The Wall Street Journal reported last week on the "failures" of most online communities. It seems that Ed Moran, a Deloitte consultant, did a study of more than 100 business with online communities:
Thirty-five percent of the online communities studied have less than 100 members; less than 25% have more than 1,000 members - despite the fact that close to 60% of these businesses have spent over $1 million on their community projects. "A disturbingly high number of these sites fail," Moran tells us.
The article goes on to say that most companies get caught up in all the technological bells and whistles and blow their big budgets pouring money into these online gadgets. Ed suggests that companies should spend those resources identifying potential members of a community first.
I gotta admit, I love this article. Everyone is running around trying to copy Facebook and MySpace. Online communities are popping up everywhere. And I really can't see the point behind most of them. Is it so the CMO can point to it and say, "Look! We're part of Web 2.0, too!?!" And then there's the numbers game. These companies want 10,000 people in the first week. So they have contests. Giveaways. Gimmicks out the wazoo. And the people come. But the don't stick around. There's no community there. It's just another website. Another registration form. With no sticking power. No reason to come back. The community has no sense of community, because most CMOs see it as just another vehicle to push messages through.
So before you jump into the online community pool, there is a lot of heavy lifting to do up front. A lot of questions to be asked. And a lot of hard work to make sure you create something that's long-term and sustainable instead of another flash in the pan. The first thing to keep in mind? Ninety-two percent of word of mouth happens offline. So make sure the online supports the offline and vise versa.
Otherwise you'll have a nice, pretty site that ends up being another community ghost town.
<--www.brainsonfire.com/blog-->Brains on Fire is the Identity Company dedicated to helping organizations discover and sustain excitement about who they are and why they exist. We believe that great brand identities are rooted in purpose, not just profit. That they focus on relationships, not transactions. And they live through movements, not campaigns.