Ana, I am writing a book for Wiley on the topic of social media marketing entitled The Digital Handhshake: Seven Proven Strategies to Grow Your Business Using Social Media, set for release in September. One chapter deals with niche online communit

Ana, I am writing a book for Wiley on the topic of social media marketing entitled The Digital Handhshake: Seven Proven Strategies to Grow Your Business Using Social Media, set for release in September. One chapter deals with niche online communities and, through Google, I found your article and the links to Strong Moms and Control Diabetes for Life sites. I would like to feature each of these in a section of that chapter dealing with customer engagement online communities and wanted to make you aware. I do have a few questions if you wouldn't mind taking a moment to respond. And if there is a more appropriate person to whom these should be addressed, please either let me know or pass the questions along to them. 1. What was the rationale that motivated the creation of these communities? 2. In terms of developing the community aspects, why did you decide on the use of forums? Also, why did you limit the interaction to forums and not include user blogs or videos, for example. 3. How does this approach fit into your business goals? 4. Do you have someone assigned to manage the communities? 5. Have the communities lived up to your expectations in terms of the level of engagement, membership, etc? I appreciate your considering my questions. Please pass along any and all responses to this address: pchaney@gmail.com. Best, Paul Chaney, author The Digital Handshake John Wiley & Sons, Inc