Jacob Morgan on Social Media, Technology, Marketing, and Life - Latest Comments in What is a Community?

Re: What is a Community?

fdfsf — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 03:08:00 -0000

really bad...
What is a community and a community is friends family and others

Re: What is a Community?

jacobmorgan — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 23:18:13 -0000

hi ari,

was that comment for me? :)

great point about having a facny site without the interaction, it's meaningless!

Re: What is a Community?

ariherzog — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 22:57:57 -0000

Community is about interaction, pure and simple. Writer and reader, reader and reader, writer to reader to reader, and any other variant you can think.

I'm replying to you, not to Jacob. What does that say?

I'll add one other item. Jacob wrote, "Word of mouth is one of the most effective ways to really build and grow your community." I'll argue that word of mouth marketing is THE ONLY WAY to build and grow.

You can have the fanciest site out there, be a best-selling author, yada yada, but if people don't visit the site or read the book, and tell other people, or the press catch on and write a review, nobody will be interacting with you.

Re: What is a Community?

jacobmorgan — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 14:19:58 -0000

hi aaron,

that is an excellent point that i should have addressed, thank you for bringing that up. communities can definitely exist amongst the readers themselves and oftentimes these are the most powerful types of communities.

thanks for reading and for commenting!

Re: What is a Community?

uhrblogger — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 14:38:48 -0000

Interesting post here, and I would agree that the term "community" is thrown around just like we throw around "engagement" and "conversation."

My only caveat here is that the community is not just between you and your readers, but between your readers as well. Sometimes that community building takes place on your blog, as people weigh on (like I am) on a given post. Other times that conversation between community members will take place on Twitter, Friendfeed or someone else's blog.

When I think of my community, it's much greater than just the people who read and comment on my blog. It's the people I interact with on Twitter, people I follow on FriendFeed and people who share my passion about social media, whether they read my blog or not.

So perhaps you're using the word community when you really mean audience in this case. Or perhaps community is a much more loaded term than either of us recognize.

Anyway, great post. It's definitely something to keep thinking about.

Re: What is a Community?

jacobmorgan — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 13:22:40 -0000

hi charles,

thanks for the comment, i'm glad you agree. i wish more people would understand that a community starts with "one."

Re: What is a Community?

jacobmorgan — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 13:21:47 -0000

hi laurent,

i definitely try to acknowledge and respond to every comment i get. that's where the meaning of this blog comes into play for me. if i just write a blog without knowing, understanding, or engaging with my readers are then why bother? im trying to build relationships with my readers.

you are correct, the more we comment and share information the better we get to know each other, and that is what it's all about.

thanks again for commenting laurent and I hope you do tell a friend :)

Re: What is a Community?

seo2020 — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 11:54:55 -0000

Thank you for hammering this point home. You are right, people do get confused about what community actually is and you have cleared it up quite nicely.

Charles Heflin
Twitter @CharlesHeflin

Re: What is a Community?

laurent — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 10:51:16 -0000

Great point.
I've left comments in your blog and you always acknowledge one way or the other. I've done the same on other 'larger' blogs and got nothing. Thus if we look at the 'relationship' equation, I feel like sort of I know you/you know me but that's not the case for the larger blogs who look to me more like mainstream media. And yes i'm more likely to tell about your blog to a friend.