Corporates find noone wants to join the party

Jul 18, 2008 by Dirk Singer

“How would you feel if you spent more than $1 million throwing a party and less than 100 or even 1,000 people showed up?”, asks Marshall Kirkpatrick of website readwriteweb.

Marshall refers to a Deloitte study (covered here in the Washington Post) that shows that 35% of corporate online communities have less than 100 members, and less than 25% have 1,000+ members. This is despite that 60% of these businesses have spent $1 million+ on their community projects.

According to the report authors, the problems are over priced shiny features that users don’t want, inexperienced management of communities, and a marketing led focus on page views rather than a more long term one of fostering discussion.

Really the problem could come down to a misunderstanding of social networks. Places like Facebook or Bebo, work because they grew organically and aren’t overtly commercial.

“Social networks where a brand name product is what everyone rallies around are a dumb idea. They are stupid. No one should submit themselves to the indignity of creating a user profile and friend connections based on cola or cat litter.” Well said.

Photo – Empty restaurant, iirraa