Comments on: The Lie of Community

By: LOTD: 7/15/09 | Open The Dialogue

LOTD: 7/15/09 | Open The Dialogue — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 16:56:30 +0000

[...] Baldwin on the lie of community. Technology and modern marketing has shifted our perceptions of what a community is in the [...]

By: Mark Buchholz

Mark Buchholz — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 02:16:45 +0000

Brilliant post. Working in the games industry, i think it's also important to give the community not just communication tools, but also tools to help each other and new members to join.

By: Mark Buchholz

Mark Buchholz — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 19:16:45 +0000

Brilliant post. Working in the games industry, i think it's also important to give the community not just communication tools, but also tools to help each other and new members to join.

By: Links for June 14 2009 | Eric D. Brown - Technology, Strategy, People & Projects

Sun, 14 Jun 2009 14:21:24 +0000

[...] The Lie of Community by Micah Baldwin on Learn to Duck [...]

By: Lucretia Madden Pruitt

Lucretia Madden Pruitt — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 03:05:12 +0000

As always, brilliant, my friend.

The next step in definition though is that members of my 'community' may overlap your 'community', but they are not necessarily the one & the same. (Insert mental image of Venn diagram of communities here)

But one thing that is easy to detect is the outsider who wishes to co-opt members of my community to his own ends. It's easier to decide who is 'against us' rather than 'with us' isn't it? :

By: Community Community Community | SeanBohan.com

Community Community Community | SeanBohan.com — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 23:24:19 +0000

[...] think Micah’s post on the Lie About Community hits the mark pretty well. “Community”, like Social and Participation and Conversation [...]

By: bill_free

bill_free — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 23:07:39 +0000

Agree. Micah, you're building a good working definition of community. More practical and conceptually useful, I might add, than Wikipedia's.

One dimension I might add is proximity. Vital, sustainable communities are not monolithic. They embrace a diversity of viewpoints and backgrounds and accept the tension that comes with it. What defines community is not sameness, but closeness. I think this is one reason why many marketers fail as community-builders.

By: Jim "Genuine" Turner

Jim "Genuine" Turner — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 21:35:26 +0000

I have been trying to grasp my own concept of this as I try to fit it into my metaphor of how to be one of the cool kids. I liken the idea of community with cliques. You have the chess club, the jocks and the kids that hang out in the smoking lounge, etc. Each is a community as you describe, but there is also an exclusivity to it that somehow is weaved into its fabric. I like this take Micah and well done.

By: Sonny Gill

Sonny Gill — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 21:32:26 +0000

Inclusion and ownership is a big key in my eyes to really keep the community engaged and interacting with not just your brand or product, but with other community members. Community managers don't own anything, they're there to, as Amber said, help nurture the community and facilitate the conversations.

Great points here, Micah. First time here but will be sure to come back for some more :)

By: Craig Sutton

Craig Sutton — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 21:17:48 +0000

Fantastic post. Also a good reminder to some who try to hard to define what Community is to others. I know a few “Social Media Gurus” who should read this post. Thanks, I will be a reader of this blog from here on out….

By: AmberNaslund

AmberNaslund — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 21:10:48 +0000

Such good stuff, Micah. "Create the ability for community members to communicate as they want to. ".

You don't create community. You don't manifest it. The best you can do is facilitate it and nurture it. But you're dead on that just having customers doesn't mean you have a community. Those are the raw materials, yes, but your community is often more than your customers, and it's not just a collection of people. Community implies meaning, substance, interaction, and the sum of the parts being greater than the whole.

Keep it up, man. I'm going to keep reading.

By: BarbaraKB

BarbaraKB — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 16:28:39 +0000

Well that settles it… glad I could help you write *tomorrow's* post. Keep your momentum going here… Peace!

By: micah

micah — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 16:25:14 +0000

Thats so funny. I was seriously considering that being my next post. The
difference between a community “manager” and a community “evangelist”

By: BarbaraKB

BarbaraKB — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 16:19:06 +0000

Next @Micah post: defining phrase “community evangelist” w/an emphasis on word “evangelist.” ;-)

By: tajmo

tajmo — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 13:05:23 +0000

When “green” became hip, corporations watered it down until the term came to mean very little, imo. I would hate to see “community” lose its meaning to the misapplied efforts of branders. Your post is a bulwark against that watering tide; may many take it to heart.