(published in Brainstorm! 2005)

Based on an article by Victoria Bernal, Community Building Associate, Benton Foundation

From Assumptions to Success

Creating a successful online community is one of the most sought after and elusive goals in a Web strategy. [Companies] budget huge sums to perfect online community strategies as they seek to build customer relationships that create loyal consumers.

"Online community" is the concept of convening people in virtual space and describes a range of online activities including electronic collaboration, virtual networks, Web-based discussions, electronic mailing lists, and now Weblogs or "Blogs" (more on Blogs next time).

Four Common Assumptions of Online Communities

Many [organizations] believe that if some activity is online, "it" will be cheaper, "it" will happen faster and "it" will be easier, no matter what "it" is. This often leads to mistaken assumptions that cause us to miscalculate the amount of planning and effort needed to build and sustain an online community.

Assumption #1: Goals and expectations: Who needs them?
Assumption #2: Everyone will want to participate in our online discussion.
Assumption #3: Building and maintaining an online community doesn't take much time or staffing.
Assumption #4: We don't need a promotional strategy for our online community.

Assumption #1: Goals and expectations: Who needs them?

Many people jump into building an online community without identifying what they hope to accomplish with it. They are so eager to get people talking through an electronic mailing list or Web discussion board that they forget to set goals and expectations. The result: a waste of time and resources with very little to show.

If you can't define the purpose, it will be difficult to promote your community to other people and potential partners. It will also be hard to keep people engaged.

• What are reasonable expectations for the online community?
• What other online communities are addressing similar issues? How will ours be different? Will tapping into an already established online community address our online community-building goal?
• What are the topics to be discussed? How will we keep the discussion focused?
• What is the time frame for the discussion? Will it be a one-time event or will we host ongoing discussions?
• What will our organization do with the information once the discussion ends?

Assumption #2: Everyone will want to participate in our online discussion

Many [people] eager to create an online community assume that everyone will want to participate. When the definition of an audience is too broad, it is difficult to direct conversation that holds all participants' interests.

In an interview published by The Online Community Report, online community expert Amy Jo Kim commented:

In any successful community, the goals of the site owner and the needs of members must intersect. Your members need a reason to come back to your community time and time again. Why should they bother? What need are you filling in their lives? They have precious little time to devote to their entire Web experience. Why should any of it, let alone the substantial amount of time it takes to be an active participant in an online community, be spent at your site? If you get this right -- if you can identify and fill a need in the lives of your community members -- you can go a long way on very little technology. If you miss this, no amount of technology is going to make you successful as an online community.

Amy Jo Kim also stresses that it is very important to be considerate of the audience's time. An audience's level of technology access and experience can also affect the activity in the community.

• Have you asked members of your intended audience for their input about using an online community, and what topics are of interest to them?
• Do potential participants already consider themselves a group or defined community? Or are you creating one from scratch? The latter requires significantly more effort to be successful.
• Who makes up the community? Is there cross-over? If so, will their different perspectives and needs help or hinder the goals of the community?
• How much time are you asking from your audience? Have you confirmed with potential members that such an amount is reasonable to them?
• Does this audience have access to the necessary equipment and software to participate? Are there local access sites that the audience members can use to participate in the online community?

Assumption #3: Building and maintaining an online community doesn't take much time or staffing.

Many organizations fail to budget sufficient staff time and resources to build and maintain their online community. Staff members often expect the community to flourish on its own once they launch the online discussion forum. Overlooking the key role of the human facilitator is perhaps the greatest reason that online communities fail to meet the expectations of their designers.

The facilitator or moderator is responsible for the care and feeding of the online community, welcoming newcomers, encouraging silent participants ("lurkers") to speak up, seeding the conversation when necessary and connecting community members with news and resources that will keep them coming back for more. People respond to warm, friendly, human contact to keep the community going.

The moderator should have not only the technology skills to help participants navigate the discussion software, but the people skills required to coach participants in online protocol (or "netiquette").

• Creating online communities is a lot of work. Develop relationships with your members. They are the ones that make or break a community. They are the community. Never forget that.
• Who will install the technology, moderate the conversation and provide technical assistance? Will this be one person or multiple people?
• How much time staff time will be needed for moderating discussions?
• How much staff time will be necessary for providing technical assistance to participants offline? How will technical assistance be provided (email, phone, in-person)?
• What additional tasks will the moderator take on, such as compiling news and resources relevant to the topic of the online community?

Assumption #4: We don't need a promotional strategy for our online community.

When an organization builds a presence on the Internet, it competes with millions of Web sites, discussion forums and other online distractions. Fortunately, once you have defined your goals and audience and committed staff resources to growing your online community, most of the remaining work involves developing proactive strategies to promote and engage the community.

Jim Buie, an Internet consultant who helped build the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's campaign to improve end-of-life care (www.lastacts.org ), began in 1997 by collecting e-mail addresses of prospective participants at events and conferences that he and others attended. He would then follow up by inviting them via e-mail to join an online discussion forum. Over time, this discussion has grown to more than 350 of the key players in the end-of-life movement. An additional 2,500 subscribe to a weekly e-mail newsletter.

In addition to promoting through existing discussion lists, Sue Thomas of the trAce Writing Community sends out postcards that list her online community's Web or email address. Other promotional strategies include adding an invitation to join the community to email signatures, issuing electronic press releases to post in newsletters and other electronic discussions (when appropriate), and including links to more information on your organization's Web site.

• Collect emails from contacts at offline events so that you can send a reminder email about participating in your online community.
• Add a "Participate in our online conversation" to your organization's home page. Don't make visitors search for your online community.
• Create and post an electronic press release to electronic mailing lists that serve the intended audiences. (Be sure that the guidelines of those other online communities accept promotional material.)
• Add a sentence to your email signature that reads "Join our online community at…" (and then provide the Web or email address).

Conclusion

An online community should not strike fear in the heart of [businesses] nor should it attempt to solve all the world's problems. We live in a society that is constantly bombarded with media messages that tell us to "move on Internet time," make decisions faster, publish faster and communicate faster. Yet the Internet cannot build human networks faster. In fact, the Internet cannot build these networks at all. People must build them by investing time in planning and managing.

Additional Web Resources for Online Communities
Tips for Gaining More Experience in Online Community Building

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