Virgin Pioneers picked a crummy name and used a video-based communications tool. Homebase hid their community behind their content.
How many successful online communities use videos to communicate with each other? Or put their content before their community? Not many.
These are terrible mistakes. In the long term, once the hype and novelty have faded, the communities are doomed. What a waste of money. When you let traditional marketers and web designers take charge of communities, this is the outcome.
I really hate this. It says to brands that communities don’t work. Online communities do work. They work amazingly well. Brands just do the worst possible job of creating a community. They ignore every rule that makes successful communities a success.
Most successful online communities start slowly. They focus entirely on fostering interactions. They use the simplest communication tools available. They don’t hire expensive design companies. They don’t issue press releases when they launch. They don’t go for sponsors.
It’s unbelievable, that anyone thinking of launching a community today, would ignore the most proven, successful, tactics for ensuring it’s a success. Surely the best thing you can do is look at successful online communities, figure out what they did to be a success, any copy the key elements.
