Watch Out For Vultures Like Me

Finding your abandoned online community makes my day.

I’m your competitor. I noticed you ran a social media (online community) campaign for 6 months, but then you stopped.

But your community is still there. Those blog comments, that user generated content, those member profiles, they’re still there. Rather than waste your efforts, I’m going to give your community a new home…at my community.

I’m going to message your most popular members. I’m going to ask them to invite their community friends to join my community. I’m going to tempt them with opportunities to try out my clients products or other exclusives. I’m going to offer your members senior positions and lots of responsibility at my community. I might even look at your community’s most successful topics/posts and port those ideas across too.

Thanks for bringing so many great members together for me.

Comments

[le]

ahh the evil side of the force emerges from within the dear Rich - I knew it :)

good point eh - keep the engagment happening or snooze and loose ... le

[Greg]

hehehe funny post! I guess fortunately for us many give up along the way...

[Martin Reed]

I am not entirely comfortable with this - how do you determine that a community has been 'abandoned'? Many people struggle when it comes to developing successful communities - they'll attract some members but have a really hard time getting the community to work. This doesn't necessarily mean the community has been abandoned.

How ethical is it for us to move in and poach their best members from them just because they are struggling?

- Martin

[Richard Millington]

This post was really about warning people against abandoning communities, rather than a practical guide for stealing community members.

But ethics is an interesting debate. Abandoning a community after members have invested their time is wrong. Me trying to salvage something from their efforts is good.

But active/struggling communities? It's subjective. If I feel a particular person will make my community better, and would benefit from joining my community, than I would feel happy in inviting him/her to join.

No company would think badly of creating a better product than a struggling competitor.