Yesterday’s post got some good rebuttals. Chiefly, if you create a Facebook group around a cause a lot of people want to join – you will end up with a community of people that only joined because they liked the cause.
Many people see high volume groups with low activity rates and make the wrong assumption: they ‘don’t work’ and ‘yield low volume members’. I think it proves that there are thousands of causes people care about and want to join, but the people managing these groups do a terrible job of getting people engaged.
This would make sense wouldn’t it? If community management is an art form that requires skill and experience, we should expect to see hundreds of thousands of inactive groups. Which is exactly what we do see. Don’t blame the platform, blame the manager.
Yesterday’s post wasn’t to argue for Facebook groups or the specific language of ‘I bet I can find…’ as the name of the group. The point is much simpler. Instead of creating an online community for your company, create a community for causes people care about. Give people a mission to believe in, not a company to admire. It’s far easier to attract people to a cause than a company.
Keeping these members engaged is where community managers earn their keep.
I fully agree with your thoughts in this post. People can beleive in causes. It is the cause that gets them to turn off the television and put in that little bit extra.
Social Enterprises should find it easier to follow your recommendation. By definition Social Enterprises normally have a cause at their heart.
Posted by: Moss Green Children's Books | Wednesday, 03 February 2010 at 08:29