People ask me all the time for my recommendations and thoughts on building online communities – and why this is such a good time to build them. The answer is layered and yet perfectly straightforward.
- People are less willing to commit to traditional organizations
- People want greater transparency from traditional organizations
- People want to make smaller commitments to more organizations
- People don’t want to make big time commitments
- People don’t want to drive places all the time
- People are less conscious of being openly interested in shallow “organizations”
- People are more willing to be openly interested and demonstrate their affinity (and sometimes a lot more) to brands
I’ve seen research on organizations with religious affiliations and nebulous community goals – and the attendance is declining. Organizations develop out of community needs. Our evolving society has also created different needs and realities.
The short answer is: this is a great time to build community online.
Notes:
- This is not to say that everybody or every organization has what it takes to build community.
- All communities need a real world tie in. No exceptions
