Social Media and Our Community

Another Monday has rolled around already and things are still trucking along nicely in the SitePoint community. Over the last week I’ve been giving some thought to the different aspects of our community and how they gel together. I’ll tell you more about that soon. In the mean time, here are a few of the things that we have going on at the moment.First and foremost I need to draw your attention to what is perhaps the most exciting event of the year for the forums. Yup, it’s time for the 2010 SitePoint Community Awards. There is just one week left to nominate your favorite forum members for any of the 25 awards. Don’t let that number put you off, you can nominate in as many or few of the categories as you like and nominations close on November 15th. If there is someone that has gone that extra mile to help you out, here is your chance to thank them. If you don’t nominate them, they don’t stand a chance, so get nominating now! It’s a super-quick process, I promise!One thing that’s slipped under the radar a little lately is our PHP on Microsoft Web Platform forum. On the third Friday of the month we have Microsoft’s Mark Brown live in that forum answering any questions that you might have. Feel free to post any time and you’ll get community support, but to interact with Mark directly just might help you sort out that issue that’s been bugging you… he’s a great resource to have around the forums.Last week was an exciting one for our Facebook fans, with our October ‘Get To Know Us‘ campaign culminating in a quiz. It was a tricky one because the prize was a biggie. Congratulations to Suzanne Mundy, who blitzed the quiz to take away a copy of our latest kit “The SEO Business Guide”.Still on the subject of Facebook, it’s a bit of a strange week for me. Our new ‘Get To Know Us’ campaign kicks off today, and in response to your feedback, the subject is social media. As a result, the first bio up is actually an auto-bio. Uh huh, I’m up. So if you’re interested in hearing just what it is that I spend my time doing and how I utilize social media at SitePoint, head over to our people tab and have a read. If you have any questions, post them on our wall and I’ll make sure I answer them for you. Next week we have a more interesting person on the block. Marketing manager Jen Sheahan will give her insights into the monetizing of social media, so keep your eyes out for that.Whether you’re new to our community or you’ve been around these parts for a while, we want to know what you think of the place. Are there things that you think we could do better? Are you bursting with ideas that you can’t wait to tell us about? Take 5 minutes to fill out our reader survey. One lucky respondent will pick themselves up an iPad.For a bit of light relief this week, show us your pets. If you’re the voyeuristic type, drop into the thread and check out the characters that Matt Mickiewicz share’s his home with.And that’ll do from me for today.Hot Topics This WeekThere are a few things happening in our Social Networking and Communities forum this week. Stop by and give us your thoughts on Social Website Management or let us have your list of pros and cons on forums and social communities.Do you have experience with Paypal integrated plugins in WordPress? If so, drop by the WordPress forum and tell us about your experiences.In the Advertising Sales & Affiliate Programs forum the talk is all about Adwords. In your experience, what are the biggest pitfalls of Google Adwords?The discussion in the Industry News forum at the moment is an interesting one. Is it true that Microsoft are to acquire WordPress?And there you have it. Enjoy your week.Feature image from Chris Roberts from Digital Precision