Measuring The Value Of Online Communities

Online communities cannot be appropriately managed without understanding how to value them. The authors describe a model for assessing value and explain its possible divergence from statistical measures of community strength. Other factors might affect the level of value, such as the maturity of the community. The community manager’s importance in understanding, weighting and tempering the valuation is emphasised throughout.The owners of communities often find it hard to estimate their value and to maximise their benefits. This paper aims to provide a set of measures that enable a better understanding of online communities, their value and the strategic decisions best suited to them. After an initial definition of terms and classification of online communities, a framework for assessing the value of communities is presented, enumerating benefits by their relationship to risk and reward. The disconnect between such benefits and the normal statistical measures of success is addressed, and the paper concludes with a short review of a range of other factors that should influence the valuation of online communities