Successful online communities don’t develop overnight | Community Building

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Successful online communities don’t develop overnight

You can’t develop a strong online community overnight. Online communities need time to develop – behind every username is a real person. People don’t build strong relationships with others at first sight – it takes time. Just as real world relationships take time to develop, so do those that form online – and arguably they take even longer.
Online community is a more challenging communication medium
Most of our communication takes place visually. Even when we are involved in a deep conversation with someone, we get more information from their behaviour, expressions and body language that we do from their voice. The challenge with online communities is that this huge communication medium is eliminated – we can only communicate through text (and some rudimentary images or text styling).
People online are pretty much anonymous. This is both a benefit and a curse. When it comes to online communities, it can allow people to be truly honest and open. But it can also allow people to be abusive and offensive with little fear of any repercussions. Your members will probably have experienced at least one of these types of members, if not on your community then on someone else’s. If not, they would have heard of them. Depending on their previous experience and perception, members take different amounts of time to come out of their shell and really open up and get involved in the community.
Those that have only ever experienced open, honest members in an online community will open up much faster, will engage more frequently and create more content. Don’t forget about your quieter members, though. Indeed – you should think about focusing most of your efforts in getting them involved. They may have had a bad experience in the ...

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http://www.communityspark.com/successful-online-communities-dont-develop-overnight/

http://www.communityspark.com/successful-online-communities-dont-develop-overnight/