I’ve spent the past two weeks messing around on Facebook, checking out a variety of groups, starting some of my own, and trying to see just how hard it is to create an online community. Join me in Youth Hockey Managers or New Jersey Devils bloggers or even the appropriately named but quiescent Church of Patrik Elias (hey, the hockey book in flight has a chapter entitled “The Hagiography of Patrik Elias” so I felt this was a good omen).
What’s the big deal? Lots of them. I’ve learned that the more friends you have, the more effective you are in mobilizing a community. I’ve found that my various circles of associates (work, hockey, local, writing) are nearly disjoint, and that makes it even harder to stimulate some sort of group activity without polling or prodding individuals. Mostly, though, I’ve ingested some of the long tail of user generated content, gotten a feel for the demographics of the online place (seems like more than half of the users are less than half of my age), and discovered a few surprises (like my company’s CEO, a writer friend, and a former Princeton professor who coined the phrase “Hero of the Revolution” to describe anyone who ran against the grain, before he became the grain in the Princeton administration).
It’s worth a look, even if it’s just to join the Cam Janssen Fan Club.
Tags: elias