Ogilvy created the design and Lithium is hosting the site. I worked with some really talented people from both organizations to launch this site. I just have to mention the cool icons Ogilvy created. If you register, you’ll be able to check them out. However, all of Lithium’s work is behind the scenes to keep the boards up and functioning as they should.

For me personally, given my research interest in networks, this project is right up my alley. I hope to learn a lot more over the coming months about how people communicate on the boards. By the way, if you have any community moderation and management resources to recommend, please be sure to leave a comment below.

One other thing I want to mention is the Terms of Use. Usually these documents are not much fun to read and we all agree to variations of these any time we register with a new site. However, I do have to say that I’m particularly happy with the Allstate Authorized Users paragraph because it requires Allstate employees to disclose their connection to Allstate. While this point may not add much to the legal provisions of the document, I thought it important from a social media perspective, and I’m glad I was able to keep it in the final version. And, now that I’ve disclosed my connection, and even though I’m not an Allstate employee, I’ll need to add a disclaimer to my sidebar to the tune of: “The postings on this site are my own and don’t necessarily represent Allstate’s positions, strategies, or opinions.”

You can also check out the User Guidelines. I think Item #1 about not posting specific insurance advice is the one that I’ll need to watch the most as conversations take place. Because of how the insurance industry is regulated, that is a key provision of the document and something I’ll need to monitor.

More topics are planned for the year, but we really want to see what develops. Check it out if you have time, and I’ll be interested if you have any feedback for me.