Why build C3?
Image via Wikipedia
The Content Ninja asks today about the “big goal” behind online communities. It is true that we as media companies want to build relationships, and want to be that preferred information provider of choice.
But to me, a bigger goal of C3 is strengthened communities. If each individual in the community has exactly the information they need, when and where they want it, and can develop stronger relationships with those in their defined communities, each of those communities will be stronger.
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October 1st, 2008 at 3:52 pm
Very good point. We are more than just a media company, we’re a community institution, and we have a vested interest in making sure our communities stay vital.
October 1st, 2008 at 3:55 pm
Chuck, I think we’re articulating related points (well, I was trying to be articulate anyway).
We foster authentic relationships with people and among them, and the community is strengthened by having that need met. In conjunction with that effort, the information/content/context we provide then nourishes and sustains the community/relationships.
As for being the information provider of choice, I’m actually hoping for something more. That we be so much a part of the community that people don’t even have to think about where to turn. It’s not a conscious choice, it’s intuitive.
October 1st, 2008 at 4:28 pm
Exactly so, and how nice to see a focus on this critical third element — community — in addition to focusing on audience and businesses.
I am increasingly of the opinion that, despite the trend over the last 25 years or so away from an “outward” focus on the common good and toward a more atomistic, inward focus on individual goodies — manifested by such things as gated communities, high fences around properties, hermetically sealed SUVs transporting children back and forth to activities via roads that have no sidewalks, and even a growing emphasis on of all things the LAUNDRY ROOM as a focal point of the house — there is nonetheless a real hunger among us for whatever this thing is called “community.” We’ve tried bowling alone, and it ain’t all it’s cracked up to be. So of course it makes perfect sense for the C3 to provide the connective tissue that fosters community, in whatever form community members need it to take.
We underestimate that hunger for community at our peril, IMHO, and, as contentninja points out, we gain great advantage if we can be the assumed, under-the-skin obvious go-to provider of anything that facilitates that connection. To be the intuitive choice is exactly the goal.
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