Who hasn’t had the community discussion with a client or a friend?
You know which one I mean – “let’s build a community.”
A community of users…of whatever…
A community of deodorant rejecters…
A community of activists…of just about anything…
A community of people who are community members….
No s—t, I have heard all of the above. And more.
Let’s be clear – there are serious community aggregations out there. And they can be powerful. From Egypt, to stopping human trafficking, to ending hunger, to providing support for those devastated in the way-too-many tragedies – naturally and otherwise occurring – that fill our news and senses every day. Groups of people coalesce around an issue – recruit others, solicit help and often funding, and strive to make a difference in the world.
But ask yourself – in the quiet of this reading – is the accumulation of brown-sugar- water drinkers who like to post pictures of themselves drinking or doing funny things with the empty bottles a community? Fill in any other like group that comes to mind and repeat.
When you sit in a restaurant, go to a movie, sit on a crowded plane or an overcrowded bus – do you feel that you are in a community?
Versus when you go to your church, mosque or synagogue, or any other faith-based gathering – if you are so inclined. Or to a family event or a friend’s reunion, or even to work…in the best of places.
I began obsessing on this notion a while ago – and see it linked to the sadly skewed notion of what friends are that I am happy to say is beginning to change. As I always ask when I speak at conferences after I query who in the room has 500 or more friends on Facebook – “And how many of them will pick you up at the airport?” The nervous laughter always answers the question and makes the point.
It was also driven home to me as I sat down to write this morning (rather early – we just turned the clock ahead) and check Google Trends, curious to see what the world was searching, and was once again saddened to see that most of the world is paying little attention to Japan, even when it was Top of Search on Friday. It’s already being supplanted by the latest pop news and such – except for Nuclear Meltdown as some see it as one big live Disaster Movie.
So what is a community? Try this – listen:
“Without a sense of caring, there can be no sense of community.”
Anthony J. D’Angelo
So what do you really care about?
What really makes for a community?
What communities do you really belong to?
And maybe – just maybe – we can come up with a better term to define those less- than-community gatherings – and leave the term for when it really matters.
What do you think?
Good questions. And yeah, you’re right about how we as marketers use the word. Unfortunately, to me, it’s become business-speak. Reaching out. Win-win. Onboarding. Calendarize. (Help!)
Your examples made me think a bit. Going to a restaurant or a movie? Community as business-speak. But a crowded bus or a plane? To me, this seems slightly different. A shared pain. A bit of unpleasantness that perhaps is made better by knowing we’re not alone. You might see this next time you see people filing on an airplane. The half-smile that says we’re all dealing with being crammed in here together.
Seems like there’s an emotional component to the definition of the word – the deeper the connection, the more the word can be used without wincing. Perhaps there’s a hierarchy there. Am interesting subject with many applications. Thanks for making us think a bit about it.
great examples — made me think more!
And even worse: “…a movement.”
Every community already has shared values or intentions or passions, some pre-existing glue that joins many as one. Members are drawn by the discovery that a personal emotional value is shared by others.
Marketers can’t supply that glue; they can’t invent the common cause.
But a marketer can identify an existing shared passion (Pepsi Refresh is a great example) and then better enable its pursuit, and so help a community do a more effective job of what it came together to do in the first place.
Makes sense. The word community really does get tossed up there. Almost just like your previous post.. I want Facebook. I want Twitter. Let’s build a community. But at the end, if there isn’t a purpose then you don’t have a community. You have a public gathering of random strangers that really don’t connect. Sure you might create small groups of communities but nothing at the scale that would be imagined. It does make you wonder, what “community” do we all really belong too these days. 500+ friends on Facebook, for what? Like you said, are they going to be there when you need a ride from the airport.
Interestingly, my closest friends that would be there for me, aren’t even on Facebook. LOL. Goes to show you.
The post reminded me of The Jefferson Airplane line, “And your friends, baby, they treat you like a guest.”
I’ll admit I like checking up on my “friends” on Facebook. Most of them are folks I rarely see, but what emerges, to me, is a light weight, light-hearted virtual “community” of loosely linked individuals sharing ideas, quips, causes, politics, pictures and a few rabid Scrabble games. Is it profound? No. Will I miss it when the power goes out? A little. Has it been a kick connecting with lost friends and old college chums? Yes and no. Is it a marketing tool? Not so much.
Those who use it well for marketing seem to use it as a way to “polish” their image, keep their names out there and remind their potential customers they are witty, thoughtful, engaged “individuals”. And that isn’t such a bad thing…but it’s a round about way to get the cash register to ring at best.
The point is, we make of it what we make of it, and some of us make too much of social networking. Trying to shoe horn viable marketing avenues onto what has been designed as a virtual water cooler gathering has proven challenging, even for Facebook.
As for community building, nothing beats coming together in the flesh. These “virtual” outlets are quiet interestingly a reflection of that need—building on the reality of how little we do just that.
I cannot remember the author of this quote talking about “Facebook friends”…but it goes something like this:
“A friend is someone who will drive you to the airport any time you ask. The rest are just acquaintances.”
well that really made me think for a community, lets take for instant the games that are on facebook and twitter and …., the community that they create once you log in to it, and you asked in the conference about who has a 500 member who will pick you up from the airport i would say less than 1 % in which they will be family and closess friends because 90% of the friends on facebook are games friends, hence they can be good friends and help you a lot in different ways not only in the game. but is that kind of a community or it is just a game, well according to my experience with some of those ppl I would say it is a community and we can proove it from the massive events that happened in egypt and tunissie and so on that social network is creating a whole wide world inside the real world we are living in,
Thank you very much for sharing with us whats on your mind
Social networking is growing by leaps and bounds with every step we take. Technology is a double edge sword which is bringing the world closer and at the same time dividing it apart . What matters is to strike the right balance between being virtually social and physically social as we move ahead into this era of digital personalization….
I guess the word ‘community’ is being blissfully used whenever a better word doesn’t come to mind. There are communities and there are communities. Facebook as a community is totally over rated. It should be a synonim for ‘chat’. Loyalty program members in the good old days could be called a community – loosely speaking. The ‘sharing’ you spoke of is now missing. The depth of shallowness that permiates our social fabric these days is amazing.
your words stirred me David because just the other day I was writing on my Wall
“It’s amazing & saddening to see how difficult it is for the majority to take a stand for a Just Cause, but so easy to speak about the futile & mundane…”
So after reading you I looked up the actual meaning(s) of community:
“the feeling of fellowship with others, as a result of sharing common attitudes, interests and goals”
FEELING, FELLOWSHIP, SHARING…
it seems to me that all these supposedly ‘community’ actions, sites and what not, actually have done the exact opposite. They have obliterated the feeling, the fellowship and the real sharing. It’s all about voicing how Me, ME, ME feels, and so little about really CARING for others…
Nice Blog, its the bandwagon effect everybody wants a community but don’t really know why, and it feels the right thing to do
LOL
I think there are two types of communities (maybe more but here are the two main ones)
1) Community of Common Purpose – People getting together to overthrow a dictator etc etc
2) Community of Shared Interest – Mothers Going though Pregnancy,supporting a football team etc etc
Both types of communities evolve at a grass roots level, created by the people for the people
, from a brands point of view, thinking about forming a community you need to look at what are some of the common values around the brand that people relate to based on that you can drive a strategy on does a community work or not.
I think we still need some new nomenclature –
Website Shoutout…
Take a break from reading our guides and look at these websites that we have found to be good for a read….
It’s a continuum — from loose acquaintances to cult followers. Most brands should NOT feel the need to start communities, but instead, understand how to participate in existing communities — on the communites terms, on their turf and in their tongue. One key attribute solid communities share is building common, mutually beneficial tools for all. In the real world, these manifest as schools, libraries, churches, etc. What is the equivalent in the virtual world? What role should a brand (or group of brands) play to help get here? Wiki’s got it… These common things are the glue that binds.