Chrysanthe T
Community Coordinator at outside.in and Managing Editor of brooklynbased.net
What makes up a good online community?
What are the aspects of a successful online community?
Clarification added August 15, 2008:
This is an attempt at crowd sourcing plus testing the utility of LinkedIn. Hope it works!
Answers (8)
Rob D
Innovation Catalyst. Director of innovation & commercialization group. Keynote speaker, author, consultant.
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Hi Chysanthe,
Check out 'The 12 Principles of Collaboration' by Cynthia Typaldos (see link below). I think it still stands as one of the best summaries of what makes an online community effective. Cheers.. Rob
Links:
Bill N
Experienced, productive, and affable IT professional
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Mutual respect is one aspect that seems not only appealing but necessary.
I would say that critical mass is another; how one 'gets there from here' with a new community I cannot say.
Bob W
Energy Services Advisor at Electric Advisors; Commercial Real Estate Professional Networking at Sibdu
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It starts with members. I'd suggest some kind of focus/niche (like what my company is doing).
Second, you need a leader of the community who provides information, features, etc. that his/her members want and need. That leader can be a single person, or the "site" itself. But the community needs to be led. You'll probably see sub-leaders in the community after awhile, which is good. But never abdicate the role of leader.
This implies that there is a two-way street, in terms of communication, between the leader (or representatives for the people/company running the community) and the members. This should definitely exist.
That is closely followed with a deep respect for the community members. They are not "users," and should never be treated as such. They are your members. We even go as far as to never call the members of our upcoming community "users." They are members, and deserve respect, cooperation and communication.
Underlying all of the above is a great platform that serves the community with the features they need. There's a lot of them out there, so choose wisely.
I like the "12 Principles," too. You'll see most of my points in there. The "leader" aspect comes from Seth Godin's upcoming book, "Tribes, We Need You To Lead Us."
Well the points Bill mentioned are true and rather common sense. I would also point out that it depends on what you want to achieve with the community you're trying to build.
My advice would be to focus on a group of people you would like to target. Then get people that are respected by the group your targeting to join the new community and be active for a while in order to help you kick start it. If you get a couple of "A-listers" from that field to join your community then you have a rather high chance of getting the critical mass before the early adopters get bored and leave
Another thing beyond the focus on the group would be easiness to communicate and build relations. And also give a chance to members to choose who should not be able to contact them.
Also a good idea would be to have some moderators to oversee the community and make sure no 'trolls' destroy it
Charlie O
Entrepreneur-in-Residence at First Round Capital
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High signal to noise--signal being defined as elements of utility that each member, in their own experience, deem useful. Irrelevant ads, experiences that are too general for any specific user to get value, etc. lessen that ratio. So, if I'm in a biking community on a search for reviews about what bike to buy, I shouldn't have to see a whole bunch of debates about the best bike jump ever to get right down to the info I want.
It strikes me how your question heading contains "good", while the body of your question is worded in terms of "successful". While I acknowledge that "successful" might mean "something that really works", I take it that you might have intended to ask about "something that people actually use a lot". Previous respondents have given useful answers on good/something that works anyway.
I cannot help but be amazed at how for many people, the position of online communities in their lives never seems to be under discussion. It's something they use, and use a lot, period. And why? I've spent hours contemplating the virtues of online communities that get much use, and basically, the answer might be scaringly simple: because their participation makes users feel relevant. Consider the effort some people put into their customized "thanks for the ad" messages on MySpace. Consider the time people spend discussing in communities that _do_ have substance. Consider the annoyance caused by trolls that people put up with when trolls appear. I am tempted to conclude that the sense of relevance is an issue, even if it builds just slightly on pessimism.
Hi Chysanthe,
Forrester did a nice report on Social Technographics that identifies different types of community members:
creators 13%
critics 19%
collectors 15%
joiners 19%
spectators 33%
inactives 52%
We have found it really useful to think through what's in it for each of these segments - except for inactives. Each are part of the ecosystem of a healthy online community.
Links:
It's a few years old, but Derek Powazek's book "Design for Community" is still a great resource: http://www.amazon.com/dp/0735710759/
There have been many books written on online communities since, but that's still one of the best.
Clarification added August 15, 2008:
Wow, I really didn't realize it was so expensive now to buy used, however.
