Defining Content and Strategies to Improve the Effectiveness in Virtual Communities

Abstract

There has been offered a review of content as one of the key components of the organization of virtual communities. The process of content distribution is studied; accordingly the model «Process of content formation in the virtual community» is created. The importance of understanding the process of content delivery to the user is substantiated. The analysis of advantages and disadvantages of using content in the environment of virtual communities is carried out. The roles of the user who is the basis of the target audience of the virtual community (agitator, distributor and evaluator) are defined. The classification of content is developed in accordance with modern standards of virtual communities: by type of user, by form of presentation, by purpose, by type of object of promotion, by type of information and by strategy of use. The material emphasizes the idea of the correct organization of work with the formation of content. The strategy of the "General Rules", which is based on the creation of a strong channel of interaction with users, has been studied. The analyzed rules relate to the purpose, goals, profile of the potential user, market, moderators from the internal circle of users, evaluation, analysis of competitors, planning, tools, brand uniqueness, analytics and software. Tested for efficiency, three-dimensional content analysis strategy and SMART for community work. There have been analyzed the peculiarities of the strategy of "Three-dimensional content analysis", which are based on the implementation of key processes for the community — analysis, process and content. The properties of the SMART strategy distinguish it from the emphasis on building productive goals to increase the efficiency of content formation in communities. Each letter of the name is assigned a word that describes the characteristic features of the goals: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-limited. The results of the effectiveness of the analyzed strategies to increase the level of content placement in virtual communities are substantiated in the conducted experiments. Relevant conclusions have been made regarding the conducted content research.