Thomas Edison said it best, "Good fortune is what happens when opportunity meets with planning."

Take the time to develop a communications plan for your online community and commit it to paper. It will likely change many times, that's ok, embrace the fluidity.

Identify important dates already on the calendar that impact your organization and audience – Breast Cancer Awareness Month, back to school, Congress reconvenes, football season, Earth Day.

Develop a strategy and message for making the connection between your agenda and the upcoming day on the calendar. Where there are gaps in the calendar, create your own online events or days of significance to focus on different aspects of your initiative.

Then take your time to plan each piece of it and make sure they all tie together the central theme – What action will your tribe take? What will the ads say and when will they run? How will you earn media attention around it? What blog, vlog, txt messages will be delivered during that time and who will author them? How will you communicate it on both internal and external social networks? Who is your target audience to reach with your communication? What content will need to be created?

Finally, determine who has responsibility for executing each piece. Include what part your tribe volunteers will play and make sure everyone knows their responsibility and goals. Then, go!