I’ll admit it: I’ve never been big in to “community.”

Chamber of Commerce meet-and-greets give me hives, street fairs scare me and I’m still high-fiving myself for never attending a city commission meeting despite my years as a city magazine editor.

So as a lifelong non-joiner, all the emphasis on creating online communities leaves me a bit skeptical. I’ve already shared my dedication to BabyCenter, and Saturday mornings wouldn’t be the same without Ohdeedoh or Apartment Therapy.

I consume their content. I post the occasional question or comment. I feel good about myself when the editors select my question for their “Good Questions” series. But do I need to hang out in their forums and make a slew of new BFFs? Not so much.

Just because users aren’t contributing to your online forums or “connecting” with one another doesn’t mean you’re not offering a meaningful user experience. Some products and services are more apt to attract “joiners and contributors” than others. The correlation between joiners, active community members, purchasers and content (custom and UGC) is not always easy to distinguish. Check your analytics.

Remember in school how the teachers made you break in to small groups? Some of us hated breaking in to small groups, and when it comes to online content, some of us just want to hear what the teacher/editor/experts have to say and move on to the shopping cart, or in search of more information. Give us relevant content and we will come back again and again.

—Britta

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 14th, 2009 at 9:01 pm and is filed under Content Marketing, Editorial, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.