Why community is more valuable than content

My comment is live on @Scott_Drummond's post about the value of communities: http://bit.ly/gX8Bc8 What do you think?less than a minute ago via TweetDeckMark Mapstone
markmapstone




Ok, this has got my attention.

I'm very interested in communities, but have largely ignored them, because they are a means to an end (personally & professionally)... and they also suck up a lot of time managing and listening to the crowd. You only have to read ReWork to learn about the pitfalls of communities who are very vocal in your operations - it can completely throw you off your goals & objectives.

I have a blog with traffic... lots of it (relative to my needs) ... yet I have no community. This is bad, because I want to be loved, but great because I don't have anyone to worry about when I make business decisions for my blog. No-one moans when I haven't updated, no-one cares if I add adverts, no-one disagrees with my point of view. In a nutshell, no-one cares that I exist. This is great, I have traffic visiting passionately for the content, but they don't care one jot about the space, the other users that visit, comment and share.

Communities are great, I'm with you 100%, I promote building them daily, I do things which encourage community activity all the time. But what is the objective? The reason why that community is important to your operations - does it need one? I'm thinking yes. No matter what your motivations are, be that to covert to sales, start debates or get stuff done.

But I'm still not convinced. Here's why...

We have access to the Long Tail these days. Do you know what that means? I'm not being patronising here, because I kind of think I do, but really I'm guessing. Can we truly comprehend the meaning of unlimited traffic or community? According to the long tail we have access to (within reason) infinity.

Artist David Hockey, stated that it took some getting used to, to realise that his canvas was now infinite when working on the iPad and that digital watercolours could have more than 3 layers of paint before the colours muddied beyond recognition.

If we accept that (and the vastness of the Internet generally)... why are we even bothering with regular visitors at all? Is having a community actually just validation for our existence being worthwhile? Can't we operate and be happy with no community if the content is great and the traffic is high?

I believe we're a long way from figuring out how best to benefit from communities, so by default we think its better to build a hub surrounded by friends than it is to build surrounded by echoes, shadows and outlines of friends.

Are communities an echo of Web2.0 desire for 'mass' (anything) ... maybe we just need to let go and think bigger?

great post - Mark :)

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