Buddypress for Dummies (Paperback)

Those are some impressive statistics, no? You might be asking why I''m sharing Facebook stats (www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics) in a book about BuddyPress. The answer is simple: They illustrate the extreme popularity of social communities and the availability of a network where people can connect, share, and interact with others via a computer connected to the Internet.

BuddyPress allows you to create a very similar type of social community on your own WordPress-powered Web site and helps you take your existing Web site to the next level by allowing your visitors to become members. A BuddyPress social community gives its members a handful of core features that are easy to set up and allows them to immediately connect with other members of the community. Members can have extensive profiles that contain personal biographical information that allows other members to find out more about them. Members share with other members any information they want, from personal information and news to Web site links, photos, videos, music, and more.

Why build a social community?

In March 2009, I attended a conference in Austin, Texas, called South by Southwest Interactive where geeks from all over the world gather for one weekend to network and discover the new, exciting, and innovative Internet trends and technologies. I attend this conference annually, and there is always a buzz about the major trend for that year. The buzz phrase at South by Southwest in 2009 was, "It''s all about the conversation." The Web has become more than just a place to obtain information today; it has become a place to share information and connect with other people through ongoing conversations through different types of social media. Social communities give people the opportunity to be the media rather than just be consumers of the media.

One nice benefit to Facebook is its size - almost everyone I know has a Facebook account and I can find them there, add them as a friend, and connect with them easily (and probably more often than I would off the computer). A negative aspect of Facebook is that all the content shared on that site is stored on that site. Therefore, for people to find the source of the information they are seeking, they end up on the Facebook Web site, rather than your site; and the point of having a Web site is to build content that people want to read and consume.

Your Web site isn''t generic, is it? Of course not! More than likely, your Web site is about something - a specific topic, product, or service. BuddyPress gives you the opportunity to open up your Web site for members to join your community and engage in discussions about topics that you''re passionate about; so passionate that you started a Web site. You aren''t the only one in the world with a passion for your particular topic - inviting others who share your passion to join your community will benefit you and your members by allowing the entire group to share advice, tips, and connections.

Types of people who build social communities

It''s been said that there''s a blog on the Internet for every possible topic that you can think of, and it''s true! There are blogs about politics, education, media, technology, beauty, Hollywood, arts and crafts, designing, health and medicine, and news, just to name several. If you can think of a topic - I bet there''s a blog about it.

These topical blogs function in the way you would suspect them to: The blog owner publishes articles and content that he or she thinks readers will find interesting; then visitors to the site are invited to participate in the discussion of the articles through blog comments.

Web site owners who want to take the interactivity on their site a few steps further can now build a social community where visitors to the Web site can create a membership and become part of the content and conversation. In addition to leaving comments on the articles, members can write their own articles, share more information, and participate in the site as a full contributor rather than just a visitor. Members can benefit from networking and connecting with other members within the community as well. Here are a few examples of the types of communities I''m talking about, all built with the BuddyPress/WordPress platform. (In Chapter 17, I give ten real-world examples of BuddyPress in action.)

Businesses large and small benefit from adding a social community component to their Web sites by gaining the ability to invite their customers, or potential customers, to participate in the discussion about their business.

Political movements are ripe for social community involvement because they encourage the sharing of ideas and news, and the involvement in causes. Some would say that the success of Barack Obama''s campaign for President of the United States was aided tremendously by the very energetic and active social community of voters on the Internet. Barack Obama''s campaign Web site was a social community of voters and potential voters, whose thoughts and ideas helped to shape a good portion of Obama''s campaign. The success of that social movement on the Internet is undeniable, no matter which way your politics fall.

Other niche industries and communities can experience the same type of success when they gather people in one environment on the Internet - it''s all about listening to the conversation that develops!

Discovering the Benefits of BuddyPress

Working with the BuddyPress software since July 2008, I can attest to the rapid (and wonderful) development that takes place to improve BuddyPress. BuddyPress is constantly improving the software and introducing exciting new and useful features with each new release. If you spend time on the official BuddyPress Web site at http://buddypress.org (see Figure 1-2), you''ll find that the development of the platform is community-driven; that is, the community suggests ideas and wish lists for new features, and the developers of the BuddyPress software do their best to answer the call. Imagine a software company, say Microsoft, driving the development of its operating system in such a manner: The world would be a better place! It''s exciting to be part of a development community that is so responsive to its users.

Aside from the exciting pace and quality of development, BuddyPress also offers the following advantages to users who wish to create a social community on their Web site:

The following sections will quench your curiosity with more details on these features and point you to the various places in this book where you can find more detailed information.

WordPress as the foundation

You''re probably aware of how easy the WordPress blogging platform (see Figure 1-3) makes creating a blog or Web site. Millions of users blog on WordPress (http://wordpress.org), a proven success in Web publishing and content management. Using such a solid and successful platform as WordPress for the foundation of your new social community (built with BuddyPress) is a formula for success because WordPress makes managing and maintaining a Web site very easy.

TIP

Three different versions of the WordPress software currently exist, as follows:

Currently, the only version that is compatible with BuddyPress is the WordPress MU version. WordPress.com and WordPress.org do not have the ability to host the features of BuddyPress right now, although that may certainly change in the future. When I refer to WordPress in this book, I am referring to WordPress MU, the multiple user version of the software. You will find a great deal of information about WordPress MU in Chapters 2 and 3.

The WordPress platform gives you a great foundation for your social community with the following features:

Once you have WordPress running on your site, you''re more than halfway toward building a social community. Adding the BuddyPress suite of plugins gives you the ability to extend additional features to your visitors that allow them to join your site''s community and create a full-featured member profile; create a blog on your site; and create groups, forums, photo albums, and more.

REMEMBER

I mention in the Introduction that BuddyPress For Dummies is not a guide on using the WordPress software, but rather a book about adding the BuddyPress platform onto an existing WordPress-powered site. Although Chapters 2 and 3 of this book explore the basics of getting WordPress running on your site, this book assumes a certain level of existing familiarity with WordPress. You might also want to pick up my other book, WordPress For Dummies for more in-depth information on running WordPress on your Web site.

With WordPress, you already have a blog or Web site where you''re publishing content and inviting visitors to join in the discussion by providing the opportunity for feedback on your content through comments. WordPress also gives you an extended Multi User option where you can invite visitors to join your site and create their own blog on your domain. You can choose to run only one blog (yours), or enable the options that allow your community members to create blogs of their own on your domain. A WordPress-powered blog with the multiple blog option enabled is typically referred to as a blog network because it creates a directory of different blogs written by different authors on a variety of topics, all hosted on your Web site.

WARNING!

One important thing to take away from this section is that BuddyPress requires the WordPress MU platform in order to work. That is, you cannot use BuddyPress if you aren''t already using WordPress MU.

Be sure to read Chapters 2 and 3 for more information on the WordPress platform, including how to install WordPress on your Web server to lay the foundation for building your BuddyPress social community.

BuddyPress is easy to use

One of the most attractive features of the WordPress and BuddyPress platforms is the ease in which you can install, set up, and use the platform to manage and maintain your Web site. You don''t need to be a certified geek or programmer to get BuddyPress up and running, as Chapters 2, 3, and 4 show you. Even someone new to WordPress and BuddyPress can have a full-featured Web site, blog, and social community up and running in a relatively short period.

WordPress has bragging rights to a 5-minute installation (see Chapter 2), and BuddyPress takes even less time to install. Setting up the options for the various BuddyPress features is transparent and easy - just use the WordPress dashboard to configure the feature options. Check out Chapter 3 for a guided tour through the WordPress dashboard to help familiarize yourself with the lay of the land.

Check out Chapter 4 for the steps to install BuddyPress and an exploration of the BuddyPress configuration options.

BuddyPress is flexible to your needs

BuddyPress is an extensive suite of plugins that allows you to create the following features within your social community:

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Excerpted from BuddyPress For Dummiesby Lisa Sabin-Wilson Copyright © 2010 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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