One online community for young-ambitious-SEC-A-males coming up!

Sit down. Take a deep breath. Know that this is not the end of the world. You will not lose your job over this. Another deep breath please.
It's official - most of your branded online communities are doomed.

According to a recent Deloitte study that I read about here, '35% of the online communities studied have less than 100 members; less than 25% have more than 1,000 members despite the fact that close to 6% of these businesses have spent over $1 million on their community projects.'

Now before you scroll right down to comments and begin to stab at your keys, let me assure you that I am not against online communities. Now, who in their right mind would be!

But I do have an issue with brands deciding to just 'create' an online community in the hope of building a loyal fan base. It's like they think online community's their jackpot. As if those 100 people in their community are like zombies waiting to watch every piece of advertising they send out.

1. Add value
If you're a client and your brief to your digital agency is 'i want an online community for young ambitious SEC A males' then let me assure you that you're not going to get anywhere with this social-media-thing.
Any community must add value. Must provide info/entertainment that the person actually needs.
No, wallpapers and screensavers of your latest canned juice don't help. No ambitious-SEC-A-male wants to stare at wallpapers of your often not-so-cool product.
And adding a 'send to friend' link cannot help your cause if that's all you intend to offer.

2. Know 'why'
It's really important to figure out why you're asking for an online community anyway.
Is it because
- You want to do something with this social-media-thing
- You believe that people who join your community will just go nuts about your product
- Gang of Girls did it (personally i could write a book about why GoG isn't a great case study, but whatever!)
- You just want one and that's that!

If you want a community because your aim is to just spread the magical powers of your brand around, think again. Communities that are created without any clear value-add don't really go anywhere. And if your community starts and ends with your brand then your entire process is oriented around how many more people can you attract, instead of what you're giving to all those people who are already a part of your community.

Communities grow when people who are already in them decide that it's a damn good place to be in and call-in their friends.

Couple of things you may want to do
1. Be specific. What kind of people do you want in your community. It's great to want millions in your fanbase, but then often a handful of strong believers are better than hordes of drifters.

2. Or else just use existing communities to peddle your goods. Why create another facebook when it already exists. You don't always have to start from scratch. Don't reinvent the wheel as Manish always says.

And no, you cannot blame your digital agency if your community doesn't pick up.
We'll just re-direct you to this post!