Online communites without walls and gates
With all the talk of social networking and social or business community websites like FaceBook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Plaxo, and now, Spock, you'd think the concept of communities was just discovered in the last couple years. Not true.
As Shel Israel recently posted, in response to Jeremiah Owyang's Twitter comments about social media, the 'definition of community really hasn't been much changed since the Internet came in.'
...Since the advent of social media, there are a lot more communities and a great many people belong to more communities than they used to.
But by definition, they remain the same. Communities are bodies of people loosely joined together by a common interest.� Historically, that common interest could be geography, a profession, a religion, a political affiliation or even a hobby like stamp collecting.
The Internet has reduced the physical boundaries of community. You can now have a strong bind with community members you have never met. It is based on shared passion and interest.
And communities aren't something that someone or a company owns. A community is not defined by a web portal with walls and gates, it's defined by a common interest.
As a blogging lawyer you can participate in social networking sites like LinkedIn, Plaxo, FaceBook and the like. But it's not necessary to do so to be part of a community of people with interests similar to your own. Such people being prospective clients, peers, and amplifiers of your message (other bloggers and the media). You'll have been drawn together as a community, not by registration at a website but by a common passion.
Don't think of your blog as a publishing tool or a search engine magnet. Think of your blog as a medium by which you'll participate in a community. And instead of having to follow the revenue driven protocols and road maps developed by a social networking company, your community will be comprised of people anywhere with a common interest who have an effective Internet presence.
And like lawyers in your hometown who have benefited from decades of networking offline, you should get out there and network in your online community. To grow personally, and to grow professionally.
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