On Communities and Content
Community driven web applications are easy to build, but very hard to grow. I know this, because I’ve worked on many over the years. Countless times an RFP or email has arrived from a prospective client looking to build an application that’s “just like Facebook, but for…” You know the type.
It can be anything from cricket fans to stamp collectors. A social network that serves people with a shared interest is barely counts as a start-up idea at this stage. Naïvely a designer or developer starts one of these projects by gathering a feature set. How will our users communicate with each other? Will there be private communication too? Can they share details? What services will they want to integrate with? How can we get them connected as quickly as possible? Should they follow some users by default? Will we use OAuth to find their twitter friends? The list goes on.
Silent Assumptions
There are too many silent assumptions in those questions, and this is usually why the application or start-up struggles. By starting, say, a social network for train-spotters, you’re assuming the following:
- You’re assuming that you have a clear way to attract a significant percentage of the target market (more significant than, say, a few twitter followers)
- You’re assuming that trainspotters actually want to talk to each other.
- You’re assuming that they don’t already do so, or that you can provide a better experience than their current solution (forum,ning group, facebook page, google group, email, weekly meetings in person)
Even when these assumptions are true, you still face the biggest challenge. Many people consume content. Only a minority actually produce it. I heard this referred to as the 90-9-1 rule lately though it’s been true for many years. Here’s some quick examples…
* Only 6% of Amazon users have written one or more reviews.
* Just 5% of Twitter users account for more than 75% of Twitter activity.
* .0032% of Youtube page views result in a user adding content of any sort (comment, vote, or even a rating)
What these stats tell you is that you’ll need a large crowd before you get worthwhile content from them. You know what they call a content driven site without any good content? A load of bollox. So you need great content from the start.
Starting with content
Sticking with the theme of “Just Getting Started” a trainspotting network wouldn’t start with user profiles, because lets face it, there’s no users. It wouldn’t start with messaging, photos, videos, galleries, or even a “forgot your password” feature. There are no passwords, there are no people. It could start as a simple blog, or flickr group. Step one would be “Attract a large number of potential users”. Without doubt the best way to do this is with good content. Content precedes design.
Only when you have a good audience should you start thinking about how best to serve it and turn it into a community. Unfortunately it’s very rare that we get emails saying “Guys I’ve got over 2,000 people hitting my cricket site every week, commenting, emailing me, and I’d like to build an network to support this“.
No one joins an empty network just for the hell of it. UX designers might sign up to see if you’ve done any clever progress bar tricks. Graphic designers might take a look to see what textures are hot this year. Unfortunately they’re not usually your audience. There may have been a time when people loved completing their website profile to make them sound quirky. “My favourite film? Oh it has to be Lost in Translation! I’ve been to Japan ya know?” Those days are gone.
If you’ve nothing to offer users other than blank input boxes, and the promise that they too can have a row in your database then you’re in trouble. You see I don’t want to tell you which Michael Connolly books I’ve read, because I already know. I don’t want to upload, crop, tilt and tint a profile photo, I’ve already got a mirror.
It comes down to this. Make me rich, make me laugh, pique my interest or get me laid. Then maybe I’ll tell you which books I read.
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