The Psychology of Community

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Many Are Better Than One


The concept of a professional community has become an important concept in business during the past 20 years. Every profession has taken advantage of the benefits found in extended human relationships. Affiliate marketing is no exception. Simply, there are no lone wolfs anymore. There may be many reasons for this other than the fact that human beings are social creatures. For example, the complexity of commercial enterprises has increased along with the technologies that support it. The knowledge base for engaging in such enterprises continues to evolve so that the skill base of a single person cannot cover its scope. Twenty-first century life is more dependent on human relationships than ever. More than ever, the success of any endeavor depends upon the quality of those relationships and the quality of those relationships depends upon the quality of the people involved and their skill sets. Thus, an important characteristic of any program teaching the skills of affiliate marketing depends upon the characteristics of the people that comprise the program's community of professionals and students. In evaluating a programs community, one should look at three types of characteristics: its social characteristics, its business characteristics, and its knowledge characteristics.

Social Characteristics of the Community

When appraising a community, one should notice three aspects: do the members have shared experiences, are the members interested in sharing knowledge, and are the members available.

Listen to the conversations posted on the website among members. Do the members seem to be working out of a common interest. Essentially, do the members seem to be on the same page in terms of the knowledge that is being taught and learned. A common body of experience is necessary for effective communication to occur. Effective communication relies on this shared base, because not everything can be stated. In teaching, somethings will be assumed known. We recognize this commonality of knowledge by the phrase, "being on the same page." If you don't feel you are on the "same page" as the community, then you should be concerned whether or not you are understanding the information being communicated in the same way as its communicators intend. There is nothing more alienating to a student than an unstated exclusion.

The second aspect, interest in sharing knowledge, is as important as the first. I have been in communities where people were friendly but simply not interested in sharing information with me. This type of interaction feels like ostracism. It is very uncomfortable and subtle. It made me question myself and wonder if something was wrong with me. Learning is challenging and stressful; as a learner, you don't need social alienation added to the natural stressors of learning.

The third aspect is equally important as the first two: availability of the members. The last quarter of the twentieth century recognized the social dimension of learning. The learner needs a good teacher but as important is the availability of other students who are good learners. If these students are not available then you will not have access to their competence as learners. Thus, check out the communication feeds and see how rapidly a student's question to the community is answered. Is it only staff who are answering or do students also respond.

All three social aspects can be evaluated through communications in the community's live chat. Live communication contains the data you need for the evaluation of these characteristics. These communications are spontaneous and reveal a community's unconscious side.

Business Aspects of the Community

As in the social dimension of a community, there are three characteristics of the business aspect that one should examine. Are community members interested in affiliate marketing, are they actively engaged in the business of affiliate marketing, and do they have a broad view of the business. As with the social characteristics, the live chat offers a good view.

Many people are in the business of affiliate marketing for the purpose of making money and that is there prime interest. There are other people who want to make money in the business but who have acquired an interest in the business, itself. In fact, money has become a secondary objective of the business for them. The more of these kind of people the community has, the better the community for you as a learner. Such people are highly motivated, and their knowledge tends to be of high quality. They enjoy talking about the business at every opportunity and are willing to do so.

On your journey through affiliate marketing, you will meet many people who know much about the business but are not actively engaged in it. You can learn many things from these people, but their knowledge will tend to lack subtle details about the business that can only be learned through current, active involvement in the business. Affiliate marketing is rapidly changing and information is becoming quickly dated. As a learner, you need current information and information containing personal insight.

The third characteristic of this aspect is the most important: a broad view of the business. Like the previous characteristic, this one is important because of the rapidly changing nature of the profession. Narrow views quickly become eclipsed by social and technological change. Each type of change drives the other. I have been around just two years, but in that short time, affiliate marketing has changed from a focus on getting rich quick to providing a quality service to the community. That is a huge change. Obviously, that change has been driven by the growth of the internet, competition among affiliate marketers, and the needs of our society. In business, the consequences of getting behind is that you simply lose business. No one tells you that you are failing to meet the needs of the society or that your business philosophy is too limited. You just quietly go out of business. Frankly, that is one thing I like about business. No one makes me be in business or do a good job. Business is simple: do you want to stay in the game or not?

Knowledge Aspect of the Community

When you are considering a training program for affiliate marketing, there is one important question you should ask: what is the quality of the community's information? For evaluating this aspect, four questions are important: 1) do the members have adequate experience in the business of affiliate marketing; 2) can members articulate their experiences in affiliate marketing; 3) do members respond to questions in a critical manner; and 4) are members open to new ideas. For this aspect, you will want to evaluate both the students and professionals. Like the other two aspects, the adequate data for this one can be found in the live chats.

That members have adequate experience in the business of affiliate marketing is important especially in a field in its infancy as is affiliate marketing. A quality community is one that contains a range of experience. Research on social learning has shown that students learn much from one another. If everyone has the same level of knowledge, then a low ceiling is placed on learning potential. This is true for both experts in the field as for beginners.

But if community members can't articulate their experience, then the potential for that experience to be communicated to others is limited. Articulating experience requires analysis of that experience, organization of the experience and insight. Not everyone possesses these qualities in equal measure. Information based on intuition is important, but as a beginning student, you need information that is well analyzed and related to other aspects of the knowledge base. This is the art and science of responding to questions in a critical manner.

The fourth characteristic of the knowledge aspect may be the most important of all other aspects across all areas: members are open to new ideas. The world is changing rapidly, but a new profession in a rapidly changing environment is changing at super sonic speed. Affiliate marketing has no authoritative ideas, because it hasn't been around long enough to acquire an orthodoxy. If your personality has a need for authority, then you may find affiliate marketing an uncomfortable place. You will not find intellectual closure in this field. If that is your need, my advice is to look elsewhere. The manner in which the members discuss issues in the live chats will reveal this characteristic. Are ideas discussed in a manner that suggests they are open or closed? My recommendation is not to waste your time in a community whose intellectual horizon is closed; you simply don't have time for that; the world is changing too rapidly.

More Than An Aggregate of People

The underlying theme of this blog is that a community is more than an aggregate of people. That statement implies that the individuals in a community matter. I've been in communities where the individual didn't matter, and, in my opinion, these were not true communities.

Members of a community bring varied interests in affiliate marketing to the social context. These interests reflect the growing dimensions of the profession. That fact alone states why professional communities are important. The connections you will make in a community will help determine the height of the ceiling for your education in affiliate marketing. The quality of these connections is critical for important dimensions of your education in this field. The quality of your community deserves your attention. A community is a complex thing. That complexity has barely been scratched in the 1600 plus words of this blog. However, I have tried to open enough of this complexity to give you a starting point for thinking about and exploring your professional community.

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Recent Comments

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A great, relevant, and positive message, Don!

Jeff

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