What is a community?

Posted by Ruth Atherley of AHA Creative Strategies on August 12th, 2009

I am in the middle of writing strategic plans for two very different clients and both have a strong online component. One of the key questions we ask in order to build the plan is who do you want to reach, who is your audience? It’s key to know who it is that an organization wants to engage.

The next question is: how do you need to connect with them to join the conversation? Answering this question can be challenging and complex, especially when it comes to the online world. The word “community” is a big buzzword when it comes to social media and yet that word can and does mean different things to different people. Brett Borders recently wrote an excellent blog post entitled: Communities vs. cliques, scenes & cults.

In his post, Brett talks about different characteristics and defines them in a way that showcases the culture of each group. He breaks them down into four distinct groups, provides good descriptions and discusses what the barriers to entry are for each. It’s a good blog post and puts a great deal about the culture of the online world into context.

One of the great things about the online world is that you can find like-minded people who have similar interests, passions, ideas and ideals. The word community can be a little misleading sometimes. Not every community (in the broadest sense of the word) is as open as that word implies.

Understanding the culture of the community that you want to engage is crucial to the success of any communications outreach. Social media is a two-way street and organizations need to embrace the fact that it’s the conversation that is of value to them. It’s also important to understand that not everyone online is interested in what you have to say, even if you authentically bring value to the discussion.

Think of the online world as one big cocktail party. There will be people who immediately welcome you and are interested in having you join the conversation, some people will just want to talk to the people they are currently with, and there will be people judging you the moment you walk into the room (rightly or wrongly) because of something they heard or read (accurate or not). There will be people who disagree with how your organization works that want to get into a thoughtful discussion and there will be others that only want to tell you what you are doing wrong – whether or not they actually know what you are doing and why.

Just like the physical world, there is a wide range of thoughts, ideas and opinions online. One of the key elements to authentically connecting is to spend time listening before you join the conversation. Understanding who you would like to connect with online and what their group characteristics is gives you the opportunity to focus on the people that are open to your outreach. Then you can respectfully reach out and introduce yourself. The next step is bringing value to the conversation – not your sales pitch. But that’s another blog post.