A community shouldn’t be run by a company. Every community should be run from a named person within the company.
The Coca Cola community shouldn’t be founded by someone named “Cola Cola HQ”. It should be founded by “Mark Smith – VP of Online Marketing at Coca Cola”. He runs the show. You can e-mail him at [email protected].
There are two benefits here. The first benefit is internal. It sends a strong internal message. Someone has responsibility. Someone’s name and eternal online reputation are on the line. You’re more motivated to build a community if you’re listed as the founder. It also means more than one person from the same company can participate (without using the same account!).
The second benefit is external. It’s hard to be friends with Mr. Coca Cola. You can’t have human to human conversations with a non-human. This is what communities are all about. You want to talk to real people. The people running your community should have names and e-mail addresses, hopefully phone numbers too.
