Should You Start a Social Community?

With social media sites all the rage, a lot of companies have considered whether to start an online social-networking type of community.

The Online Marketer blog offers 21 questions to consider before starting a social network.

Among the questions are these two:

1. Can you invest the necessary resources to run a social network properly? Can you afford the tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars it takes to properly create and staff this resource?

2. What is the role of marketing, sales, IT, customer service, advertising, HR, etc.? Social networks often delve into all of these departments and more. Make sure all of your teams are engaged, enthused, and prepared.

They’re all good questions.

There is one question that is missing from the list (although perhaps it is implied). I think it should be called out specifically. Here is the question:

“Are you prepared for the time and effort it will take to nurture the network, seed it in the beginning, encourage people to participate and otherwise do what’s needed to get a critical mass of people participating so that it becomes a vibrant community instead of a virtual ghost town?”

Here’s a simple example: the discussion board. I’ve seen enough discussion boards with a grand total of 7 questions in them, the last from 3 months earlier, to know how many communities never get out of the gate. They’re the living dead. The cobwebs are the only things multiplying in them. I’m sure you’ve run into those, too.

It takes a lot of priming of the pump in the beginning for a social network or an online community to take off and build enough momentum to keep going. Don’t underestimate how much effort will be involved. It is like raising a child. You have to nurture that child, feed and change him, and give him a lot more attention in the early years until your child begins to walk, feed him/herself, get potty trained, and so on.

With a social network, you’re going to have to work tirelessly to get the word out, entice people to try it, engage with them and positively reinforce their initial efforts. You have to keep at it until your “baby” starts to grow up and become more and more self-sufficient.

That’s doubly true with communities aimed at small business owners and their staff. Small business owners are not going to have the same natural affinity toward a social network or community site as, say, tech early adopters would. So they will need to be coaxed to try it out initially. And they are going to need to see value quickly for their participation to continue.

Read: 21 Considerations Before Your Business Starts A Social Network