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Why do online communities fail?
Some online communities are great, yet there are others that simply shrivel up after a few months. What are some of the reasons for why online communities fail?
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3 Answers
Hi Caty! Coincidental to your question, I sent this message to a LinkedIn group manager this very morning …
“When you recently published the warning at the (name withheld) Group about not pitching/self-promoting, there was a lull in such, but it did not last long. Indeed, look right now at the (Group) first page and of the 20 entries, only one … ONE … is an actual substantive question. The other nineteen are ads, self-directed links, and other promotional messages. I don’t even bother moving such to ‘Promotions’ any more … too many to keep up with and it seems to make no difference anyway.
Others seem to agree: east coast clients told me last week that their opinion is the Group lost its value because ‘it’s the same old people pitching their same old stuff to the same old people. Nothing new, and we don’t interact with it any more.’”
Net: when an on-line community devolves into a billboard for self-interests, it fails, unfailingly.
Its been my experience that no group lasts any longer than it takes the founder/moderator to lose interest in the group.
We've all seen examples like Michael's, in which no one even bothers to police the spam, but we've also seen groups started on a whim, without an understanding of group dynamics.
Example: two years ago I joined a group in which the founder offered the first four information pieces of the planned eleven as an incentive to join. Several dozen of us joined, and are still waiting for the fifth piece. Seems such a waste that all of those people traded their contact information for literally nothing beyond the sign up bonus.
Any online community that fails to add value - entertain, inform, intrigue - or gets filled with SPAM is doomed. People join forums anticipating a benefit or wanting to help others but when that reason does not evolve, they will move on.
Mike
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