VIRTUAL COMMUNITY

 VIRTUAL COMMUNITY

                          

 Virtual community

This is a community of people sharing common interests, ideas, and feelings over the Internet or other collaborative networks. A possible inventor of this term and one of its first proponents was Howard Rheingold, who created one of the first major Internet communities, called The Well In his book, virtual community

BENEFITS OF VIRTUAL COMMUNITIES

 Branding

Companies that build virtual communities will have the opportunity to be established as a leading online brand. Customer loyalty to the business that hosts a virtual community is expected to rise. The anarchy of the Internet may lead customers to join a virtual community, which can then be seen as a virtual 'home' where people can join and trust other members’ friendship, their information and advice.

 Competitive advantages

Virtual communities will allow organizations that have succeeded in developing the critical mass for their online community to raise entry barriers for their competitors.  New customers can be attracted regardless of their geographical location or demographical status even if they are not receiving the messages of the advertising campaigns of the organization

 Barriers to communication are broken down

People who should be talking to one another because their interests intersect often do not communicate because they are in different parts of the world, on different floors, or in different departments. Online discourse structures discussion according to interests and affinities.

 Knowledge sharing and learning 

 Virtual communities have the ability to focus knowledge sharing and learning. If group members have enough in common and if the topic directly relates to their work, a level of trust is created which results in greater depth and value of individual exchanges. Virtual communities provide an ongoing context for knowledge exchange that can be far more effective than memoranda.

 There is no geographical barriers

Virtual communities connect people and build relationships across boundaries of geography or discipline by creating an online social space for people who are geographically dispersed.

 Cost barriers are broken down

Virtual communities bring together people in a cost-effective manner. Instead of organizing expensive face-to-face conferences, workshops and courses, an organization can achieve many of the same goals by linking participants electronically to each other and to a wealth of online resources

Virtual communities consist of people with a shared purpose who communicate and share information by means of electronic networks. Virtual communities are part of the information age and the information economy. Because of the ease and speed with which information can be disseminated through virtual communities, they present both opportunities and threats to companies. 

                                                           BY

                                           KIMATI ELITRUDAH

                                                BAPRM 42582