The act of 'friending' someone has become standard fair on almost all communities today. Something often overlooked when going through the process of creating your community strategy is the actual relationships people will be building when becoming friends. Now obviously you don't want to control the relationships people form but you should be looking at the types of relationships people will be building. For example, relationships on Facebook differ from those on LinkedIn and very based on parameters such as 'I'm looking for a job' or 'I knew her from school'. Activities associated with each (checkout my resume vs checkout this old photo) influence how the relationships evolve and what features are offered and measured.

How deep should these relationships be and how many are you expecting people to manage at one time can impact your community growth. Too often the heavy lifting is left to the community members as they are expected to form deep relationships with other members and the brand/product that the community is built around. In reality the relationships take time to develop (just like the real world) and can be much shallower than expected. Being able to understand these dynamics and shape your success metrics around them can help you determine what to be looking for and how to identify the activities that encourage stronger relationships as the community grows.