With all of the difficulties in running a virtual community (mostly in added workload and time), it might seem to be a questionable undertaking. This is not the case. I am not trying to discourage the adoption of virtual community technologies but simply make you aware of some of the challenges in their deployment.

The greater your knowledge of the challenges before you attempt to create a virtual community, the greater the likelihood that you will be prepared for the difficulties and overcome them. A poorly implemented community is much more likely to be a failure than a poorly implemented Web site. The Web site will still garner visitors looking for the information it contains, while a failed online community will be like a ghost town with few tourists.

Despite any disadvantages to creating a community, the benefits are substantial:

❑       Creation of a growing audience — Over the long term, a virtual community will grow itself. If the community achieves the momentum of MySpace.com or YouTube.com, that will mean literally millions of Web visitors and contributors. Your community does not have to reach these stellar heights to be successful. But, like them, if your community reaches a critical mass, you may see exponential growth.

❑       Long site visits — In contrast to the quick-stop nature of most Web visits, a virtual community will have visitors that stay on the site for hours at a time. That not only provides a great opportunity to gain site loyalty but also maximizes advertising impressions. There is an old sales precept that customers must encounter a product seven times before they will feel comfortable enough to buy it. Long site visits promote exactly this type of repeated exposure.

❑       Group marketing opportunities — Since the contributors themselves will outline their interests through the content that is communicated on the site, there are many opportunities to precisely target offers to visitors. This is especially true when a sale on a directly relevant product or service occurs. Bringing the opportunity to the attention of the group may further the site’s reputation of being immediate and relevant to the subject area.

❑       Direct feedback — Unlike a traditional Web site, where only by watching the log statistics can you learn about visitor activity, in a virtual community, you will be able to obtain direct feed- back from others interested in your topic area and your site.

❑       Concentration of specific knowledge — Most virtual communities provide a very high level of specific information and help. The people who converge on an online meeting place typically have a high level of expertise (or are seeking to attain these skills), so the information generated by such a community actually creates a gold mine of specific information for a topic area.

❑       Loyalty of visitors — A traditional Web site has very limited sticking power. If the Web master stops providing the desired information, the site will quickly decline and visitors will stay away. In contrast, once a community is established, the site will perpetuate itself for a long time on its own.

❑       Community service — Whatever the focus of the community, a virtual community is largely a social “good.” Most virtual communities bring together people of similar interests and help them share information.