2007- What We Learned about Online Communities

2008 is here! As we embark on another year’s work for our clients, we want to share some of the best practices that we’ve built over the past five years or so… especially those which helped our clients succeed. So, in no particular order here they are:

1. Measurement of your community is not enough! Too many community teams measure very strict areas under their control without integrating their results into the larger organization’s picture. Our client, SAP understands this and measures from the online ad to the deal in a single report we prepare for them.
2. It’s the people, not the technology! Put another way, if you build it, they won’t necessarily come. What was true in 2000 is true today. Yet we talked to about 20 community and marketing teams in 2007 who could not understand why their social networks and community efforts were failing. It takes more than a pretty UI and good technology to succeed.
3. Personas are stronger than moderators. Again and again, we read blogs and hear in conferences that the community host/moderator should engage the visitors by being an active member of the community who starts threads and adds content to demonstrate the commitment of the organization to the community. This is not only a myth continually perpetuated by others, but a real negative to “real community members” who expect the moderator to be the referee, not a participant. Moderators who engage the community as moderator rather than host have a tendency to become personally involved in the personality and behavior conflicts rather than being able to stand back and objectively moderate. Personas are much more effective.
4. Just because a member is a long term member doesn’t mean that you allow them to remain a member for life. Some community teams are afraid to remove a long time member from their community for repeated violations. We had a situation in the end of 2006 where we removed a long term, previously publicly recognized super user. Unfortunately, this member went to the dark side and became hostile to other members and the moderation team. A decision was made, the controversy eventually subsided and the community was better for that member’s removal. Ugly? Yes. Effective? Yes.
5. Members will report violations of the terms of service and community norms because they “care” about their community. Another myth continually mentioned in books, articles, blogs, and conferences. We’ve tracked actual violations against member reported violations for five different communities this year (our clients and our roundtable members). What did we find? On average, members only report 20-30% of all violations. The type of violation they miss the most? Copyright violations, the ones that can really hurt your organization if left on your site. Just ask Google/YouTube or the now defunct Bolt.com. Members do not think it is their job to police or moderate the network or community. They think it’s your job and they are correct.
6. Social Networks are not really communities. This one will shock some folks. But as we’ve helped clients engage their site visitors using both Social Networking tools and traditional online community tools, we’ve been able to use metrics to identify key differences which affect the impact and the results realized from them. The number one difference? Social Networks are all about ME. Communities are all about WE. Social Network members spend time on THEIR OWN pages and return there more often than they go elsewhere. The networks that are built are small and usually exclusive versus the traditional community’s inclusive nature. They lack the power that larger traditional communities have in helping people resolve their issues.

The work we did in 2007 did reinforce something that we already knew… that people not tools make communities succeed or fail. If you’ll concentrate as much time on the people that come to your site and how to help them succeed, you’ll succeed.

Good luck in 2008.

If you’d like to learn more about the best practices that can help you succeed, please contact us.

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One Response to “2007- What We Learned about Online Communities”

Anonymous says:

February 22, 2008 at 4:39 pm

Regarding your last “Social Networks are not really communities” I can agree with you on some level but believe that as private communities begin to roll out that the ME vs WE will become clearer. Currently most associate social networking with sites such as Myspace and Facebook. There 2 sites are successful but are prime examples of horizontal networks. Where as private communities will better encapsulate versicle networks. When a private online property is developed and it speaks the the user on a personal level involvement within that community will reflect that personal connection.