community members

One size doesn't fit all especially within online communities and groups. You'll attract lurkers, spectators, contributors, critics, collectors, super spreaders (or sneezers, inactives and other categories of participants or non-participants. In addition, depending on the age, gender and location of your targets these variables will impact your activity.

It's imperative you get it right. And not after you've launched your online community or group. I urge you to profile your target members in the planning stage. If you profile your members correctly, you'll be able to determine what type of features and tools you offer (forums, blogs, surveys, polls, ratings, videos, photos, etc) and how prominently you position them.

I'd like to share an extremely useful tool I found whilst reading Groundswell written by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff from Forrester Research. Forrester's Social Technographics® tool classifies consumers into six overlapping levels of participation:

By entering the age of your target, the country they live in and their gender using this free tool, you'll gain a fairly accurate insight into how your members will engage in your community.

Data from Forrester Research Technographics^® surveys, 2008. For further details on the Social Technographics profile, see groundswell.forrester.com.