaining environment is now home to the ad:tech Conference and Exhibition, an exciting event that brings together top marketers, agencies, and Fortune 100 companies.
Organizers sought the expertise of Neighborhood America’s Vice President of Mobile Solutions Dan Miller for a panel discussion on how leading businesses and institutions are generating greater value from their customers through the mobile platform. On July 31, Miller will share his insight on how to build customer affinity and brand recognition at a deeper level to develop stronger customer relationships. Neighborhood America has been instrumental in enabling interactive social networks on the mobile platform for major companies, including Adidas and Reebok, among others.
Neighborhood America President and CEO Kim Kobza had the privilege of providing a keynote address for the IDC Software Channel Leadership Council during the Executive Summer Summit. The Summit drew an audience of distinguished senior industry executives and leading IDC analysts together for a day in Palo Alto, California to explore how partner-to-partner networks are impacting channels.
Kobza shared his expertise to help attendees learn how social networking technology can be leveraged to nurture relationships with partners and to impact the success of their channel strategies.
“It was my privilege to facilitate the discussion on social media and partner-to-partner networks for IDC and industry leaders. Social media will transform how technology companies generate revenue through partner channels. The IDC Software Leadership Council is a wonderful forum for this most important dialogue,” said Kobza.
IDC helps IT professionals, business executives, and the investment community make fact-based decisions on technology purchases and business strategy by providing market research.
It is our goal to deliver quality information of value to you. We encourage you to share your thoughts and suggestions on how we can improve our newsletter. Click here
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