Online Communities

Comments on "Design to Thrive" by Theron Howard

Online Communities

“Design to Thrive” by Theron Howard offers insights into the formation of online communities and discusses key facets of a successful online community: remuneration, influence, belonging and significance. For example, an online community hosted by Count Me In, provides women entrepreneurs with an engaging forum for information sharing and allows community members to appreciate the benefit of the “RIBS” formula.  Women throughout the nation who have generated at least $250,000 in annual revenues for their businesses and have achieved recognition by the Make Mine a Million $ Business program, receive access to the online community, providing a place for collaboration, inspiration and data sharing.   

Online communities are drastically different from social media atmospheres, Howard asserts.  Robust online communities require the there is a common set of interests, values and communication practices. This is certainly true for the Count Me In Community. Further, Howard asserts that secondary social interactions in social media remain weak, while secondary connections in the online communities remain much stronger because online participate in different activities. By citing Clay Shirkey in “Here Comes Everybody,” Howard points to sharing, cooperation and collective action for typical activities. For Count Me In, this rationale is true. It is far stronger to receive a referral inside of the Count Me In community than through a social network such as Linked In or Facebook.

As society continues to embrace social networks and communities, Howard proposes ten reasons why the formation and propagation of these communities are vital:

·         Enhancing and sustaining intellectual capital

·         Increasing creativity and cross fertilization

·         Improving decision-making processes with epistemic communities

·         Preserving institutional  knowledge

·         Providing a higher quality interaction with your organization

·         Improving retention and loyalty

·         Reducing training and support costs

·         Identifying customer needs and new product opportunities

·         Reducing travel costs and addressing problems “just in time”

·         Flattening organizational hierarchies

As a business executive,  I have seen the online communities perform these roles including enhancing creativity and cross fertilization. Further, through elearning programs, businesses have reduced training costs and accelerated government compliance with OSHA regulations.

Online communities will continue to evolve in purposefulness and ubiquity. Howard’s book provides key insights on the rationale for these communities and recommended tips for creating a rich and vital online community.