• Why Social Communities Will Fail

    Posted on April 15th, 2008 by and currently 18 commenting.

    Everyone is running around these days talking about social community this and online connections that. I get invited to join a new ‘community’ every frakin’ day from people I haven’t even heard of before. I’m sure you do, too. And it’s great. The whole Web 2.0 thing. I buy it. I get it.

    So why is it the more I am connected online, the more alone I feel? Because I an missing the one thing that online can help facilitate, but never replace: the magic of a face-to-face encounter. Not webcam to webcam. But looking someone in the eye, shaking their hand and experiencing the presence of other people who share the same interests. And that, my friends, is the difference between yet another online social community and a successful, sustainable movement.

    Back me up, Bill McKibben (author of Deep Economy):

    We have a surplus of individualism and a deficit of companionship, and so the second becomes more valuable.

    Humans seem to be genetically wired for community. As (Richard) Layard points out, all primates live in groups and get sad when they’re separated: ‘an isolated individual will repeatedly pull a lever with no reward other than the glimpse of another monkey.’ Why do people so often look back on their college days as the best years of their lives? Usually, it’s not because their classes were so fascinating. More important is the fact that they lived more closely and intensely in a community than ever before or since.

    Yes, connecting people online is fantastic. But being able to connect them face-to-face heightens everything. Ask Jake McKee. He brought LEGO fanatics together and they solved R&D problems face-to-face. Ask Maker’s Mark. They bring their fans together at Thoroughbreds and Redheads every year. Ask MINI owners who attend the MINI rallies all over the country. Or the Z3 and Z4 owners who come from all over the land to attend BMW Roadster Homecoming right here in our backyard at the plant where the cars were made. We’ve seen it with the Fiskateers who organize their own offline events. Heck, because of state regulations, Rage Against the Haze was built as an offline movement from the beginning.

    Ninety-two percent of word of mouth happens offline (so says Keller Fay Group). 92%! And that’s not going to change. Yes, the title of this post is wrong. Social media will not fail. But joining forces with offline opportunities to get flesh and blood together to celebrate one another (no, not celebrate your brand) will amplify ” and trump ” anything you could ever do online.

    Believe it.

  • http://www.spinningsilkmultimedia.com/blog linkerjpatrick

    I hear you. I’m not if it’s the social communities themselves that will fail but have noticed that most only create a very shallow experience for social interaction. Other than commenting on blogs and participating in forums I am really active in only a few social networks, Twitter, Flickr, Facebook and Linkedin. It great that I can build my database in these places and make connections but the “magic” doesn’t truely happen till you have those face to face meeting where the interaction is live and the time is focused. Last night I attended three networking events in Greenville, A small business event at the Greenville Chamber, The Upstate Entrepreneur Forum and the Greenville Mac User’s Group. Each of those groups has an online presence but from my experiences the real connections are made in the “real world.”

    I’m certainly thankful I can get reconnected with people and familiarize myself but the happiness spills over when I see those people face to face.

    I’m right down the road, literally. Would love to meet some fiery brains around town sometime!

  • http://joshuablankenship.com/blog Joshua Blankenship

    Here, here. I’m tired of the “the internet will save us all” talk.

    Online communities can only go so far in replacing real interaction.

  • http://adpulp.com David Burn

    Excellent post, Spike. Having worked in event marketing (by supporting offline events online) for the past number of years, I’ve seen first hand the truth in your thesis.

    Online communities absolutely need an offline component. No question about it.

  • http://www.TechHerding.com Dick Carlson

    Boy, you’re smart! I’m working on an article for a local business group about virtual workers, and this is one of the first points. Somehow you reached through the tubes and saw my text.

    I used to manage large virtual teams at Microsoft, and the ones that really worked well were those where we managed to have a “meat” event at least once — at a national show, or some conference, or even all flying to a central city. It was a key component in the success or failure of the group.

    It’s always amazing that it seems people see it as a binary equation — either it’s all in person or all virtual. I don’t think either works very well. The trade organizations that want me to show up in person ever week are pretty much off my radar, nowadays.

  • http://www.orangecoat.com Evan

    Great post indeed.

    This was a fact realized early on by both my company and John Warner when the Swamp Fox was organized around the idea that real life events (InnoVenture, etc) will anchor and inspire an online community much more effectively than something completely virtual. It’s one thing to put a face to a name, but sharing a handshake and a verbal conversation is even more important. Concreteness helps most people get inspired and excited. I’m sure Dr. Justine can explain why that is.

  • http://orangejack.com Rob Williams

    I agree 100%, give or take about 50 percentage points.

    Yes, we’re designed for community. Face to face is and always will be the richest form of interaction humans can have. But what happens when we can’t do that? We settle for less rich interactions.

    Social media allows us to connect in a different way (note, I didn’t say better or worse). In fact, the irony is if face to face is THE answer, then this blog and my comment would be irrelevant. It’s a great way for us to be connected.

    I followed this concept on Flickr a few years ago. There was a community for photos of Orlando. I created a community for PEOPLE in Central Florida. It’s different. We engage differently. We’re over 500 members.

    However I also managed a community that was to tie like-minded people together across the globe. We don’t have opportunity to meet face to face. It’s over 200 members, all internal to the organization.

    What I’ve learned is that there is a place for it all. However, each serves it’s own purpose with it’s own characteristics. Online communities will live on as long as technology allows us. Humans will connect with others any way we can – some better, some worse, all different.

  • http://ubereye.wordpress.com Bill Gammell

    In person meetings can be engrossing, personal and full of meaning. I guess that is why we gather as friends and take pictures together (as a container for this meaning). You just don’t see anyone taking a picture of themselves as they are typing something to their friends on Facebook.

    (From Seinfeld):

    GEORGE: Why would I spend seven dollars to see a movie that I could watch on TV?

    KRAMER: Well, why go to a fine restaurant, when you can just stick something in the microwave? Why go to the park and fly a kite, when you can just pop a pill?

  • http://thedisneyblog.com John from TheDisneyBlog.com

    Any one have a suggestion for the people who inhabit Disney’s Virtual Magic Kingdom. Disney built a place that allowed them to form a community. Now Disney is pulling the plug, how does a community that doesn’t want to fail survive? I’m trying to answer this question over at my blog. I’m sure thoughtful ideas would be appreciated by the VMK folks.

  • http://SwampFox.ws John Warner

    Spike

    I absolutely agree. As Evan said, we recognized some time ago in organizing the Swamp Fox Community that it was important to the efficiency and personalization that can occur online, but it is critical that people have personal in person relationships. In our case, we do that in both large conferences, like InnoVenture, but even more important we have a number of small groups leading to InnoVenture where people really got to know each other which created trust and mutual accountability.

  • http://www.socialmediaworx.com Ryan Moede

    Well said, Spike. I continue to be amazed by new relationships that begin online and then flourish in person. Social media will continue to grow and challenge our understanding of how we relate and connect in community, and will augment our relationships in exciting ways, but it simply won’t replace the value of real community in person.

  • http://www.brandidentityguru.com/wordpress BIG Kahuna

    Spike, tell me something new. That’s why I like to read your stuff. Telling me that face to face is the best or getting people together is like saying “always make a great first impression”. Yea, no kidding Sherlock.

    Everyone knows that forming relationships with clients/people (meeting them), brands, groups etc. is the way to keeping them or having them become ambassadors. It’s sales 101.

    Why not think of a way for Facebook to do that and then post on it. Tie the Social aspect to the handshake or get together.

    Why doesn’t Facebook sponsor events? Start off by having them on the East Coast, West Coast, South and Central. Bring Facebookers together. Myspace isn’t doing it (I don’t think many of them have their drivers license yet).

    Then Facebook could bring in all the geeks (and I mean that with love) that create all these wonderful toys (applications) that waste hours of my day. They could do roundtables have speakers, you know the whole enchilada.

    Now that’s a post that has meat in it!

    Just my humble opinion as a branding guy.

  • http://brainsonfire.com Spike

    David, Dick, John, et al – thanks for the comments. I think it’s about bridging the gap between online and off. Online is a great way to connect people and let them decide if they want to share with each other, but after those seeds are planted, bringing them together in person throws fuel on the fire. But I think companies who bring their fans together face-to-face has to be careful. They need to be facilitators and hosts. In other words, just the very fact that they are giving people a reason to come together can be enough. It shouldn’t be a sales event or all about the brand. That’ll just turn people off. It has to be a celebration of the people.

  • http://www.borderlinetheory.com Trevor Lee

    Spot on man. You articulate the problem well.

  • http://designcharlotte.org Jak

    I think the premise behind your post here assumes that online social networking aims to replace face to face networking. Thats always going to be part of it for some but for me (and many other savvy interweb surfers)the evolution of social networking is fast approaching one that enhances or even begins offline relationships. And I am not just talking about those roaming the internet for dating. Bloggers/tweeters get together for unconferences, events get posted via facebook/evite that I never would know about otherwise, entire organizations and even companies are being formed online and then progress offline.

    I agree that the potential exist to be lazy and to fall into using online social networking as a social crutch, but it can also serve as a launching pad, extending your reach, broadening your perspective, increasing awareness. The important step, I think all would agree, is to consciously push these tools to serve what are more positive purposes.

  • http://choclitbear.blogspot.com/ Adam Wright

    Hey Spike, you prove an interesting point about that the whole offline vs. online community theory, suggesting that ‘community’ is surely based on physical interactivity between individuals. I do agree that the whole face-to-face and shaking hands concept has much more of a social feeling rather than communicating to people behind a computer screen. Offline communities are more traditional and are definitely more active (due to physical interactivity). However, why is it that people will continue to actively engage in connecting in the online community? The answer is simple Spike, humans can overcome physical challenges in the online world. The online community does not have any physical challenges, people can actively engage with one-another despite the long range of distance or the significant difference in demographics. For example, people can easily discuss reviews of movies in the comfort zone of their own chair, rather than having to deal with driving to a certain place, interacting with people that may find them social unacceptable and having to deal with basic human needs (e.g. food). And what does this mean in the long run? More users of who participate in online communities will surely increase the accumulated knowledge of certain topics thanks to more shared understandings.

  • http://brainsonfire.com Spike

    Thanks for adding to the conversation, Adam. You make some great points, and I agree. As the last lines of the post says, “Yes, the title of this post is wrong. Social media will not fail. But joining forces with offline opportunities to get flesh and blood together to celebrate one another (no, not celebrate your brand) will amplify – and trump – anything you could ever do online.”

  • http://www.stoppoliticalcalls.org Shaun Dakin

    Great post.

    I’m in the advocacy space where so many people are so excited about sending emails and faxes to their elected representatives.

    “We sent 100k emails to members of congress!”

    So what?

    What was the outcome.

    Bottom line? Unless you get off your bottom and get up to Capital Hill (or your State Cap) and actually meet reps and their staff, not a single email, phone call, or fax will really do much of anything.

    It is all about relationships and trust.

    It is very hard to do that online.

    Shaun Dakin
    CEO and Founder
    http://www.stoppoliticalcalls.org

  • http://uber.la John McElhenney

    Isn’t it amazing how the social media space is still heating up? Just like the mobile online advertising space! And here I am in the social haze of the past commenting on post from April 2008. But… it’s important to speak when you are spoken to, so Spike, well done on this post. The route by which I found it is actually a more interesting tale than my comments.

    I believe EVENTS are the ultimate Social Media platform. Face 2 Face, mano a mano! I’m trying to lead the way at my current company but I think I’m getting bitten by the ROI of Social Media virus and nobody wants to talk about events or the online tie-in. Well, I do.

    @jmacofearth