Stepping out of the comfort zone:

The discomfort of communities

Andrew Spong, PhD
Editorial Director, Nexus
About me
11
10
 About this
presentation
Concepts trump counting
Concepts trump counting
 Concepts trump counting
direct Investment

Connections 
RO Reputation 
... Advocacy 
Trust... 
indirect Investment ?
A comfort zone?
 Stepping out of the comfort zone:
The discomfort of communities
 Communities on the social web are often initially
created as comfort zones
 Why, therefore, would a community ever feel the
need to 'step out of' its comfort zone?

What might precipitate such an action?
 What benefits might it gain from doing so?
 Hypothesis: successful communities have a
complex inclusion-exclusion dynamic wherein a
degree of discomfort is a) likely, b) may have
positive results

Let's consider some case studies to test this
Case studies
Case study #1: hcsmeu
productive discomfort

Commitment to inclusion disclosed
regional needs (language; local
conditions) core group could not serve
 Core group set establishment of
regional groups as goal
 Core members create regional groups
 hcsmeu is a link in a chain that no-one
owns: US... EU... Asia... LatAm
No spend, modest effort, big results

#3
 Case study #2: nhssm
issue-based discomfort
Pharma issue: regulation
HCP issue: privacy
Patient issue: trust
extensible
Provider issue: strategy

inspirational

Issues addressed,
additional benefits
also conferred:
informational

social
Case study #3: Psoriasis360
self-reflexive discomfort

 Whilst existing communities

may feel they are supporting
other members' initiatives, the
members of new groups may
feel they are being 'colonized'
 Communities must be aware
of where they don't belong
 Case study #4: Iwork@novartis
progressive discomfort
 Prompted by a  Challenges
progressive desire to do perceptions, bravely
more (my observation) treads a reformist line
 Gently reminds us that a  Interesting insights
company is a community into what is shared
of many voices internally with #yam
 Case study #5:
temporal discomfort

http://cyhealthcommunications.wordpress.com/2010/11/08/twitter-rt-tweet-ups-and-me/
A new way to browse health
community conversations:

http://www.foxepractice.com/healthcare-hashtags
On the discomfort of communities:
Τα Πάντα ῥεῖ Everything flows

Communities on the social web
exhibit an arborescent inclusion-
exclusion dyamic: tree-like growth,
root & branch
 Communities should not worry
about appealing to a 'general
readership', but stick to their core
interests
 When niche interests align / when
recommendations regarding a
community's niche question are
asked: weak ties direct, members
join, temporarily, permanently #MyNiche
 Credits
About me http://www.flickr.com/photos/mikebingley/263966036
Prague astronomical clock http://www.flickr.com/photos/wolfgangstaudt/359783377/
Zones http://www.flickr.com/photos/rocket9_net/3352272327
Case studies http://www.flickr.com/photos/xindaan/4005856992/
Tree http://www.flickr.com/photos/29609591@N08/4237133002/
 Q&A
Andrew Spong, PhD
Editorial Director, Nexus

@NexusNR
@andrewspong