Jul 23 2008

Why Most Online Communities Fail and Typos Kill Stories

Published by at 11:40 am under Social Media Marketing,Technology

Ben Worthen at the WSJ blogs on a Deloitte study about how businesses overinvest in tech when building communities.

1. Going out with the claim that 60% of businesses invest over $1 million in online communities thanks to a Deloitte typo that should have stated 6% is not a great way to get off on the right credibility foot. Worthen does the correction, but …

2. The comments on the post are cluttered with community vendors, imagine that.

3. “Community” as a term, is tired and over-fraught with implications of good will, social good, and cooperation among customers and companies.

4. This is bad research on a tired topic.

“One of the hot investments for businesses these days is online communities that help customers feel connected to a brand. But most of these efforts produce fancy Web sites that few people ever visit. The problem: Businesses are focusing on the value an online community can provide to themselves, not the community.”

Business Technology : Why Most Online Communities Fail.

3 responses so far

3 Responses to “Why Most Online Communities Fail and Typos Kill Stories”

  1. # Why Most Online Communities Fail… | All Things Cahillon 24 Jul 2008 at 12:02 pm

    [...] David Churbuck linked to the Ben Worthen story in the WSJ yesterday entitled “Why Most Online Communities Fail“.  David points out that a simple typo from a Deloitte powerpoint managed the ruin the story and deflect the discussion from the matter at hand to a moot discussion on percentages. 1. Going out with the claim that 60% of businesses invest over $1 million in online communities thanks to a Deloitte typo that should have stated 6% is not a great way to get off on the right credibility foot. Worthen does the correction, but … [...]

  2. # Mark Cahillon 24 Jul 2008 at 4:45 pm

    Not such a good investment when your community fails and gets feces all over a brand that otherwise was doing well on it’s own.

    And yes, it really stinks when you rely on a source and they give you bad info.

    “You screwed up, you trusted us…” Animal House

  3. # Tom O'Brienon 25 Jul 2008 at 10:01 am

    David:

    I saw that one too – and the typo ruined it.

    Regardless of the type – the community vendors were scrambling hard to pull the curtain back up.

    My take on it here (social media madness – build it and they will come)

    http://tinyurl.com/685e3x

    TO’B

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