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8 Brilliant Posts About Online Communities

There are some blog posts that have radically influenced how we think of building online communities. Below are a few of the best of the past few years.

1. Kevin Keller – 1000 True Fans. Your organization can serve small groups of people at high profit. This was the best blog post of last year and changed how we think about mass-marketing.
2. Seth Godin – Tribe Management. The future of business is finding products for your community, not a community or your products. Why most businesses need a tribe manager.
3. Jeremiah Owyang - Online Community Best Practices: Jeremiah with a comprehensive guide to developing an online community, complete with best practices at each stage.
4. Jeremiah Owyang – Forrester Wave Report: Leaders in Community Platforms for Marketers: Jeremiah’s fantastic guide to the various community platforms. It’s available for free here.
5. Jonathan Bishop – Increasing participation in online community: A framework for human-computer interaction. This is a slog to get through but invaluable reading for a scientific perspective on what people are likely to react to.
6. Francois Goissieaux – Tribalization of Business Study: A watershed study about how business is changing towards communities.
7. Chris Carlfi – A Pattern Language for Online (and Offline) Communities. A great overview of this little discussed area of community work. Familiarise yourself with the language of building communities.
8. Chris Allen. Chris Allen is one of the few to actively tackle the Dunbar number and the 90-9-1 theory of participation in online communities. Read his series of posts for a clear understanding and the need for developing groups within your community. Part 1, part 2 and part 3.

I wanted to include something by Guy Kawasaki and Clay Shirky in the group, but couldn’t find any single post that did their wisdom justice.  Drop me an e-mail if you know of a great posts.

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Posted on Sunday, 18 October 2009 at 13:56 | Permalink