This idea seems to ebb and flow with the years. B...

2008-03-03T17:59:00.000-06:00

This idea seems to ebb and flow with the years. Back in the late 90's it was in vogue to say that (what social networking was called at the time) online community would continue to grow into ever thinner niche slices...until we got to the point of horse-enthusiast communities. And then that went away and we got MySpace...and Facebook (which actually started out as a niche college focused community before it shifted to be a social networking platform). Maybe as hobbies, these niche communities can survive but unlikely as a business. The challenge with a niche community is that they're usually so niche, the cannot generate any critical mass. And while I may be a horse enthusiast, I may also like Radiohead and mountain biking and oh, by the way, I'm a Big Ten alum and I would really like to connect with all those different people too. But do I really want to have multiple memberships in different communities? Probably not. It's probably easier for most people to simply be a member in one of the giant communities and subscribe to niche groups...or email lists from separate providers.

Ultimately, critical mass will win out because of: 1)the network effect ( each new member adds value to the network in a nonlinear fashion); and, 2) people are multidimensional and belonging to too narrowly focused of a community is...to pardon the pun...a one-trick pony and not as interesting as belonging to one that can satisfy all of my interests.

Comments on Awareness is Everything: Broader and bigger is not necessarily better

This idea seems to ebb and flow with the years. B...