There have been hints, rumors, and mini-conversations, but we’re far enough along at this point to really start laying out our vision for the ESC.com site. This post seeks to help clarify what our desires are, and how ESC.com can help you.
The purpose of the site is three fold:
- Coalesce our social conversation around the web into one place.
- Leverage Google authorship and other social tools to help build individual authority (the KPI program).
- Formalize our coordination of entrepreneurial events (and ESC meeting events) with the addition of an advisory board of regular members.
I’ll go through each of these three points below:
Coalesce our social conversation around the web in one place.
If there’s anything that’s been made clear recently, it’s that people have some deep rooted preferences for various social media platforms. Because social media is constantly evolving and changing, there are generally a number of platforms that are popular at any one time, and not everyone is a member of all of them. The posts and static content here feature Google+ and Facebook powered commenting, so that multiple conversations about the posts can be started in various places, yet all be read from one. Additionally, member profiles contain a wide variety of social identity options which can be included, with additional features being rolled out over time to bring in embeddable functions for the platforms of choice (for example, an embeddable channel of YouTube videos, or an Instagram feed).
Leverage Google authorship and other social tools to help build individual authority (the KPOI program).
Google Authorship is a program created by Google to give search authority to people who have created a confirmed public identity. If you’ve ever seen little thumbnails of the author while searching for something, you’ve seen Authorship in action. This site contains all of the necessary coding to apply Google Authorship to writers here. By writing about specific topics here, with your personal or business website linked in your byline or member profile, you create qualified inbound links to your website, and build your personal social authority.
This effect is cumulative; the more certified authors who are writing under this domain, the more searches result in authority links, and the greater the impact on individual search the total group has. Since EVERYONE at the ESC has some expertise to bring to the table, the potential to establish a dominant authoritative voice is high.
Formalize our coordination of entrepreneurial events (and ESC meeting events) with the addition of an advisory board of regular members.
In any collaborative effort, clear communication and a shared sense of purpose are critical to the longevity and health of the group. Towards that end, we would like to form an advisory board of regular members who can commit to spending a little time each week helping to coordinate events, meeting topics, guest speakers, and other club activities. It would be the board’s responsibility to help shape the growth and goals of the organization, and drive collaborative efforts to benefit everyone’s success.
I have a few suggestions in mind, but I’d like to see discussion from the group on total number of board members, and nominations.
At the end of the day, the overarching purpose of this site is simple; to focus our efforts into a collaborative force that builds up and benefits all members. With a coordinated effort, clear focus, and a robust suite of tools at our disposal, there’s nothing we can’t accomplish.
Onward and upwards, fellow entrepreneurs! I look forward to your feedback.