Birthday for a Website/Community/Portal

One of the most distinctive signs of any culture is the rituals conducted among its members. This time we'll discuss birthday celebrations as an important and meaningful ritual, not just for each of us when we celebrate for ourselves or our loved ones, but also for the websites we create.

Why a birthday? Why for a website?

• The birthday focuses everyone's attention on the celebrant. A website can use this attention to expose users to more innovations and interesting content while they browse the site.

• Birthdays are a time for reflection. What have we accomplished so far? What kind of year did we have? What do we wish for ourselves in the coming year? In the case of a website, the approaching birthday increases the motivation of all those involved. All content experts conduct this kind of thinking and prepare to refresh and "organize their content area" before the birthday. None of us would want to invite guests when the house isn't organized.

• Birthdays are usually associated with positive feelings, especially when the person is turning one year old. Thus, anyone who encounters the concept immediately feels positive, even if work is required for the "ritual."

What are the required stages and how does it look in practice?

1. Define the birthday month - the website celebrates for a whole month, not just a day. How fun for the website...

2. Hold a content experts meeting at least two months before the event to initiate increased work on the site's content.

3. Meet with each expert to examine what exists and what's needed and determine how best to "polish" and reorganize the page.

4. Decide on appropriate communication in conferences, corridors, and perhaps an opportunity to distribute birthday gifts to all users + a festive letter from the unit manager.

5. Conduct a preparation meeting with site implementers, detailing what's expected of them during the birthday month and what messages they should present to end users.

6. Decide on special activities to be conducted on the site during the birthday month:

   1. Knowledge quiz with prizes

   2. Spotlight on-site content - promoting selected content from the site with rotating focus topics on the homepage

   3. Festive synchronous forum on a "hot" professional topic

   4. User survey

7. Decorate the site festively with balloons and other birthday decorations.

In conclusion, the birthday activity is highly recommended, it's enjoyable for all involved, increases experts' motivation, generates user interest, and provides a wonderful opportunity to look back and immediately toward the future, and to organize everything before the masses of guests arrive. After celebrating birthdays for seven websites, I can tell you that some managers took the birthday idea to a wonderful and touching place. At the content experts meeting, they distributed birthday bags to the experts and decorated the meeting room with balloons. There's no doubt that this ritual increased the motivation of the experts who participated in that meeting.

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Want to learn more about communities of practice?

Here are some articles you might find interesting:

• Navigating the Final Phase: Insights into Group Dynamics and Effective Conclusion Strategies

• Case Study: Knowledge sharing in the field of fostering

• Knowledge Management in the Third Sector