01.03.09

Free Form or Focused?

I’ve been mulling over a question for a few weeks. “Which Social Media strategy provides the best community value – Free Form or Focused?”

Dictionary.com defines “Community” in part as “A social, religious, occupational, or other group sharing common characteristics or interests and perceived or perceiving itself as distinct in some respect from the larger society within which it exists.” Social Media taps directly into that definition as it helps us find, evaluate and associate with those who share our passions.

FaceBook, StumbleUpon, the soon-to-be-out-of-Beta RootsHQ and most Social Media tools allow users to create groups around a topic to build community. But how do I define my group to be of greatest value to the greatest number of people? Too narrow a definition and l have no members. Too broad and my community is so big it stops being a meaningful community. It’s a tricky proposition. It may seem you’ve perfectly defined your community and your results may still prove disappointing. Top Conservatives on Twitter (TCOT) is an excellent example.

The group seems to be meaningfully defined: Conservatives on Twitter. The challenge is found in how “Conservative” is defined for group purposes. Facing a similar challenge to define “Conservative bloggers”, The Tennessee ConserVOLiance opted for “political Conservatives blogging primarily politics”. This excluded Conservatives mainly blogging something other than politics. It reduced group size but provided a precise identity and mission for members and visitors. TCOT chose a broader definition of “all Conservatives on Twitter”. This expanded the group but reduced value to the community as members must sift through a lot of tweets to get to what they became members to find.

Groups provide value to both founders and members. Why I join a community may not be the same reason it was created. I like TCOT because it connects me with individual political activists. But I dislike having to eliminate non-politics tweeting Conservatives and, more recently, Conservative organizations, to find them. I prefer a more focused community and find myself less involved at TCOT than I might be because I do. Others may be delighted to find so many Conservatives offering input on a wide range of matters in a more free-form fashion. Yet surely some who would have been vibrant, contributing members at TCOT move on completely for exactly this reason. They lose the value in TCOT’s community and TCOT loses the value of their involvement as well.

For those of us finding and founding new communities, it’s a good object lesson. Think through the scope of your community. Take time to discuss it with peers. See how similar groups dealt with the issue. Make sure you’re comfortable with the community definition on the front end, whether you’re a finder or a founder. You’re going to be living with it for a while. If it’s true “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”, time spent defining your community will pay off later in reduced “medical” care.

Blue Collar Muse

12.29.08

#dontgo Movement Launches #diggcons

It’s Monday morning, Christmas has come and gone, New Years Day is just around the corner, and December is coming to a close. I can’t imagine a better time to announce the launch of a fantastic addition to the #dontgo Movement social media network of tools.

A little over a month ago I noticed that Joe Carter was looking to work with someone or a group to enhance and take the #diggcons project to a new level. Joe had originally offered the project to #TCOT, but according to him his offer was never answered for one reason or another.

I contacted Joe letting him know that the #dontgo Movement was quietly working on a social news network and we would gladly move the project under the #diggcons label. Joe was quick to get Read the rest of this entry »

12.08.08

Blogging: Why bother, really?

Microblogging seems to be all the rage as of late.  With Twitter being brought into the conservative mainstream (a la the Top Conservatives on Twitter) it’s hard to think that anything else could be worth diving into.

But, while Twitter seems to be a quintessential lifepulse on the Internet, blogs will always reign as the holder of the “content championship”.  A few reasons why:

• Content stays around a lot longer than Tweets do.
• Since blogs are “fresh” and “relevant”, they tend to rank better on Google or other search engines.
• You can have focused discussions on specific topics much easier on a blog; on Twitter, it’s easy to let the conversation wander.

If you aren’t blogging, well… start now!  I teach a local college class, and I punch the same point home every chance I get: “At one point, the power of the press Read the rest of this entry »