If You Build It, They Still May Not Come

I got into an interesting discussion yesterday with a couple of colleagues about their community forum woes. Basically, they’ve built them, only to find that people won’t come. Two reasons they cited:

1. Fear of Reprisal
One person thought that people may not want to actively participate in forums that are sponsored by their group or association. Not enough anonymity, perhaps, to really participate and say what one means to say.

2. Suspicion of Scrubbing
Another person thought that people may not want to participate because of the perceived level of heavyhanded review and comment by “legal.”

I’d agree, and I’d add the following:

1. Lack of Bling
People are used to social networking sites that have a certain level of functionality and interactivity. If the forum looks like something circa 2002, it’s just not that interesting to play.

2. The Larger Universe
One of clients wrestled for a long time with the idea of building a proprietary version of a professional networking site for its alumni. Thankfully, in the end, they decided to hop on the LinkedIn bandwagon instead. Why? Because they heard from their alumni that they’re used to a bigger universe now—one in which they could connect with their friends who didn’t graduate from the same business school. The case for spending time on LinkedIn AND their alma mater’s smaller network was too hard to make.

Anyone else build community tools that are/aren’t being used? What’s your story?