Comments on: What Is Most Important In Online Community Building?

By: What Is Most Important In Online... [ Social Media Explorer ]

What Is Most Important In Online... [ Social Media Explorer ] — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 22:36:23 +0000

[...] 28th 2008 11:00am [-] From: socialmediaexplorer.com [...]

By: Jason Falls

Jason Falls — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 23:43:16 +0000

Allen, thanks for the thoughts. I agree with you that there needs to be that connectivity and communication. That’s a popular opinion because it’s spot on. Thanks again.

By: Allen Harkleroad

Allen Harkleroad — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 12:38:20 +0000

Hi Jason, it’s all about two way communication, connectivity and discussion. after all we are social “animals”, why should it be any different online?

By: Recent Links on Ma.gnolia at Fast Wonder Blog

Recent Links on Ma.gnolia at Fast Wonder Blog — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 08:00:47 +0000

[...] What Is Most Important In Online Community Building? | Social Media Explorer [...]

By: Jason Falls

Jason Falls — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 18:06:52 +0000

Tom — Glad to be of service. It just seemed to be the right questions to ask as I head into a community building process. Thanks for the input and the visit.

By: Tom

Tom — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 17:39:20 +0000

this post made my day. i’ve long rejected the idea that building a community means throwing all sorts of features, buddy lists, et al at the user. I guess we’re fortunate that our users have repeatedly vocalized their feature requirements: that they want connectivity, in privacy, through familiar tools (i.e. mail). But, as cautioned by Francine Hardaway, we shouldn’t get the notion that members like mail, it’s that it works for them.

By: Jason Falls

Jason Falls — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 16:09:43 +0000

Thanks C.C. I am too. So, what are you readers waiting for? C.C. wants to know …

By: C.C. Chapman

C.C. Chapman — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 14:56:31 +0000

Great post Jason. Very much looking forward to seeing how people react to it.

By: Jason Falls

Jason Falls — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 14:09:12 +0000

Kat - Excellent perspective and point. Going from one type of community to another certainly poses unique challenges and I can see how a forum/message board user can suddenly be overwhelmed by hyper-connectivity. Perfect food for thought for those out there looking to grow or transition their communities. Thanks a ton!

By: KatFrench

KatFrench — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 14:06:34 +0000

Online community building is probably the element of social media to which I’m most personally drawn.

I can say this–you will lose more members by intimidating them with too many features and too much clutter than you will by not having every bell and whistle that the programmers are capable of throwing in there.

Also, membership numbers aren’t the only consideration. A community site I moderate on a personal basis moved from a traditional forum to Ning this year.

We kept almost almost all the original members, but unquestionably, people are posting less often and their posts are shorter. Originally, everyone liked the additional functionality of videos and a Myspace-like profile page, but there is now too much to do.

Instead of just doing a quick scan of the forum to see if there are new topics or new posts to existing topics, people feel like they have to check everyone’s profile/blog, etc. It’s overkill, and because of it, people are participating less.

Just my $.02.