Catalyze a Virtual Community

Many companies think that building a virtual community is as simple as throwing up a cool Web site that compels people to visit every day. Dream on. These sites are commercials, not communities. If you want to build a virtual community, here are the principles to implement:

Community before commerce. In the words of John Hagel III and Arthur G. Armstrong (authors of Net.Gain), “put community before commerce.” That is, the purpose of these efforts is to build a community, not sell more stuff, so cool it on the commercialism. The community exists for its own benefit, not yours.

Communication comes next. Build in the capability for people to communicate with each other via message boards and Internet mail lists. Peer-to-peer communication is more important than being able to communicate with the company. You're hosting the event, but it's a cocktail party, not a lecture.

Place the community's interests above your own. The big picture is that a vibrant community will help you, but getting to this place means sacrificing short-term interests. For example, people should be able to freely discuss and endorse competitive products.

Tolerate criticism. Not only should peple feel free to plug competitive products, they should be able to criticize your own. This freedom produces two desirable results: first, good public relations because tolerating criticism on a company-sponsored site is unheard of; second, free and voluminous customer feedback.

Encourage “personalities.” Remember how one of the keys to the success of MTV was veejays with an attitude? The same is true of a Web site, so encourage your employees to develop online personalities to show that corporate thought police don't control your site.

If someone tells you like you eat like a bird, the implication is that you don't eat much. Yet for their body weight, birds eat a lot. The peripatetic hummingbird, for example, eats the equivalent of 50 percent of its weight every day. (If you're a 200-pound male, imagine eating 100 pounds of food every day!)

Chances are no one will tell you that you poop like an elephant because elephants poop 165 pounds per day. So far you're probably thinking, “Guy is into the weirdest things. No wonder Apple had so many problems.” However, there two are messages for revolutionaries in these biological facts.

First, a successful revolutionary relentlessly searches for, consumes, and absorbs knowledge, about the industry , customers, and competition. You do this by pressing the flesh of your customers, attending seminars and trade shows, reading journals, and browsing the internet.

Second, you need to spread the large amount of information knowledge that you've gained–pooping like an elephant. This means sharing information and discoveries with your fellow employees and occasionally even with your competitors.