Here's the next installment in our ongoing series "Making the Most of Your Localism Sponsored Communities."

(To access the first part in this series, go HERE. Or the 2nd part, go HERE)

So far, we've authored our community descriptions and started to populate our community with good, relevant local 'consumer-oriented' content.

The next step is going to require a bit more homework on your part, so be forewarned!

YOUR ACTIVERAIN PROFILE

The strategic value/importance of your ActiveRain Profile is an often time neglected and overlooked element of your participation here. Many times we simply rush through the initial steps of setting up our profile, and quickly move on to other more exciting things, leaving it in some kind of partially completed state of disarray.

Your profile will be accessed by potential clients. It may be the first or last impression you will have the opportunity of making. The content from your ActiveRain profile is transferred over and used to populate your Localism profile.

What does your profile say about you? What does it communicate? Is it aesthetically appealing, or dull and boring? Does it flow, or is it overly cluttered with annoying widgets, gidgets, and gadgets? Does it offer enough accurate, updated information about you, or is there too much self-promotion?

ActiveRain Poster Child and Community Builder, Brad Andersohn, created several really excellent tutorials on how to create a top-notch profile. You can find the first one HERE, with a link to the 2nd one at the bottom of the article. And there's another one HERE. Take your time in reviewing these tutorials and applying the steps that Brad provides. He also offers us some great examples of what other members have done with their profiles.

Realize that the formatting frames on Localism are different than what they are on ActiveRain. You may need to make a series of adjustments back and forth to get your Localism profile to display properly.

BUILD YOUR FIRST COMMUNITY BUSINESS BRIDGE

Sometime over the next several days, I want you to pay a visit to one of your local area businesses. It should be someplace that you yourself personally patronize and support by using their services or products. It could be a restaurant, coffee shop, cleaners, auto repair shop, grocery store, whatever. Be sure to take your handy digital camera with you.

I want you to introduce yourself to the owner/manager, and explain that you maintain a local community blogsite, and that you would like to feature/highlight their company with some free marketing exposure. Take some good quality pictures of the establishment, the employees (get their names), and as natural of a setting as you can. Find out as much pertinent information as you can about the history of the business, and a clear description of the services/products they provide. Get all their relevant location and contact info, including websites and email. Do they have a small printed menu you can take with you? You can scan the menu and embed a .pdf or .jpg file in your blog post.

Let them know that you will email a link to your community blogsite and blog post when you have it done. And, oh, by the way, I'm a licensed real estate agent, or Loan Officer, or Staging Professional, etc., here are some of my business cards if you or any of your friends should ever need my assistance....

On your next visit, you can talk to them about becoming an active participant on your community page, allowing for even greater positive exposure for their business.

Well, there ya go! Hopefully another helpful element/strategy that you can implement in effectively developing your sponsored community and attract potential business,.... so Stay Tuned!

(P.S. If you're a Twitter Bug, be sure to follow the new Localism Tweet!)