What is community?

I posted some thoughts over on the MarketingProfs Daily Fix blog about community - and a response has me thinking about community.

Lewis Green writes, "Question: Don't mean to spark controversy (yes I do) but I am troubled by women (or men) only groups. I think exclusion hurts everyone, including members of the exclusive group."

Is this true?

What is community?

Communities are groups of people defined and separated by common interest.  A community's core looks like yin and yang, relying on supporters and detractors to define inclusion and exclusion.  In the UK, Conservatives wouldn't be Conservatives unless the Labour and Liberals existed.  Red Sox Nation needs its Evil Empire.  The survivors of Oceanic 815 need The Others.

Communities need barriers to entry - whether natural or artificial.  Does being human make you part of a community?  Ask your dog or cat.  Green marketers would have us think so.  Hollywood, too.  I know Lew alludes to issues of gender, race, and religion...but I'm going to steer clear of those here and focus on community in a business sense.

We all know that "the conversation" exists.  By definition, community exists as well.  That's why companies run into problems when they use social media for marketing communications.  It's good to listen to the conversation and to acknowledge the speakers.  But the speakers expect a response, because the company is a participant.  That's why many individuals are afraid to participate - companies can't blog/tweet/podcast - only people can.  And people often don't know if they're allowed to speak for the company.  While the people who can (e.g. PR, Corp Comm) stick to traditional one-way channels.

The core of community lies within the corporation.  Companies are already social - we have business units and divisions, functional departments, and softball leagues and charity outreach groups.  Your corporate community connects all the time - company meetings, hallway conversations, and via email or phone.  However, when it comes to external communication and connections, companies operate like a jail, preventing contact with the outside world and releasing inmates every evening into the community, returning to lock-up the next morning.

So what's so tough about enabling connections in corporate communities with social technology?  I.e. allowing the company to connect with the outside world during the day instead of only every night during work release?

Well, most companies don't resemble the "porous membrane" as pictured above by Hugh McLeod and operate instead like a castle with moat.  Moreover, many brands secretly fear that connecting with the community will lead to dilution and destruction.

It's notable that castles today aren't seats of power, but are maintained as reminders of a distant past.  Lew is spot on, that "exclusion hurts everyone, including members of the exclusive group" - especially when it comes to your corporation and its community.

UPDATE: Awareness study released today, "Trends and Best Practices in Adopting Web 2.0 in 2008" states that 69% of responding companies allow employees to use social media for business, up from 37% in 2007. Looks like the "castle mentality" is crumbling already.

Comments

[Lewis Green]

Pete,

You scared me with your opening: I thought I was about to get hammered. But you get it.

Exclusion happens and people form groups in lots of different ways. And usually there nothing nefarious, unethical or immoral in doing so. But, as in a corporation or the business world generally or golfers or towns and cities, different kinds of people make up a community.

We benefit from the various experiences, cultural and otherwise. To exclude someone from a business group based on gender means we exclude those who are different and who would likely bring a different experience. The group and what it could have contributed suffers.

Thanks Pete.

[Bryan Person, LiveWorld]

Another great post, Pete. Here's part of what I took from this -- and that I also blogged about on our SocialVoice site (http://socialvoice.liveworld.com/blog-entry/Bryan-Persons-Blog/Blog-Community/1100000081): The word *community* is thrown around willy-nilly all the time, and often without a real understanding of its essence. People make a community, not the tools themselves.

That's as true of the new LiveBar product that I showed you at Web 2.0 last week as it is of any other shiny social media tool. Without the people gathering, conversing, and building relationships of some kind, there just ain't a community.

--Bryan Person
LiveWorld social media community

[Deb Eastman]

Peter,

Two observations from my travels.

1. the word "communities" is diverse in it's meaning. Communities, as you state here, are formed around common interests. Either interests in a topic area, interest in professional networking or in some cases, interests around a particular brand. In this case, there may be a need to segment based on gender.

2. It's surprising to me how many marketers are still afraid to listen. The conversation exists, but they are afraid to participate as they may not like what they hear. They treat participation in communities as a campaign, not a dialog of relationship building. It's easier to just keep broadcasting their message, rather than participate in a meaningful and sincere way.

Deb Eastman
CMO, Satmetrix

[C.H. Low]

A wonderful way to frame the concept!

Businesses and organizations are indeed natural communities internally. What a great way to learn than to practice social technologies safely internally to get a better understanding and feel comfortable about adopting it externally.

This is inline with our proposition for businesses and organizations to start with some small social project that is less risky and learn.

We agree wholeheartedly with this.

C.H. Low
CEO, Orbius.

[bob c]

pete

can you help understand where you are coming from with this sentence:

The core of community lies within the corporation.

my sense is that many of us have tired of the commercialization what was once considered the commons - the resources which a community has rights or access to

[Peter Kim]

Bob - in context of the post, doesn't it make sense? I think the rest of that paragraph answers your question.

[Aurelio M. Montemayor]

I am part of many communities and I float, gravitate or trudge in and out of them. Some I can't leave or avoid until I die. I'm jumping into this 'community' conversation because I'm on the internet for very focused and specific reasons.
The community I'm most interested in for purposes of social media is education advocacy -- it revolves around the children (and their families) in public schools in the United States. Within that macro patchwork quilt I'm focused on the families who are poor, minority, don't speak English or are in some way being underserved by schools.
They might not see themselves as a community. Most don't know me and will never know me. I have defined them as my community and I am trying to see how social media, the internet and all the disparate tools for communication that are out there can help me help those 'communities' see themselves as a community and build the public will to have the most excellent and equitable schools for all children, with special focus on those sub-groups I previously identified.
So, my community efforts require dialogue, presenting data upon which families can take action to improve schools, families coming together in mutual support to create the schools they want and their children deserve in the neighborhoods where they live.
I have no illusion that the 500+ connections I have in Linked In are a community. But I would like to see how I can bring the 100+ in the list who are naturals for a network to share our individual and collective education advocacy goals and activities.
I observe the geeky/techie/creative twitterers being followed by thousands and would like to replicate a mirror image of that online network, except that I would like it to be an education advocacy web 2.0 community/network. It doesn't meet all the criteria for a community but it sure is an enviable network that is synergistic and alive.