Clarity – What’s A Community?

Last week’s post generated considerable feedback. Here is some clarity:

Following	Community
Short-term	Long-term
Quick growth	Slow growth
Focus on growth	Focus on engagement
Unlimited # members	Limited # members
Limited interaction between members	High interactions between members
Fixed strategy	Emergent strategy
Easy	Hard
Coca-Cola	Innocent Drinks
Develop audiences for products	Develops products for the audience
Homebase	Wiggly Wigglers
Content about topic	Content about community
Centralized control	Share power with top members
Reactive to questions	Stimulating discussions
Any products	Sociable products
Audience wants info about products	Audience wants info about each other
Build relationships with group as a single entity	Build strong relationships with top members

Comments

[Christopher Uschan]

Richard... I am not sure I agree this is that cut and dry.

Yes, there are some things that are either left of right side (E.g., Build relationships with group as a single entity vs Build strong relationships with top members, but I can easily say that a following can be strategic, long-term, about it's audience, not products, is not easy to do, etc. All the things you say community are.

For example, I follow @jeffhurt on twitter. His approach is strategic, long-term, about people and relationships. He is stimulating and creates discussions with his community of followers.

I like the comparison approach, but I don't think anything is ever absolute.

Now, your last post is excellent and dead on!!!! --- Nice!
http://www.feverbee.com/2010/04/deciding-what-you-really-want.html