Online communities (facilitated by Web 2.0) have become very important over the past few years - not only to niche communities, but now to mainstream brands. Social networking is about human connection and links between people. The reasons why people join groups and social networks are typically that groups can:

• Provide encouragement and support
• Establish identity with others and fulfil the need to feel included
• Provide the outlet for some people to establish their need for recognition, social status, control and/or leadership
• Alternatively, provide the necessary control over aspects of lives for those who don’t want to be leaders (e.g. Weight Watchers)
• Help establish friends, relationships and the opportunity to interact with others

Historically group membership has served an evolutionary survival function - put simply, there’s safety in numbers

There’s been much research into group psychology but not so much about how this applies to a marketer trying to monetise an online community or introduce one to their brand. Here are some interesting phenomena about groups designed to help a brand owner capitalise on networks and the social phenomena:

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First, I have to admit that I only actively visit two social networking sites. However, I’ve noticed that all of the groups I’ve joined on either of those two sites never seem to have any activity. It seems that only once a month, if that, someone starts a new topic or responds to an existing topic.

I’m sure that it must just be the groups to which I belong, but it really is disheartening to post a query on which you’re looking for some input and end up getting diddly for responses.

Are you a member of any really active groups on the social networking sites you frequent? If so, are they specific niche groups, or are they something we might all be interested in? What are they?

I’m curious what your thoughts are on this subject. As I posted a few weeks (or possibly months) ago, I have joined the Facebook community, and am actually enjoying it quite a bit. My question to the world is: Is Facebook poised to kill Classmates? If not, why not? If so, why hasn’t it happened, yet?

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