As I was reading this chapter, I kept thinking of online user communities. I don’t know if we are ready yet here at ReachForce, but I am intrigued by Metcalfe’s Law. “According to Metcalfe, the usefulness of a network equals the square of the number of users. Whatever you create becomes more valuable as more people use it. And the more valuable it it becomes, the more users it attracts.” This is obvious when you look at online social and networking communities like Facebook and LinkedIn. Facebook would have no value to me if none of my friends had profiles, but as more and more people join the value increases for each user, causing more users to join.

Being a marketer at a small company, I am curious how this law translates to B2B customer communities. The number of users for a B2B company community is limited by the number of customers. It cannot grow as organically as a community site like Facebook can. Should then small companies create user communities within a larger community? Have you had success starting a user community within Facebook or LinkedIn? Do you as a marketer belong to any online marketing communities?