Comments on: Study: Why Most Online Communities Fail

By: Mayank Dhingra

Mayank Dhingra — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 17:01:44 +0000

I’ve been observing a social network on ning for a India based just for women talk radio channel and within a few months of going live it has got around 7k registered users(not sure how much are active).

Though the set up is just like orkut or facebook people are flocking it.
The possible reasons in this case could be

1) Very strong brand loyalty: They’ve got lots of raving female fans.
2) Active promotion of the site on their channel(ads and all)
3) Active participation of RJ’s and other famous people from the channel

By: Josh Catone

Josh Catone — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 17:10:54 +0000

@Douglas: Thanks for the heads up. Rather large typo on Deloitte’s part. ;) I’ve updated the post accordingly.

By: Qlubb-Andy

Qlubb-Andy — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 14:41:20 +0000

I think the statement "most have just a single PR person running the show" really hits an important point. PR and community building are really quite different. Even if you have a great PR person with great resources that produces great content for the community, it still doesn't mean that the community is going to engage with the company or each other. Instead, you just end up with essentially another newsletter list. At Qlubb, where I work, we have it a easier because we're mostly dealing with real-life groups (to @anonymous's first point), however, you can still end up with just the 'heroic few' basically broadcasting rather than creating community if the technological barriers are too hard (how do I contribute?) and most importantly if the benefit and motivation to contribute isn't high enough.

By: Douglas Tarlow

Douglas Tarlow — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 09:05:47 +0000

Please recheck your source on:
“Moran’s study revealed that even though 60% of businesses put over $1 million into branded online community building efforts, 35% have less than 100 members”

You can look here to see that a correction was posed:
http://blogs.wsj.com/biztech/2008/07/16/why-most-online-communities-fail/

It is 6%, not 60%.

By: Green Moon

Green Moon — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 21:40:18 +0000

I think that many of the attempts at creating an online community are doomed to fail, no matter what steps that the owners take. I think the point about “noise” comes close to identifying the biggest problem. “Community” is based on common interests. Drinking the same bottled water, eating at the same fast food restaurant or wearing the same clothing labels is not, in my opinion, enough to create a community.

There are a few products or brands that can sustain a community. Sports teams, yes; cars, in some cases. In most cases, however, the ties do not bind enough for a community to stay together.

By: antaramedia-com

antaramedia-com — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 04:57:33 +0000

It’s a simple and important fact that online communities thrive simply because of participation of users of the online community. If users decide not to participate or be active in an online community, it doesn’t matter how much money companies put into it, it won’t thrive.

By: Matt Rhodes

Matt Rhodes — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 21:19:59 +0000

An interesting article and an interesting report. At FreshNetworks we build online communities for brands and have seen and been involved in a fair number of successful online communities (as well as seeing those that fail).

The reasons for failure seem to be simple to me and it would be interesting to see if the Deloitte report has data to back this up. Successful communities are built on solid strategies. They have a core business aim that links to an internal strategy. The communities are set-up specifically with this strategy in mind and are professionally managed. This is a critical role that needs experience. If you get it right the results are outstanding; if you get it wrong disappointing.

I wrote more about this on our blog if anybody is interested:

http://blog.freshnetworks.com/2008/07/do-branded-online-communities-fail/

Matt Rhodes
www.freshnetworks.com
blog.freshnetworks.com

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 20:59:04 +0000

I think that online communities that do not mimic offline, geographically-bounded networks are greatly disadvantaged. Building an online community from scratch based entirely on brand loyalty seems to be an arduous task. It may be much more effective to spread your brand in one of the many existing social networks. Just my two cents…