Online communities, web 2.0 and the two-way mass media conversation phenomenon have changed the way we communicate. This will become an even bigger deal as we get closer to cross-platform convergence and people start to have these conversations via their living room TVs.

The best framework I have come across for building a successful online community is Amy Jo Kim’s 5 Mechanics of compelling video games, which is a pretty good way to build a functioning online community. Thanks to Matt Lewis of Townhall.com for bringing these up at PDF2007.

The full deck of Kim’s presentation at Etech ‘06 is available here.

1. Collecting: The best games allow you to add things to your collection. Social networking sites allow you to collect friends which gives people bragging rights - as well as displaying their values and personality - For instance adding Barack Obama makes a statement about what that member believes.

Points: Earning points gives a user credibility and can drive user loyalty. EBay’s feedback rating is a good example of this. As are the video rating systems employed by YouTube and other sites.

Feedback: Online communities are all about two way exchanges and the community will speak up when they like or don’t like something. Feedback allows users generating or viewing content to interact with each other further customizing the experience of content creation and distribution.

Exchanges: The more interaction that takes place the stronger the community and things like myspace comments both strengthen a user’s credibility - if people are posting comments thing that user must be cool, and strengthens the bonds between users of the site.

Customization: When users personalize a site it increases engagement by creating an interface that works best for the user and tailors users’ web image to reflect the way they view themselves.

The images above are courtesy of Amy Jo Kim and ShuffleBrain. 

Regardless of what a company’s online presence currently is, those looking to increase engagement would be wise to implement as many of these mechanics as they can. They increase the viral nature of an online presence and all of the successful web 2.0 brand names incorporate these to some extent.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 21st, 2007 at 4:00 pm and is filed under User Generated, Video Portals, Viral, Web 2.0. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.