Online communities versus social networks

This past Monday blogger, FastCompany journalist and social media expert Marcia Connor tweeted, “So what’s *your* theory on why online communities get little press while social networks get all the buzz?”  Her query was for an article or blog post that she’s working on.  Here’s my take on it.  In more than 140 characters.

Online communities get little press while social networks are all the rage because human beings are multidimensional.  This unique quality is reflected well by social networks and not so well by online communities.  Online communities tend to be vertically organized, calling upon a single facet of their participants, e.g. arthritis sufferer.  The richness of social networking is understanding your high school friend as an accomplished scientist and your boss as a dad.  Social media commands a single persona, but one which is surfaces the multidimensionality of each person.

Social networks also have the added dimension of crowdsourcing upon which tools like website discovery tool StumbleUpon are founded.  You learn about tangentially-related and even unrelated things that are of interest to you from like-minded members of your social networks.

Additionally, social networks blend online and offline (retrobuilt) relationships. Online communities tend to be founded either around a geographic area or around a vertical topic.  This blended mix adds texture and flavor that online communities don’t have.

Finally, the self-directed, unmoderated, “owned by the people” freedom of social networks increases members’ sense of ownership and thus, their connectedness to the network, itself.  Online communities tend to be moderated, or at least owned and run by an individual.

I can’t wait to read Marcia’s analysis of this question…!

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