(Rich Gordon)

More than nine years ago, at the height of the "dot-com boom," Business Week magazine published a special report headlined: "Internet Communities: Forget surfers. A new class of Netizen is settling right in."

Millions of people, the magazine wrote in its May 5, 1997 issue, "are approaching the Internet in an altogether new way. Instead of flitting from site to site dabbling in the gobs of information and latest news flashes, this new class of Netizen is settling in, staying put, making a home away from home. Oh, they're after info, too, but they seek far more than that. They want a sense of community -- the cyberspace equivalent of the bar at TV's Cheers, where everybody knows your E-mail address."

I found myself looking at this article recently because I've begun some research into the ways news media are trying to connect with the public. The vocabulary has changed, to be sure. "Internet communities" are no longer hot. Today you're more likely to hear about "user-generated content" or "the news as conversation" or "citizen journalism" or "social media." For this post, though, I'm going to argue that all of these are just other ways of describing the concept of an online community. And online communities, it seems to me, are still mostly a missed opportunity for newspapers and most other traditional media companies.

First, some numbers to put this in perspective. According to Nielsen//NetRatings data distributed through the Newspaper Association of America, the average user of a newspaper Web site spends 39 minutes per month on that site. The good news is, that's up 6 minutes per month (almost 20 percent) since 2004 -- and the number of page views per month has risen even more, since more people now have broadband connections. But here's the bad news: Even assuming all that time is spent Monday-Friday, the average user comes fewer than two times per week and spends less than 5 minutes per visit.

That's not loyalty -- or engagement. To put this in perspective, the average user of a print newspaper spends more than seven hours per month (425 minutes) with the paper, according to Readership Institute data. That's more than 10 times the average time spent with the Web site.

As far back as 1997, Business Week recognized that online communities lead people to visit more frequently and spend more time. So why have so few media companies been able to build successful online communities?

One key reason is that media companies have the "If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail" problem. These companies consider themselves to be content publishers, so they've seen the Web primarily as a publishing medium. It's people and companies unencumbered by a publishing mindset that have built the great online community sites such as MySpace, YouTube, Slashdot, and eBay (a community site as well as an auction site).

Another problem for publishing is an unwillingness to devote real resources and expertise to online communities. News organizations seem to think that content creation is the only job worth devoting staff time to. But enabling story comments or establishing message boards isn't enough. Communities, online or off, need staff attention. Without one or more people to provide leadership, guidance, support, and a willingness to respond to or delete off-topic or hostile comments, many online communities lie barren or descend into name-calling and profanity.

The tools for online community keep changing -- discussion boards have been around forever, blogs are now commonplace, social networking is relatively new. Whatever the technology, successful online communities thrive because of an alchemy that isn't necessarily easy to capture and replicate. But as I've reviewed academic literature, books, Web sites and my own experience as a Web site manager and member of online communities myself, it's become obvious that the keys to successful online community-building are widely known. Here are a few pieces of advice:

• Know your users. What are they interested in? In what ways does the Internet help them accomplish things they want to do? How can interaction with other users help them with their jobs, their hobbies, their lives?
• Understand your purpose. Building traffic or increasing user loyalty aren't good reasons to try to build an online community -- nor reasons to join one. A mission statement may be helpful. Amy Jo Kim, in her book, "Community Building on the Web," includes a list of mission statements that have been used by successful online communities. Her examples include eBay ("Your Personal Trading Community"), iVillage ("Real Solutions for Women"), and Slashdot ("News for Nerds: Stuff that Matters").
• Choose the right host(s). The best online communities rely on individuals or groups to establish and enforce community norms, welcome newcomers, and deal with problematic members. These hosts can be employees, or they can be members of the community itself. But if they don't have experience nurturing communities -- the way the host of a cocktail party connects guests to one another, keeps the conversation going, and deals with people who've had too much to drink -- they will need to learn new skills.
• Reach out strategically to potential community members. Among potential members of your community, there are already some "low-hanging fruit" -- people who have been active members of other online communities, have valuable information, and communicate well. Reach out to them to launch your community, but don't stop with them. Without an infusion of less-experienced community members, your community may never get off the ground.
• Remember the lurkers. For every person who makes public comments, there might be 10 or 100 who participate mostly by reading what other people have to say. Don't turn them off by letting the quality of conversation deteriorate.
• Beware of anonymity. The strongest online communities require participants to register and identify themselves -- if not with real names, at least with real identities known to the community's managers and/or leaders. "When people don't have to take responsibility for what they say, then some of them will say a lot of irresponsible things," writes John Coate, a pioneer in building online communities.
• It's the people, not the technology. Among people involved in online community building, you can get a vigorous debate going about topics such as threaded vs. non-threaded discussions, moderated vs. open forums, and the relative merits of blog comments, discussion boards, and social networking sites. But it seems clear that online communities can and do thrive using a variety of technological tools. For instance, the Fredericksburg (Va.) Free Lance-Star's Fredtalk site runs on old-fashioned discussion board software, while the Bakersfield Californian's Bakotopia uses social networking tools like profiles and tags.

For publishers interested in online community-building, here are some resources worth reviewing:

• John Coate, a pioneer in online communities at the WELL and SFGate.com, published an outstanding essay in 1992, entitled "Cyberspace Innkeeping: Building Online Community." His most recent update, dated 1998, is available on Coate's Web site.
• The definitive book about online communities is Amy Jo Kim's "Community Building on the Web." The Web site associated with the book includes chapter excerpts and links to some useful online resources.
• The Benton Foundation has published an excellent guide to online community building, entitled "Building Online Communities: Transforming Assumptions Into Success." While geared to nonprofits and community groups, it has relevant advice for any would-be community builders.
• Lee Levitt, Laird Popkin, and David Hatch (based on their experience with online communities at the News Corporation) co-authored "Building Online Communities for High-Profile Internet Sites" for a 1998 conference by the Internet Society.
• Chromatic, an editor for the O'Reilly technical book publishing firm, wrote an essay on community-building for the O'Reilly Web site in 2002.
• Clay Shirky, a consultant and academic, published "A Group is its Own Worst Enemy," an analysis of the human dynamics associated with online communities.
• Amy Gahran maintains an excellent Web site, RightConversation.com, devoted to "conversational media."

By Rich Gordon (richgor@northwestern.edu)
Rich Gordon is Associate Professor and Director of Digital Technology in Education at Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University.

Rich: Fabulous information, insightful, great links. Thanks very much!

Posted by  Jessica at March 22, 2007 3:50 PM

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