What does a community provide to its members?

Why are people attracted to communities?

Catherine Ridings and David Gefen found research in social psychology that revealed peoples motivations to join non virtual communities. Humans feel the need to belong, to be needed and build relationships with others, communities are able to fulfill this role. Ridings and Gefen explain in detail the benefits a community provides. “Because groups provide a source of information and help in achieving goals, give rewards, and according to social identity theory, people form a social identity of values, attitudes and behavioral intentions from the perceived membership in distinct self-inclusive real or imagined social groups. An individual's self-identity typically results from the membership in a preexisting self-inclusive social group, including vocation and avocation.” (2006). Based on these findings, we seek face-to-face groups for exchanging information, reaching a goal, and to establish our own identity.

Exchanging information

People choose to join communities to access information from other members, an online community thrives on member-generated content. The content needs to be worth exchanging between members, and if there is compelling content the community will be self-sustaining, more content created by members draws more members who produce more content.

An online community is a great place to ask strangers or acquaintances for useful information, with relationships between members focused mainly on information exchange. Members are able to easily express views, provide and request information, express feelings, and suggest solutions.