From Twitter to Ning: real engagement, right now

Image via CrunchBaseWhen I first read this TechCrunch article on the TwitterMoms community, my first reaction was a nod and a "well, of course." Because it's perfectly natural, now, in 2008, to expect social media to spawn this type of social behavior. This is simply what people do--they yearn to connect, to discuss, to find others with common interests and engage in passionate discussions with them.

And if you browse through TwitterMoms.com, you'll see that it's not just tech geeks that are looking to connect--it's Christian moms, moms of twins, homeschooling moms, photographer moms--over 20 different SIGs who are taking their valuable time and using it to connect with other Twitter moms with common interest to initiate and engage in passionate online conversations on those topics. The community was created using Ning, a popular social network creation tool, and its quick sprouting indicates a few things about social media these days.

1. If Twitter had enabled some type of group sharing and collaboration, this community probably wouldn't exist. I love Twitter as much as the next gal and easily fit into the "addict" category. And I do understand that it's just a microblogging platform and doesn't really aim to do more than that. But still, what a missed opportunity! Wouldn't this have been more powerful if the community had been created on Twitter itself?
2. People yearn to connect to those with common interests. Folks are yearning for real engagement with real people who are just like them. To the ones who say, "oh, that's too technical" or "why do you need all that," I say a la Cluetrain Manifesto that these conversation are happening anyway--at the grocery store, at your networking meeting, on the phone after dinner. Social media tools like Twitter and social networks created on Ning aren't "technology;" they're just tools created to enable the kinds of discussions you're already having. It's doing what you already do--just with different tools that  make it easier to connect with others with common interests.
3. Because people are yearning for these types of conversations and connections, the possibilities for company branding and participation are wide open. Want to brand your company as one that is at the vortex of the newest and hottest conversations going on around, say, green homes? Or pet care? Or cell phone usage? The value today is in facilitating those types of engaged conversations, not in leading them yourself. Recognizing the value in the conversations happening around your topic or area of concern--what we in old marketing-speak used to call the "problem" area that the company can then create a "benefit" for--is the secret to creating and maintaining a raving fan base.

Anything else I missed? Where else is the value in creating passionate online communities?

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