by Teri Robnett
(published in Brainstorm! December 2004)

There's a trend on the Internet these days for "building communities." But there's more to it than putting a bulletin board or chat room on your web site and waiting for people to show up and - well, communicate.

What is an Online Community?
According to the Merriam-Webster Online, a community is a unified body of individuals, such as a group of people with a common characteristic or interest within a larger society. For the purposes of the Internet, although broad, this is the best definition, as it does not require that the people live together, only that they have common interests.

Why build a community?
According to web developer Jennifer Kyrnin, "Building a community on your Web site, gives your visitors the chance to interact and feel a part of something. These connections build a network between people and (hopefully) they will like interacting with people with similar interests and so will keep coming back."

What sort of community is right for my Web site?
There is no tried and true method to encourage community spirit and feeling on the Web, but there are some tools to help encourage community.

List-Servs and Groups. Yahoo and other portals offer Groups you can create to develop your own online community. And some web hosts offer something similar called a List-Serv. These use e-mail as the main vehicle for communicating between members.

Bulletin Boards and Online Forums are threaded conversations between members. Most forum software allows people to browse through the postings before logging in, and once they feel comfortable they can set up an alias and submit their own posts. If you've ever searched for tech support online, you've probably been directed to a bulletin board.

Chat Rooms bring instant interactivity to a Web site. They also bring more anonymity than a bulletin board. Your readers can come into a chat room, give themselves any name they like and talk to other people with similar interests. Good chat software allows one person (or more) to act as a moderator so you can have hosted chats and control the room. Once you have a chat room, you can set up regular chats sessions, informal meetings, or just allow people to come and go as they please. However, chat rooms can be more time-intensive than a bulletin board.

Guestbooks offer one-way communication from your visitors. They can leave comments in a public arena which you can choose to respond to or not. An effective use of a guest book allowed friends and family to leave get well wishes for a severely injured cyclist during her recovery.

Newsletters are a great way to keep your readers informed about your business. You can use newsletters to talk about new features, explain exciting changes, or just give good information that they might not have found otherwise. Constant Contact is an excellent do-it-yourself tool for sending out email blasts to your community.

Calendars. "Often the most overlooked community builder is the online calendar," says Jennifer Kyrnin. "This can be as simple as a list of events and their dates and times, or as complex as you can imagine. They are invaluable tools for building community, as they allow your visitors to find out what's happening. You can and should list events like your chat room schedule, guest authors, or forum topics to be discussed, but don't forget events outside of your site. If your readers find that they can get valuable information from your calendar, they will come back and be more motivated to use it for your other online services."

Intranets are Web-based communities you create specifically for your employees, associates, clients or vendors to streamline communication. Intranets are "internal" to your organization, but can span the globe as long as access is limited to your defined community. It can allow sharing of documents, calendars, and other information. See our article on Intranets for more information.

Online or virtual communities are not so much built as they are grown. Except in very rare instances, your community is going to start small and grow larger. Some of the strongest online communities have grown naturally in supportive environments. Craig's List grew out of one man sending out job notices and apartment listings to his friends in 1995. Now Craig's List is a nonprofit boasting over 5 million unique visitors and over 1 billion page views a month. The most famous online community, The WELL, was started in 1985 by a very small group. Eleven years later it had 10,000 members.

Now that you know more about the shape your Online Community can take, you can begin looking at the purpose and management of your community. More on that next time.

Community is a great way to add value to your site. For more information about adding community tools to your Web site, please feel free to contact us by phone at 303-410-9600 or email at info@wholebraintech.com.

For more information:
Are You On Craig's List? http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/nc02/026.html
Is it Still Craig's List? http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/86/craigslist.html

Publishing Guidelines: You have permission to publish this article as long as the source is properly cited and a link to www.wholebraintech.com is included. Do not edit it in any way without permission. Please notify us of its publication by sending either a website link or a courtesy copy of your publication to .