This week, I had the pleasure of attending the Web Content 2010 Conference in Chicago. Ben Brown’s session (Building and Running an Online Community) was my favorite.
Ben talked about his experience with building online communities. He said:
Community is not about forums, social media campaigns, or user-generated content. Community is people talking and doing things together.
[K]eep in mind that people are out there wanting to talk to each other on your site.
If you have an audience, you have a community.
Ben reminds us that community is not about networks, tools, or features. It’s about people, and people have a natural, human need for conversation.
People want to share and relate. This is why we have language. This is why we speak, read, and write.
This is why we work hard to connect our clients with people. After all, the web isn’t content. The web isn’t documents, experiences, and stuff. The web is people, and people want to connect.
Your users are your customers, but your customers are people.
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1 comments so far. Add yours below.
Oscar Gonzalez says:
Extremely wise insight into the whole social media experience. I wish more people got the:
"People want to share and relate. This is why we have language. This is why we speak, read, and write."
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June 14, 2010 10:46 PM