How are the numbers shaking out?

I've been very lax in my participation in the SWOM of late, so I guess I know where I fit in what I'm about to address.

I'm wondering how the numbers are shaking out in so far as technographics are concerned here at the SWOM. Are we seeing the Pareto Principle at work, or is more the 1 percent rule in terms of the percentage of active participants?

Thinking in terms of the Forrester Social Technographics scale, how many members are Creators, how many Critics, and so on down the ladder. And are these numbers indicative of most social networks? If not, what are the differentiating factors?

I'm very interested in learning online community management best practices for a Ning network I've set up for AdFed club members. Ben and Jackie have done an outstanding job in building a growing social network here. Yet and still, most of the participation seems to come from new members entering the Lobby.

Or, am I wrong about that?

Perhaps the real question I'm asking is, once you get members into a niche social network/online community, how do you keep them engaged? What's the catalyst that stimulates active participation between people with diverse backgrounds from disparate geographic locales who don't know one another outside of this community? It seems like a huge challenge.

I've seen a number of Facebook groups, for example, grow to hundreds of members, but there be little participation in terms of forum dicussions, wall posts, etc.

What does it take to keep a community vital and alive?

Tags: community, forrester, management, online, social, technolographics

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25 Comments

Comment by Paul Chaney on August 26, 2008 at 5:00pm: That does indeed Sean. Thanks!

Comment by Sean McDonald on August 26, 2008 at 4:49pm: Paul
I forgot to add...this comment is content :)

Comment by Sean McDonald on August 26, 2008 at 4:48pm: Paul
Content to me = blog posts, comments to blog posts, forum posts, videos, photos in a gallery, tweets on twitter. Posting is done by both the moderators/owners of the community site, but also from guests to the site. Depending on the tool, certain publishing rights can be enabled. for instance at dell, on our blogs we have guest bloggers (write a blog post based on mutually agreeable/interesting topic). Dell publishes the blog post. On our forum any registered member can ask a question, comment, answer a question. Community members are creating content right alongside Dell employees. Does this help explain "content"?

Comment by Andy Lopata on August 26, 2008 at 10:17am: It's good to know that this is a common problem! It's also one that comes up frequently.

From our experience with Word of Mouse, people are keen to sign up to something new, they then go away and forget all about it when real life comes back in.

Although not strictly a social network, we suffer similar issues as we don't put on regular events. We are working at the moment on ways to overcome inertia. For us, the main thing is to ensure that people know why they joined, and this is reiterated. With many of us members of so many social networks, the ones that play a key, and obvious, role in our business or self-development strategy will be the ones we go back to.

The role of connection requests and messages through the site is also key. I think the newsletter for SWOM, which provoked me to look at this discussion, is an excellent tool well used. Anything that will keep on drawing people back makes a huge difference.

Comment by Laila on August 26, 2008 at 10:11am: Great post Paul, and a very good example of a good blog. I enjoyed the links and followed another link to what looks like an interesting site, so it will probably take me even longer to put more information about me and my life in rural Nova Scotia onto my page here.

Comment by Jane Chin “It is possible that many of us are here to park our names in the group, but we are in so many SM networks that the adoption time to using this regularly is becoming longer and longer.” & “In fact, I log in primarily to accept friend requests”

Jane, I have certainly found this to be true. Since stumbling upon Ning a few weeks ago (has it been that long?) I have become spread too thin. The way this network is set up, I get an invitation from someone, go and find their profile and read some posts and want to comment – to find that I have to join the forum (much to my surprise since I didn’t think I had left the forum I was a member of…)

Much like a person who finds themselves in a mall when they thought they were in a department store, I am a little lost, and can’t find my way back to the great shop I came to in the first place.

On the other hand, I am glad that I have wandered into this shop, as it has the quality of content that appeals to me.

Comment by Mark G on August 26, 2008 at 4:21am: Paul, as usual you ask good questions that get a conversation going.

Like you I have been lax in my participation in this community of late, but I've been so damn busy. (Pesky clients won't leave me alone.)

That doesn't mean I don't love this site and come here often, if just to read up on what's been going on.

My view on social sites is that only the good ones will survive; the ones that provide quality and value and SWOM certainly is one of those.

I deliberately try to limit my enrolment to networking sites that meet this criteria.

Comment by Marilyn on August 25, 2008 at 7:41pm: Paul,

Great post! Here's my .02 cents.

I have been active on online communities for well over 10 years now. I have been studying the psychology and behavior of online development and relationships. As a creator and manager of many communities over the years, I have certainly struggled with retaining and engaging members. There's no quick and dirty magical answer or solution. Though many of the suggestions already noted are helpful!

Understanding the various personality types is certainly one way to help you formulate a plan to cater content and offerings that will appeal to each personality type. GrokDotCom did a great job of going into detail about the four personality types of online readers. (I am part "Amiable" and part "Expressive".)

Furthermore, dedication and the ability to get others excited and involved is also key to successful online community building. A good community manager needs to be available and interact heavily with new members and continually reach out to existing members. People want to know they are not just another number, they want to know they are important and belong. If you make each and every member feel important, they will be more inclined to invest time and energy back into the community.

Comment by alice on August 25, 2008 at 7:08pm: i'd like to throw in my two cents after reading everyone's comments. my social network mymodernmet.com isn't as large as SWOM but we're about 320+ strong with about 20 active members.

I don't think we need to be that concerned with getting more active members. My group started with a bunch of college friends who have since moved on to professional jobs - lawyers, doctors, ad salespeople, entrepreneurs. It has a loyal following bc whenever we have the opportunity we try and have offline events. At these events, all my friends tell me that they love reading everything but that they're not comfortable writing...yet. In due time, when people are comfortable and when trust is built these things will naturally fall into place.

Comment by Paul Chaney on August 25, 2008 at 6:34pm: @Alex - It comes from being around distinguished southern gentlemen like yourself and picking up a few tips. (Though I don't have the ascot thing down too well yet. :->) It's either that, or the bald head...and maybe some Cajun charm thrown in for good measure.