Establishing an online community can return human interaction to the company and consumer relationship.  However, simply creating a blog, forum, social network, or messaging platform with your company's logo does not make a community.  Both physical and virtual communities require shared beliefs, resources, needs, identities, etc to form a functional network. 

Prior to launching a branded community, consider the following questions:

1. Is participation simple?  Twitter exemplifies the power of easily accessible community - simply create a profile and start typing without an extensive learning curve.  Simple connection with other community members and administrators is also imperative. 
   
2. Who will generate content? Brands do not need to replicate the success of large-scale networks, but should receive benefit from the organic growth enjoyed through user-generated content.  
   
3. How will the community attract members? Even in private networks, maximum and minimum values are important for community health.  If planning to expand beyond Dunbar's number, administrators should be present to help manage the growing distributed network.
4. How long will the community last?  Leaving a vacant portal to perish on the web reflects poorly on a brand's overall Digital Footrpint.  Clearly define your network as temporary or long-term from launch.  
   
5. Is building or borrowing more practical? Creating a respectable white label social network or messaging service is increasingly feasible, but interacting with an establish community might be more realistic for general messages. 
   
6. What unique benefits are provided?  Users are more likely to participate if the service provides a unique offering.  A number of considerations exist including bigger, stronger, faster, easier, better-looking, etc.
7. What is the uniting theme or community interest? Building a topic agnostic community is unrealistic for most brands.  Determining a niche area for conversation provides an interesting exercise in brand analysis as well. 
   

For information concerning the reasons behind failure in certain online communities, visit a recent posting from Internet Communications firm, The Bivings Group, entitled "A Look At Failed Social Networks."