Just to clarify the above   I realise the questions are very open ended, but the aim of the questions it more to gauge what you feel are the most important factors rather than explaining them in detail.
Thanks,
Katie   

Hi David & Katie

There is an excellent chapter in the book Groundswell on these questions you raise. Particularly useful is the book's emphasis on the type of user/customer rather than the type of business/product that is suitable for a community. It's also good on recognising what type of community is good for what kind of business requirement, i.e. research, creating buzz, customer support etc.

I'm going to give a plug to a community that I was involved in setting up in 2003 for members of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. (Described by Cranfield School of Management as the Golden Benchmark of professional communities) http://www.cipd.co.uk/community/

This is an excellent example of how a community can mature, change and focus to meet it's audiences' needs while playing a valuable role for the business.

If I were to pick out a couple of key success/failure factors from our various communites (we're mostly in the B2B space) I'd say:

1. The amount of ego in a community. Too little and there is not enough active participation, too much and it just becomes self promotion.

2. The level of ownership and control a brand wants to have. In my opinion the best communities again balance things. There is a tendency to swing to either too much control which can kill things or to abdicate responsibility for leadership and guidance.

As an aside it might be worth checking out a book called Design for Community by Derek Powazek. It's pretty old now but it had a great chapter on how to kill a community when it has exceeded it's sell by date. It might be a useful take on some of the questions you asked.

Richard

Hi David

Interesting and highly topical question. Wish my research options when at Uni where that exciting!

Social communities rely on nature and nurture. Nature because your community must grow organically and on its own terms, nurture to provide the tools, advice and support to enable that community to grow positively such that negative factors are effectively moderated and people feel that their interests are being protected. From a corporate perspective, there is a fine line between nurture and brand control, between dialogue and monologue. A community thrives on dialogue, both between owner and user and interaction between individual users and groups. Monologue is just another dry corporate marketing tactic.

The biggest danger is that the brand guardian or central marketing function view a community as just another route to market. This leads to a silo approach and content being pushed at members rather than people being engaged. If you do this, people tune out and go find something more relevant. And with so many people creating billions of pages of content online, there is no shortage of other parties wanting that attention.

Another risk is the community owner not actually loving the community. That may sound rather Woodstock but if you want your community to breathe, you need to live it yourself and really embrace what people are doing with it. I’ve seen too many examples of poor social marketing, best example is Facebook where companies create a profile, then sit back and expect others to do the work for them. It just doesn’t work like that, you have to give people a reason to trust your brand. If you do it properly, the brand advocacy is incredible. Great example on Facebook is Wiggly Wigglers http://snipr.com/wigglyfacebook (award winning); bad example is ebuyer.com http://snipr.com/ebuyerfacebook, feels like the tumble weed has set in.

A successful community needs to encourage people to share content how they want, when they want and where they want. A few ideas:

·          Don’t just see a community as a single access location where people can access and share information – a community online needs to reflect community behaviour in general

·          Allow people to share information across their personal networks – social bookmarking is really helpful [allowing people to post your pages to facebook, dig, furl, strumbleupon etc]

·          Use buzz techniques to extend the reach of your community – Twitter is great for this. Use this link for a list of companies who ‘tweet’ http://snipr.com/tweetingbrands  [yes, you have to love the industry speak!]. Starbucks use Twitter very well, I follow them just to see what they say even though I don’t personally like the brand http://twitter.com/Starbucks [I will post your request on my Twitter feed to see if I can get others to respond to it and help out]

·          Integrate the social techniques: if you have a blog, link it to your social network, Twitter account, YouTube video channel etc – make it easy for a member to interact with all content.

Does this suit particular industries?

The question about industry/company type being suited to communities is also very subjective. I was discussing the role of social media for carpet/flooring companies this week with colleagues (yes I should go out more) who thought I was insane. However, if you break it down to the basics, how many time have you had a conversation with someone about flooring in your home? I know I’ve bought carpet and talked about it with mates. It may not be the most thrilling of subjects but if you are spending £hundreds to make your place look good, you want to know the choice you are making is spot on. A community can generate huge amounts of information and recommendations (I’m throwing customer reviews into the concept of a community) and this can really influence prospects. Artigiano, one of our Clients, has introduced reviews & ratings to its website to increase customer engagement – check the homepage http://www.artigiano.co.uk/

So, I think that as long as the tools you offer within the community are relevant to the needs of the audience, social media can suit almost any company/industry. Barrack Obama is a great example of how politics is embracing community elements to engage people online – check out his site @ http://www.barackobama.com/index.php. The Myobama.com page is interesting, you can interact with other voters and can bookmark pages. Then you can link through to the Obama Youtube channel. It is well thought through and well integrated. Yes, a presidential election has widespread publicity and interest. However, with voter numbers low, it shows how social media can be used to drive powerful connections and increase engagement. I think Team Obama has done an excellent job, even with the flag waving! An excellent example of forum/community boards is Carphone Warehouse with the What Mobile forum – everything you could possible imagine for mob phone and then some more, check it out @ http://forum.whatmobile.net/. I’m impressed and mobile phones bore me senseless, that’s quite a brand achievement!

A community I like

As for naming a community I like, it would be Chinwag. This is a community for eCommerce/Internet professionals that enables you to interact with and get information from other people in the industry who can help share knowledge and answer your questions. It is easy to use, a very simple objective (and I mean that as a compliment – life should be simple) that is very well met. I like the fact the culture is self-regulating. If people are annoyed they address the list and the list responds. Sam Michel who is the CEO only steps in when necessary to moderate and bring any issues/concerns to a conclusion. I think he manages the service brilliantly.

This is a bit of a download so hope it is useful.

If you have any questions, please feel free to email me.

Thanks

james