How to Damage an Online Comminuty

Posted by Jason Egan in CommunitySep 15th, 2008 | 5 responses

So I was thinking the other day about how eBay has recently alienated it’s entire community. A few years ago, eBay was truely on the forefront of understanding what the next great thing on the Internet was going to be. That is, community.

Of late though, eBay has made some poor decsions that have significantly impacted their own community in profoundly negative ways. A few months ago, eBay first changed their rating and review system in a way that angered many loyal community members. Next, eBay started veering away from what used to be it’s real business advantage, creating a consumer-to-consumer community where we can interact with each other selling and buying our own inventories. eBay now seems to be favoring large retailers and their “power sellers” more so than the loyal community that put them on the map.

Instead of working to better understand the needs of the community that they created from the ground up, eBay is turning itself into a basic online retailer. “Buy It Now” was a good idea that they’ve let loose to kill their community.

Where eBay and many other companies have gone wrong is in understanding this new truth:

People that purchase your products and services are no longer customers, they’re community members!

Today, anyone can say anything about your company in seconds. And, when this is damaging, it’s like a snowball rolling down a hill, growing bigger and bigger, turning into an avalanche unless you hustle to stop it. Right now I see eBay and a lot of other companies sitting at the bottom of a mountain as they throw rocks, waiting for an avalanche.

Companies cannot treat thier community as faceless customers without an identity. Today, everyone has a voice and an identity online. And, we all want to be heard and respected. To fail to understand this is to doom yourself online.

As for eBay, it’s not too late to turn things around and to mend what they’ve done to their relationship with their community. They will have to make big decisions though. Only time will tell if they can repair the damage and save the community that they themselves forged.



5 Responses to “How to Damage an Online Comminuty”

  1. Victor Agreda Jr says:
    September 16, 2008 at 9:36 pm

    Problem is, ebay has HUGE mindshare. The brand is virtually unstoppable. Ditto PayPal, which is just horrible (an unregulated bank, basically), and owned by PayPal.

    There have been so many challengers to the ebay throne, I don’t know what it’ll take to unseat them.

    But I 100% agree. That’s why I took 20 minutes today to explain to ONE guy who I found badmouthing TUAW via his Twitter feed (thanks Tweetbeeps!) what TUAW is and does, and why we’re not the NYT or even the KNS.

    Users matter, and users are your community. The more tools you give them to act like a community, the stronger your business.

  2. Jason Egan says:
    September 17, 2008 at 6:17 am

    Vic,

    You’re right that eBay has a big share of mind. However, that share is in terms of auction sites. As eBay begins to move away from an auction-based business model, towards a more traditional retail one, I think that we’ll see them start to slip away.

    eBay’s challenge right now is to continue to grow while at the same time remaining true to the community that they’ve created. I don’t think that canabalizing their existing aution community and forcing them to become a retail community is the best idea. There are plenty of other sites out there that have already created a community around retail.

  3. Eric McCarty says:
    September 17, 2008 at 11:34 am

    Good post, Jason. Did you read “The Perfect Store”? It was the only insider-perspective book authorized by Omidyar and company. http://www.amazon.com/Perfect-Store-Inside-eBay/dp/0316150487

    Omidyar said over and over again that they wouldn’t have survived the early competition without the community they built. Maybe since he’s not in the day-to-day now, Whitman and the gang have forgotten this important lesson?

    Eric

  4. Jason Egan says:
    September 17, 2008 at 12:37 pm

    No maybe about it, Eric. It would appear that the current management is mostly concerned with short term gains. I think that the ailing economy is going to result in a lot of companies making some decisions that they will later regret.

    We hear all of the time that human resources is one of the greatest assets of a company. A community is also an important asset, and one that a company should not harm.

  5. Darren Shafae says:
    September 24, 2008 at 10:07 am

    Hi, Jason,

    You are absolutely correct! Customers should not be considered faceless consumers with credit cards. We have always taken a customer-centric approach in terms of building our Web site, and I think that is one step below what you are proposing here. I have to tell you, I love the idea of bringing the community to our Web site. Our editing staff is already a community; now, we must incorporate our customers into that community, as well.

    We have given some thought to this project, and our Web development team is already working with the new Facebook connect program to create a social aspect for our Web site. Of course, there will need to be incentives to provide feedback and to obtain new loyal community members, but we are taking our first baby step to go beyond just providing a service.

    Best regards,
    Darren Shafae

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