Groups : forgotten children of social media ?
Thursday, September 4, 2008 at 12:41PM 
"Technology changes, humans don't." says Deborah Schultz.
I always have this motto in mind when I give a rapid look at a new web service. Like my friend Eric says, "if it didn't work in the Middle Age then it won't now".
I won't tell about the weird services that I see popping up everyday, focusing on technology, not on people usual behaviour. Better talk about something that is working in real life, but seems to be vastly overlooked by web initiatives.
I want to point at Groups as the forgotten children of Web2.0 services (they say Social Media now).
GROUP : A number of people or things that are located close together or are considered or classed together.
Call them clusters, tribes, communities, clubs, lists, parties, etc., Groups are a very common result of human behaviour. We group with other people more often than we think.
Family is the first group that we're part of. We share with our family lots of things, that we wouldn't share publicly with strangers. Then there is the Friends Group, with college students and first dating partners. Then there is the professional Groups with colleagues around a company endeavour. Then there is the social networking Groups, with people you met and appreciate.
Groups are there so you can share with members many informations or feelings or actions. In prehistoric age, I believe groups were the founding brick of Society, motivated by higher security and hunt efficiency. Groups are a way to feel stronger, to make projects possible. Groups are also an organizational entity used by start-ups and corporations.
So it feels strange that groups are so absent of popular web services, that mostly shoot at the individual level and seldom at the group level.
Want examples ?
Well, let's take Delicious and Twitter. These are two of the most popular web services, yet they don't sport groups.
Delicious enable users to bookmark their favorite web pages. That's a great service, because you can see what each other is bookmarking (if it is a public mark), or save links for your own future use (if it is a private mark).
What would you do with groups ? Well as a company CEO, I'd like my staff to privately share links (of roadmap ideas, future partners, competitions, potential customers,...) with the internal company GROUP. Members of the group could choose to share links publicly (as a communication mean) if a moderator allow it.
Would be the same for a magazine editor, a technology geek team, or a non profit-organization.
With groups, we could take bookmarking to the next level : a collective intelligence system for knowledge-sharing. Without groups, it stays a personal tool, with limited reach.
Twitter is another great service for micro-blogging that the other half of the web is using (almost). You can write a few words about what you do, think or see, and share it with your followers. It gives a realtime overview on what your friends or contacts are interested in.
What would you do with it if Twitter had groups ? Well you could share information about what you do or find interesting with your workmates, sport team or tour planners. I really wanted to do that with the company, because it is really easy to lose contact about the company activity stream even for small teams. Name of the latest customer, new feature availabilty, competitor actions, you really want your staff to stay connected.
It was not possible within Twitter, so we had to find a workaround to do it, and it is now a pillar of our internal communication (more on that later).
Don't misunderstand me. I'm not saying that Groups don't exist in the Web20 realm. Some major apps understand the Power of Groups, in particular Social Networks : Facebook Groups and Fan Pages are basic Facebook apps, and LinkedIn Groups are useful. In their cases though, Groups are quite mandatory, they serve as categories or tags.
Within a social media app, I think groups should have access to (at least) the same level of features that individuals have, added with specific features like moderation to accept new members and manage public/private toggle. Groups members can be added by the account owner (à la Alltop), or added on demand (moderated or not). Features like adding content, scoring, analytics, should of course stay available with with the added scope of Groups. How does one Group compare to the other ? What is the most active Group ? are some questions that the app should help answer.
Of course, Groups interest Brands.
Marketing focus groups are there to stay, and wise web apps should be aware of that. The white label monetization strategy is of course a clear candidature for adding Group features. Associated with good CRM targeting, they can give real insights on Group feelings and behaviours that Corporate Marketing Depts love. HR and internal communication officers could also be very interested by Group targeting.
To make a long story short, Groups are in our Genes. "Technology changes, humans don't." So whether you're a web app editor or user, you should add Group features as a request on your roadmap.
Please, WWW, give us Groups, and we will group together faster than the speed of a page download.
Comments welcome !
PS : Feel free to list Web Apps that have a Group strategy or new Group features.
Reader Comments (9)
I'll be my first commenter, as I just saw this news : CollectiveX Groupsites 2.0 Makes Group Organization Sexy. Good going.
Just talk about something and it happens, they say.
OK, I'll do the second line as well.
I've just discovered Yammer as well from TechCrunch50.
They are a Twiiter-like for companies (internal communication). Great !
Hey wait !
A full list of Group Twitter-like here (thx Jeremiah)
Told you : speak about something and it happens.
Techcrunch get it now : Twittermoms Shows Why Twitter Needs Groups.
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