Every community needs an organizing “center”. In addition to its geometric significance, a center is a place of concentrated activity, influence or importance, and in many cases, is also a point of origin from which ideas or influences originate. Many online communities such as those present in Yahoo Groups or Google Groups presume a center, one that is typically brought together by a common topical interest or perhaps a common professional skill or sometimes merely by the presence of a transient offline group that causes people to get together online. In addition to this continuum of online groups, there are several online products or platforms that claim to facilitate the creation of social networks organized around either professional concerns (example, LinkedIn) or personal (example, MySpace) or sometimes an unclear but powerful blend (example, Facebook). Each of these products professes the ability for an individual to create a compelling online “profile”, discover related interests among a network of acquaintances and friends, share ideas and participate in conversations of interest.
What is the organizing “center” of these online communities? Do these communities exist because people find in these platforms a compelling avenue for self-expression and communication? Certainly, several groups and communities in these platforms are brought together by something tangible, but do these communities represent the actual, physical and social interactions that we have on a daily or weekly basis? A community that relies on self-expression, collection of connectedness and monetized through the ubiquity of large-scale online advertising may be a compelling and successful business model, but it rarely represents the actual local circle that we participate in on a daily and weekly basis.
Long before online destinations and groups were created, there were physical places that offered people a reason to get together and form a community. These physical places or “hubs” represent a long-standing tradition of balancing personal improvement, social welfare, team-based activities and providing nurturing programs and services for people of all ages. The hub is both literally and figuratively an organizing center for a community.
In many cases, such a hub is a local instance of a national or international organization whose primary charter is community development. Examples of this type of hub include the YMCA and the Boys and Girls Clubs of America, to name a few. While they differ subtly in their organizing mission, each represents this balance with a local physical presence often delivering on the promise of community development through volunteer action and charitable contribution.
In addition to the hub that is a local representation of an organization with a specific mission for the purpose of developing communities, every village, town, or city represents a hub. The inhabitants of a large city, though they are “loosely” in the same community as defined by that city, may never actually interact with each other. However, the resources of that city, both natural and man-made are opportunities that bring people together. The City of Oakland Parks and Recreation Department is a hub that is not explicitly chartered with growing communities, but nevertheless has a history of working for and with the community to create a better Oakland.
Every organization that offers programs and services, ranging from little league baseball to lifeguard training to cooking lessons offers a center for a real community. The presence of a physical location to gather is sometimes secondary to the mission and purpose of such an organization in serving as a community “center”. In the case of a local state park, the community “center” is as much a function of the natural beauty or wildlife and not the presence of a building.
Where do we find good online representations of these communities?
This document does not include a comprehensive analysis of a representative hub’s revenue and expenses. However, a sampling of geographically distinct hubs reveals a startling and somewhat unfortunate trend. While the primary charter of an organization such as the YMCA is the development of health and well-being within the local community, the cost to operate and deliver programs far exceeds the actual revenue generated by these programs. On some retrospection, this is likely a natural outcome of serving the less fortunate members of our society, nevertheless, the gap between program revenue and expense is a consistent reality for these organizations.
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This trend is also evident in other organizations like the Boys and Girls Clubs of America. While most of these organizations are Not-for-Profit organizations (NPOs) and as such are generally required to ensure that the monies raised through fees, sponsorships and donations are all put to good use through programs and services, it is clear that their ability to expend additional resources to develop online versions of their offline memberships and communities is quite limited.
Another aspect of the operational reality at these types of hubs is their reliance on a small but dedicated “employee” base supported by extensive local individual and business volunteers. A consistent pattern to be found across hubs is that anyone who works at a local YMCA or a local chapter of the Boys and Girls Clubs is usually personally driven by the social good performed by the organization. Similarly, an employee within the local Parks and Recreation Department of a city is often more motivated by the benefits to the community provided by these natural resources as opposed to the substantial monetary gain to be found by such employment. The picture yielded is one of making do with less, squeezing out every contribution dollar possible and operating on a shoe-string budget, while still trying to live the values of the organization and benefit the community.
If this is a representative organization, there is clearly little ability for the hub to engage in any substantial technical endeavor to build out an online presence. How can we help the hub translate its offline membership and participation into a vibrant and meaningful online community?
A logical question in the context of the above is whether a hub actually needs an online representation of its community at all. But a key lesson from the recent years of Internet-based advertising would suggest that every online audience is valuable based on the context and the topic. Can this online experience for the hub’s members be a source of additional revenue that could help offset some of the disparity between program service expenses and fees?
Spending on Internet advertising broke all previous records and hit a new high for the 1st quarter of 2007 at $4.9 billion (8). While the amount itself is staggering, the underlying message is really one of marketers trying to find audiences. We do not intend to discuss the validity or efficacy of online advertising, but merely to point out that every marketer considers as part of their messaging and product advocacy strategy, an element of online advertising.
There are two obvious but interesting questions to be asked;
The answer to the second question is relatively straightforward. Google, Yahoo!, AOL and MSN took in 54.7% of all Internet spending on advertising in 2006, expected to reach 66.6% for 2007. While this is to be expected and somewhat diversified across display advertising, search advertising and pay-for-placement, an obvious conclusion is that the giant portals and search engines are the ones that monetize the presence of online groups. Whether a group is open to the public or restricted by invitation only, the display and contextual advertising on the group’s web pages contribute in no small part to the overall revenue of the portal. (At this time, we do not have detailed revenue breakdowns for example within Yahoo! Groups as a portion of Yahoo!’s overall revenue, but based on consistent real-estate allocation as well as context-based sponsored results on group pages, the monetization of the group’s activities seems evident).
The answer to the first question is difficult to obtain. Every business from large to small now considers online advertising a core element of their marketing strategy. For large national or international brands, the spending on advertising has slowly started to reach a proportion where media agencies have to contend with adapting their traditional print and television-based approaches to online media channels. For specific sectors like Travel, there is often an excess of demand over available inventory.
In this climate, what are the options for a local, independent small business?
Arguably, traditional brands like the Yellow Pages or Local Business Directories remain good avenues for advertising, but with questionable return on investment for the marketing dollar. Specific channels like Craigslist, or eBay offer targeted and in-context placement options as they are generally within the task orientation of the user. However, in spite of the proliferation of online advertising, it is our contention that a small, independent locally targeted business has very few options when it comes to identifying a suitable, local target audience interested in its products and services. The business often relies on a “directory or listing“-based approach in conjunction with a local search, such as on CitySearch or Yahoo! Local to help online audiences find its products and value proposition. However, there is little ability for the business to project any uniqueness associated with its brand or its local connections when lost in a search result of local listings.
Nationally, within the United States, and globally, a local, small business is a pillar of the community. Our roots as humanity were in many ways about creating local commerce and centers of activity where goods and services could meet consumers and demand. It is ironic in this world of globalization and trade that we can purchase a pen and paper for writing some notes from a manufacturer half a world away. Yet if there was a local business creating unique paper products, we would have little visibility into the very existence of this business.
Are we to become a culture of consumption from the farthest yet cheapest producer? Does a local coffee shop or a local book store or a local art supply store stand any chance in this environment?
What if...
The missing element from the hypothesis is cost. But if a hub can keep all of the revenues generated from having an online presence for its community, the equation has now changed from an operational cost to a revenue generating function. Not only is the online offering capable of acting as an incremental revenue source, it also helps the hub bridge the divide between fund-raising and program services. Instead of distinct fund-raising efforts that are used to finance community development, the development of the community itself raises funds!
Enter StrongCircles – a platform for every hub to
Enter StrongCircles – a platform for individuals and groups to
Enter StrongCircles – a platform for local, independent businesses to
Enter StrongCircles – a platform for a citizen to
We intend to build this platform with an underlying business model that delivers 100% of the revenue generated through the platform back to the hub, whether it is a city or a local YMCA. For a nominal cost, potentially no more than 10% of monthly membership dues, we believe that the platform will