Comments on SocialFishing...: Communities = more than the sum of their social me...

I don't think all branded communities are doomed t...

2008-08-07T16:34:21.291-04:00

I don't think all branded communities are doomed to fail, but I DO believe that they need to have realistic expectations. I'm the Community Manager for Calais, a semantic web service offered by Thomson Reuters. We try to connect with our users and connect them with each other, but not force (or expect) relationships that are soul-deep.

In my "real-life" communities, I interact with others on specific topics or around certain events. There is never a complete 1:1 mapping of all interests, inclinations, energies. We come together tangentially, around an event or activity, sometimes diving deep, sometimes only getting our ankles wet. The same expectation for branded communities seems reasonable.

Cheers,

Thanks Dennis! I don't remember saying THAT! : )I...

2008-07-25T13:20:42.040-04:00

Thanks Dennis! I don't remember saying THAT! : )

It's just when SOME of them fail, I do think it's for one or several of these reasons.

Maddie, I certainly agree that the technology is (...

2008-07-25T07:21:44.191-04:00

Maddie, I certainly agree that the technology is (usually) the "easy part," but I don't agree that all branded communities are doomed to fail. If there are people I want to interact with there, I'll go there and hang out with others who share the same passion. Yes, it's wrong for the operator of a branded network to just treat the network as "just another way to get the message out about product X," but there are situations where fans and consumers of particular types of products are willing to interact with others like themselves irrespective of the network sponsor.