Fundamental Elements For Creating an Online Community

Remember the term information super highway? When the Internet craze first hit, this was its biggest selling point. You could go online and find almost any bit of information you could ever need on any given topic. Sure, information could be found easily but who wrote all that stuff and how could you trust it? Now people focus on the Internet as less of a depository of information, and more of a host of information that is a collaboration among its users. The things people look for are more community based such as information from others who share the same interests or activities. The increasing popularity of websites such as MySpace, Facebook, Gather, Flickr and Match.com are a testament to how Internet users are looking for something different a human connection in this world of technology. So how do you create this human connection in a non human interface? How can you recreate conversations, memories, and human thoughts through a computer screen? It seems that just about every new site these days tries to include some form of community aspect. Different sites have different features, whether it be blogs, forums, discussion boards, in-site messaging, personalized web spaces or a combination of features to create the community aspect. In an endeavor to create a successful social networking atmosphere, it is important to keep the following ideas in mind. 1) All People Are Not Created Equal As with anything, if you want to get a person's attention, you have to make it relatable, and appeal to something that interests him or her. Perfect examples are the MySpace and Facebook models. Users create their own web spaces with content that interests them. People generally like to talk about themselves or keep people posted on their interests and events going on in their lives. The ability to create personalized web spaces enables users to express themselves and put their personalities and the things they find important out there for others to see. It would be difficult to find an online community these days that restricts the users profile to one that is pre-determined and just like everyone else's. 2) I Scream, You Scream, We ALL Scream for Ice Cream! When creating a new community site, you must remember that notion of strength in numbers. This plays off the theory that if one person has a special interest like biking, art, photography, running, etc., then there is likely to be another person who likes the same thing, and then another, and another. Before you know it, you have a whole online community of people with the same interests talking, sharing tips, advice, etc. Creating a community around people's general interests has been so successful that many companies like Coca-Cola and Nike are shifting their traditional marketing and advertising campaigns to center around interest-based community sites. 3) Everyone Wants to be Seen and HEARD Generally, people like to speak their minds, and even more than that, like to feel that others are listening to them. By creating such functions as blogging, forums, discussion boards, you also create that feeling that the community respects your opinions enough to read and even in some cases respond. Creating this open dialogue where it generally wouldn't exist, without the use of traditional means of communication and without the barriers of location, is actually something the Web 2.0 phenomenon has revolutionized. 4) If You Say It, They Will Come Another attribute that makes any community or social networking site successful is the ability to add the human element into a non-human interface. Community sites have replaced the old notion of storytelling, passing on of fables, etc. A true community site will enable others to share their written or visual stories whether it's through blogs, bulletins, pictures, and videos. As seen with the success of YouTube, the overall population of the internet seeks out other people's stories and creations and hope that others will want to find theirs. Even on sites such as MySpace and Facebook, users carefully select and spend a lot of time choosing the photos, videos, and music they include into their site. Providing these features allows each user to feel like they are sharing their lives and memories. 5) Friendship Has No Boundaries Perhaps one of the greatest successes of the Web 2.0 trend is that is creates a community where one normally wouldn't exist. It transcends the limitations of location, time, and in some cases language. One's online community and the friends they have in it can consist of friends from any period of life, and from just about any place in the world. So once you have created an online setting that truly seems like a community, your site should extend that community in depths that can go in every direction. Your online community should connect individuals who have more in common than location and culture such as the love for archery or beer brewing.