The Role of a Weblog Inside an Online Community

I’ve been thinking a lot about how weblogs can be used as a part of an online community- and I think there are some real benefits.

One of the essential elements of successful online communities is leadership. An influential leader’s ability to manage a community can make an incredible difference in community perceptions, member participation and overall success.

Leadership cannot occur without communication. Without an effective way to communicate with members, a community leader cannot be as effective. Most managers participate in ongoing discussions and/or post information to a specific part of the community devoted to “Announcements” or “News”. While these are effective, I think there are new tools that can take community management a step further.

For instance, weblogs could play a significant role in helping online communities by giving the community leadership a more effective tool for keeping members updated and engaged.

In this case, an online community could have a weblog that is internally-focused and managed by community leaders. A community leader (or a group of leaders) could use the weblog on a daily basis and post:

• News and Updates regarding the community web site

• Commentary/quotes on current discussions between members
• Community story-telling -- posts about the community’s history
• Anecdotes and observations about the community
• Welcomes to new members
• Commentary on external and related news and links

Weblogs could be most valuable for new members of a community, who need a cultural touchstone to quickly get a “feel” for how things work in the community. By reviewing weblog posts, a new member could quickly get a feel for the community’s culture by viewing a chronicle of the community’s history, through the words of the leadership.

The combination of a weblog and normal community tools (discussions, member profiles, etc.) makes for an impressive set of resources for the members. The weblog can act as a filter for the various discussions occurring on the site and provide members an easy way to find the most interesting or provocative discussions. Plus, being recognized on the weblog could be a incentive for thoughtful participation.

Another way to look at this is making an online community’s weblog a public resource, but making the community private. In this way, the weblog pulls members into the community membership based on what they see on the weblog. I guess you could call it weblog-based PR for the community.