Notes from Patrick O'Keefe on BlogTalk Radio

I had the pleasure this morning of speaking with Patrick O'Keefe, founder of iFroggy Network, on my BlogTalk Radio show.  You can listen in streaming mode with the link at the top right corner of my blog here. (Patrick, I didn't realize BTR would have a problem displaying a ' in your name. I do now.)

If you're reading this post after September 17th, when my next show is posted, you can listen at this link.

Patrick is smart, organized, clear, focused, honest, dedicated. Those are the best qualities of an entrepreneur. He's organized his life and his business to maximize their impact in building his online community, iFroggy Network.

Here are a few of his thoughts:

His Biggest Challenge: Balance in life. His work is his life. (Sound familiar?) How does he keep balance? He makes time for things that matter. [I think the key word is make.]

Biggest mistakes he sees made in social media:

1) Being ignorant of your surroundings. Know where you are, follow the norms of that group, watch what others are doing, follow the leaders.

2) Not respecting property rights of others. If you use part of someone's content, give credit to them. Link back, acknowledge your source

Goal in writing his book: Managing Online Forums: Everything You Need to Know to Create and Run Community Discussion Boards. Help others...and all else follows with that.  There was no other goal like sales or consulting or speaking gigs. He shared his 8 years of experience in building and managing online communities. And it resulted in his book being published by AMACOM, the publisher for American Management Association.  Help others....all else follows.

3 Rules for Building a Successful Online Community:

1). Know who you are. Everything should complement that. Your community guidelines speak to who you are and who you want to be. They are your business statement.
2). Create a good infrastructure before you need it. How are you going to handle  certain situations. He’s created standard processes, with standard templates, to use by his staff that create a consistent response, consistently delivered.
3). Create a good staff environment. It’s one of respect, clarity, with the tools to do their job. You manage them, not the other way around. This keeps politics in the office to a minimum.

Patrick also blogs at: PatrickOkeefe.com

He’ll at BlogWorld Expo at the following times on Sunday, September 21:

* Book signing, 2nd floor bookstore: from 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM:
* Panel Presentation on How to Deal with Trolls, Spammers and Sock Puppets: 1:15 PM - 2:15 PM
Panel Presentation on Avoiding Mistakes: How NOT to Use Social Media: 4:00 PM.

Clearly he's got a lot to share, wants to share it a lot. And you should take him up on his offer.

Thanks, Patrick!

Comments

[Patrick]

Thanks for the kind words, Mr. Safrit. It was my pleasure. No worries on the apostrophe. :) I look forward to meeting you at BWE.

Thanks,

Patrick