This is an article that I originally wrote for Vitamin. They made major edits, so I'm posting the full article, as it was originally written. Enjoy!

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I think a good starting point is to define what we’re talking about here. Now, I don’t claim to be a language expert, so let’s first take a look at what dictionary.com has to say…


To be honest, there was more to that definition but it went on to cover ecology. Until plants or animals learn to type, we’ll just exclude all of that. While we’re in the editing mood let’s also disregard #4. I completely disagree with that definition, at least in terms of how I’ll be using the word “community” in this article. Who am I to just edit the dictionary? Well, this is my article damnit, so I can do whatever I want! For instance, I can leave a bunch of white space for no reason.






See?

OK, the reason behind leaving out #4 in the above definition is that I’m of the opinion that what defines community is interaction. Just being a part of society doesn’t mean you interact with anyone in it. And again, definition check: I’m defining “interaction” as some form of communication. #4 brings up a good point however. As the word “community” gains momentum as a business buzzword, I feel it’s important that businesses understand what exactly it means.

Do you have a community or just a customer base?

It’s easy to see the difference between a community and a customer base if you think in terms of space. Imagine that earth is a brand with both satellites and asteroids orbiting around it. What the satellites and the asteroids have in common is the orbit – a relationship with the brand. What’s different about the two is that a satellite can communicate with both the planet and other satellites. An asteroid just sits in orbit, only aware of another asteroid if it happens to collide with it. What’s better about the satellite is the ability for both the planet and other satellites to inspire its movement.

Much like an asteroid in space, a customer can float into a brand’s orbit, and with minor disturbance – float right back out again. That’s a pretty weak relationship; don’t you think?

Before I continue, I’d like to admit that I know almost nothing about outer space. If asteroids don’t orbit around the earth, let’s just pretend that they do for the sake of my example.

Is your business “community compatible”?

I would be lying if I said that a community-based business model was good for every business. The fact is some businesses just aren’t in a position to apply the model.

Here’s a story: I was speaking at MIT with Jake and Jacob of skinnyCorp last November on the topic of User Innovation to a small conference of people who represented some pretty gigantic businesses. The Jakes and I got approached by a couple of representatives from a large food manufacturer. They were interested in picking our brains about how they could apply user innovation and customer co-creation models (which I will go over later) to help in the decision making process for what foods were coming out next and even in the idea process for new foods. After speaking with the pair for a little while, I became unsure as to whether or not the models would actually work for their company – regardless of intention.

I imagined them walking into a boardroom and telling their bosses that they will no longer have the authority to make decisions without the participation and agreement of their customer base. I’d like to think it would inspire a reaction similar to the grand exit of Waring Hudsucker – plummeting to meet his maker.

But why such a reaction? Trust. Or should I say, the lack thereof. I would wager that the powers that be at most companies wouldn’t trust their own customers to make decisions like that. How can a company expect to have a relationship with their customers without truly trusting them?

Trust is the glue that will hold your community together. Once you earn it, compromising that trust could cause irreparable damage. This is why determining whether your business is truly community compatible is so important. I will say this many times when it comes to this topic: community-based business is an entirely different way to do business. You can’t expect to replace the foundation of your house and then decide you liked the old one better and switch it back while feeling confident that the structure hasn’t been compromised in the process.

An example of the potential for damage compromising the trust of a community is the BBC Creative Archive. While attending the CustomerMade Conference in Copenhagen recently, I listened to a presentation by Paul Gerhardt, Joint-Director of the BBC Creative Archive. His presentation was about a program the BBC has whereby they allow free access for non-commercial purposes to medium-resolution versions of all of their original video content for use by the public. Needless to say, this is a huge deal. The program was in response to the overwhelming (possibly illegal) use of their material by artists and VJs in the UK.
- Read a press release about the BBC Creative Archive

Mr. Gerhardt referenced the loyal, trusting audience of adults in the UK who were happy that their children had access to this. Someone asked Mr. Gerhardt what would happen if there was an overwhelming use of the material in a fashion that wasn’t inline with BBC’s values. The response? Essentially that they would consider pulling the program. Whoa! Hold up. Pull the program? A move like that could seriously compromise the trust of the program’s community who also happen to be the future loyal, trusting, adult BBC audience.

Granted, the BBC Creative Archive is still a hugely successful project and will most likely continue stay that way. It’s an important example though, because once you make the decision to create a community extension to your business, the potential for damage is high if you later change your mind and pull it back.

Pros and cons of community

Communities are an amazing entity to revolve your business around. They help take the guesswork out of business and product development, because if you want to know what it is that your customers want – simply ask. Furthermore, not only do your customers tell you exactly what they want, they essentially create and perpetuate the market for you. Granted, these things are all byproducts of a successful community. I by no means am guaranteeing that by building a community your business will succeed.

There are downsides as well to communities. However these downsides are a matter of interpretation. Actually, let me restate that: A community’s nature can produce outcomes that could be conceived by some businesses as unfavorable. In my opinion, it’s all a matter of flexibility and ultimately a testament to whether or not your business is truly “community compatible.” Remember, that communities aren’t an “add-on”, like a nitrous system for a car. A business can’t have the expectation that by simply adding community features, their success will become fast and furious.

By having a community responsible for your development or growth, you’re essentially putting yourself in the passenger seat of your own vehicle. You can suggest where you would like to go and be the “go-to-guy” for suggested routes, but ultimately which direction you go in us not up to you (unless you want to completely destroy the trust in your relationship with your community). This can lead to a potential issue if you business becomes something you didn’t intend it to be.

Another community trait construed as a “downside” is that in a community-based business, there are no secrets. If you ship the wrong thing, or your product shows up late or damaged, or your customer has a bad customer service experience – you better believe that everyone in the community is going to hear about it. This is a scary notion for a lot of businesses. For example, I worked at a big ad agency for a few years. I spent my last few months there working on the “web side”. The idea guaranteed to fail in meetings with any client was a message board. Companies fear public dissent from real people. They spend so much money on advertising telling people how awesome they are, they don’t want to pay for a platform that will allow real people to compromise that illusion.

I’m of the opinion that if you’re doing nothing wrong, people won’t have anything to complain about! Maybe I’m a hopeless optimist, but I see this “downside” as incentive to make your company rule. Communities are human business debuggers. Why not know the problems, address them and prove that they’re fixed all in public? Seems like a pretty trustworthy idea to me!

Learn about User Innovation and Customer Co-Creation

Ok, I’m a humble guy most of the time. I can admit when I’m not the best man for the job, and this is one of those instances. Rather than trying to reinvent the wheel and explain user innovation and customer co-creation, I’m just going to point you in the direction of some links that helped me learn. So, if you’re interested in learning more about user innovation and customer co-creation, I recommend starting with the links below.

User Innovation:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_innovation

Customer Co-Creation:
http://www.strategicagreview.com/e_article000211489...

Eric von Hippel is an expert on these subjects. His books are available for free online via Creative Commons license:
http://web.mit.edu/evhippel/www/books.htm

Moving Forward

My next article will be a continuation of this, delving deeper into the topic of community. I’ll be touching on how business create opportunity for community, ideas for integrating simple community features into your business, and also how skinnyCorp builds successful community-based business.