Consume or Contribute - What's Your Value?

It takes at least two to get a conversation going. Well, for most people anyways. And as I go through my various social networking groups I'm amazed to see how many blog posts are created (oh ya, just like this one), how many discussions are started, how many tweets (Twitter posts) are initiated and how many community mass mailings are created only to end up like Gilbert O'Sullivan's song....alone again, naturally!

The communication culture of an organization is really a statement about the community. If a culture of committed communication does not exist, then you really cannot expect the community to exist, let alone grow. So, the question is, who is responsible for maintaining a culture of committed communication? I would argue that absolutely everyone in the organization is.

Linkedin.com provides great demonstrations on the value of committed communication. I've joined a number of discussion groups on this particular social network. In some groups there are over 30,000 members. In others there may be under 30. In the smaller groups, no discussions are ever initiated, and in others there are 10 to 20 discussions posted each day. In any case though, it's a rare occurrence to to see any responses, but when you do, it gets interesting.

Grant it, there are tons of lame discussions initiated, so seeing no responses to those are not surprising. However, there are great topics started and when you have 30,000 members you would think some activity should happen, but it doesn't. When that happens continually, the group ultimately fades away. Members join other groups hoping to find a sense of common unity there. What they fail to recognize though is that the problem typically isn't the group.... it's the members, and at the core of this problem is consumption verses contribution.

For a community to truly succeed, we need to collaborate, share ideas, share values, define missions and reinforce purpose. Members need to continually and positively interact, engage and support the very community that they have chosen to be a part of. If no one is responding then the outcome is predictable.

It takes good leadership to encourage and facilitate a commitment to communication, but it's the membership that needs to contribute to make it work. For me, I'd much rather be part of a community that prides itself on a good balance of consumption and contribution. If it were up to me on Linkedin, I'd 'cull the herd' regularly. Kick out those who are there to simply consume and reward the those who regularly contribute. Actually, we should be doing that in all our groups.

I admit that I am involved in more groups than I can count, and rightfully I should not be in some of the groups because of my inactivity. I have taken myself out of groups for this reason, and if you are not adding any value whatsoever to a community that you have joined....then make an effort and start...or get out.

In an adapted version of the great John F. Kennedy famous statement, ask not what your community can do for you, but what you can do for your community! Contribute, get your fellow members to contribute, and see what happens. There's beauty in collaboration.