The Benefits of On-Line Community

Community

When Mike asked me to think about communities he piqued the interest of the sociologist in me.  There are so many different aspects of community to explore, enough that this could easily become an entire series on the different types of online communities.  Today, I want to write about open vs. socio-centric, private online communities and the benefits and disadvantages that may lead to preference of one over the other.  Communities have many definitions, but for my purposes, it is an online grouping of people who have shared interests and goals, using shared resources and technology, and who repeatedly participate in the community.

As most people know, there are many online communities in existence.  Some of the most popular are Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.  While these are not used exclusively by the human resources community at large, the HR community certainly has a strong presence on each and uses them to varying degrees to commune and share information.  The decision to use one over the other tends to depend on the goal of the individual.

Some of the main benefits of online communities are consistent regardless of type such as having a platform to share information, communicate with colleagues in the profession, ability to disagree or debate issues, and give and receive instant feedback. These communities give you 24/7 networking access, they bridge diverse people from global geographies, and they help establish your personal or professional brand.  Another benefit for people who may be too shy to feel comfortable going into an in-person networking event is that in an online community, you can be yourself and build up the relationships before you actually meet face-to-face.

One of the disadvantages is that since you are not visible, your intent can sometimes be misinterpreted because the person cannot hear your tone or see your body language.   Writing can be taken out of context or a distortion of message tone can occur.  There are also many people who misrepresent themselves online in order to sell a product, promote themselves, or other ulterior motives.  While these are disadvantages, if you know about them going in, you can quickly work to overcome the barriers.

Open Communities

I am an avid user of Twitter for professional and personal networking.  Twitter is an open community in that anyone can choose to follow me and I can choose to follow any other user without needing an invitation.  There are some settings that allow users to screen followers, but in general, this is frowned upon by the community users.  There are also settings to allow users to block other users for spam or inappropriate communication.  But, in general, it is an open community.

One of the benefits specific to an open community is that it is much easier to grow your network.  You have access to follow (add) many people to your network in a short amount of time because of the technology used.  You can easily search for other users in your profession, have higher traffic, and be exposed to more content.  Some of the disadvantages are you will be followed by spammers, bots, and users pushing inappropriate content.

Socio-Centric, Private Communities

There are many types of these communities online.  Specific organizations, industries, or fields of study create them in order to have some level of control over the community.  The information contained within the walls of the online community may be proprietary, thus the need to be accessible by a members-only society.  The benefit to having this type of online community is that it is more secure and there are criteria set that must be met in order to enter the community.  It also gives the air of being elite and special because there are limitations set on membership into the community.

There are some disadvantages to this too and things to consider when designing this type of community.

When a community is closed, there will certainly be fewer connections available and less content shared.  It’s just the nature of the beast.  There can also be barriers to connection based on the technology.  Even in closed communities, you should have the ability to easily connect with anyone already part of that community.  Take a corporate site for example; if employees can sign in to gain access to the community, then each employee should easily be able to connect with any other employee signed in to that community.  With private communities, there is also the issue of not being able to have critical mass within the community or not having a diverse community since members have many shared characteristics.

As you can see, there are pros and cons to different types of online communities.  I’ve learned that at the heart of it all, you still need to supplement your online relationships with phone or in-person contact.  This is how you will truly build the relationships with your colleagues whether you are doing it through an open or private community.