I do not think it means what you think it means. – Inigo Montoya
Community is becoming a very, very over-used term. It some ways, for those of us managing communities, it has brought a lot of attention to our field which is mostly good. However, everyone seems to be hitching their star to the term and it makes me slightly itchy, especially when I see the term applied to RueLaLa, the online shopping club.
Generally I don’t even consider most social media managers to be managing communities, although I’ve made my peace with that as it is very related if not quite the same. But an online shopping club that doesn’t even really have social features? Come on!
What makes a group of people a community?
- Relationships – first a foremost a group of people that is highly inter-related is a good indicator of community.
- A shared interest or context
- A shared purpose or fate
- A common set of needs
Most of us don’t walk into a department store as say ‘ah my peeps’ so… don’t call the same thing online a community!
