Why Do Most Online Communities Fail?
I recently stumbled on this great twitter thread from @stewfortier describing why communities fail. I strongly encourage you to read this thread.
The key, according to Stew, is that most communities are built without a clear PURPOSE, and this is why after some time they vanish.
From my experience joining many different communities, I strongly agree that purpose is a key element for a community to strive.
However, purpose, in my opinion, is not enough. It is like a startup having a great idea. Unless the strategy and the execution are flawless, the community may not make it in the long run.
As Stew also noted, citing @priyaparker’s book The Art of Gathering: “Here is the great paradox of gathering: There are so many good reasons for coming together that often we don’t know precisely why we are doing so.” -
and that’s the issue.
There are many” communities” competing for my attention. There are even many “communities with a purpose” competing for my attention. I can’t allocate time to all of them.
In addition to this, everyone is already spending a significant amount of their time in social networks that can be characterized as “must participate” mega communities.
Most people I know use at least two social networks on a regular basis. As a professional, it can be LinkedIn + Facebook or Twitter or Instagram, or more specialized networks like GitHub…
So what is the answer?
One strategy is to have the owned/branded community “connected into the social networks so that they nurture each other:
Publishing the best contribution to social networks such as LinkedIn, Twitter….
Listening to community members on LinkedIn & Twitter, community managers can bring back the most interesting & shared articles to their “owned community”.
This is a win-win-win
For the community member:
Let’s say you’re a professional with huge expertise in a high-demand specialty. As the “branded community” is publishing the best contribution to the open social web, it is an incentive for you, as a professional to publish in this community. Not only will your content be shared but you will benefit from some kind of a brand endorsement.
For the owned community
Its value proposition is more interesting for influencers and content authors. Community managers can also source content by listening to what members say and share on social media. This is a very effective way to discover valuable content, the blood of the community
For the social network
Well, the more it is used the better.