Community or Marketplace?
By Ian Alexander / November 10, 2008
The Farmer’s Market
—There are some who come for the produce.
—There are some who come for the patchouli.
—There are some who come for the politics.
—There are some who come for the experience.
A “Farmer’s Market” that is more bad watercolor paintings and politics, than produce, attracts a very different audience than the back of a truck filled with fresh turnip greens. Everyone wants a community these days. But everyone also wants to service their prospective marketplace—to sell. The trick lies in setting up reasonable, sustainable expectations that ring true, balancing both community and marketplace.
Too much community and you face a challenging revenue model. One that (Facebook) focuses on the growth of a community’s user base, backed by a “figure out the revenue model later” mentality. Too much marketplace and branding and your content/message doesn’t ring true.
Your customers know where to find you, the content you feed Google is going to bring them to you. But promising them community and providing them marketplace is a bait and switch that consumers have no patience for—they are too savvy and too much information is available. When the perception of relevance begins to lean more toward marketplace/marketing than community/information you have a problem.
No one wakes up on Sunday and says, “I need fresh radishes and a didgeridoo.”