ThePort is in the social media "infrastructure" space.  This means we provide the underlying technology to add social media elements to exist web sites and create an expanded web presence including online community functionality.

The question today is what should we do if one of our clients "designs" an implementation of our technology that we feel is not going to work effectively.  Do we walk away from the account?  Do we beg them to change it based on our experience?  What if they don't take our suggestions?

We have faced this issue repeatedly in the past where we get judged on how our deployed communities do when we have little or no say in the actual implementation design. This is an interesting paradox.  Our platform can work flawlessly but if the actual implementation, which at times is out of our hands, is not done correctly, often times we take the blame. 

The answer we have tried to implement over the past few months is to standardize our product offering and deployment methodology using best practices.  We also try to work with our clients upfront so we develop common metrics to judge success or failure.  We encourage them to start a little slower, get their user base comfortable with participating in a community and then expanding from there.   The "less is more" approach is really starting to work.