Yes.*

* It is not about scale but value. If there are less individuals in your community the more important the host becomes -- and the more work it is for you. A small community becomes a CRM/Community hybrid. It is not a set it and forget it proposition (which it wouldn't be anyway -- Dell and Microsoft simply have the resources to do this...)

Yes - But to go into Chris's comments a little deeper. You have to get your community in front of your audience, and you have to engage them. What is the goal of your community? What value are you going to provide? What free tools can you use to test out your concept? If you are small, I think you need to start out small. Building something hybrid like zootoo could be a complete waste of time and money, or take years to get going.

You know, I think it's actually harder for very large brands like Dell and Microsoft to build communities. People enter into communities because they connect with the brand. Connecting with a large-impersonal is hard to do.

You used the party analogy and said "too few conversations happening in too large room" and I think that's the key. A 10 people party in a small apartment is awesome.

If you're a small brand, you don't create a blog, an email list, a forum, and social media networking capabilities. You create one, maybe an email list. You lower your expectations a bit and commit to making connections with the people that do show up.

Yes.

You just have to work damned hard to foster that community spirit. No community exists without a spirit, and establishing that becomes fundamental. Five people can be a community as easily as five hundred. The trick is taking the steps to facilitate deep bonds between them, yet not discouraging newcomers.

Tanya, I completely agree with your sentiments. I own a Dell but I would never consider myself part of its community (well, not positively anyway) because I don't really see how I'd contribute as a community member. I consider a community a place where people come together with a common background or way to connect.

Small SaaS companies actually have a leg up on the community front, I feel, because they organically create a community simply by existing. It's easier to feel a part of something small rather than a large conglomerate...just because I have a diet Coke on my desk right now doesn't make me feel like I'm connected every other diet Coke drinker.

Small SaaS companies are faced with an adoption curve that's difficult to accelerate. There may be no more than 10 potential guests in the early days, but one day those 10 will boast to thousands that "we came to these events when only 10 people showed up." Approximately 9 years on, my company has at least 6 customers who claim to be customer #1...bragging rights in the community.

I think it totally depends on your definition of success. By the participation numbers? No. On the passion quotient? Yes.

For some reason Cheers comes to mind...you know...where everybody knows your name. That's what's special about small communities.

And don't forget...your small community can exist inside a larger community, too. Running with the party analogy, maybe you're a fantastic dancer, so you connect with the people on the dance floor.

Chris

Good point - the smaller the community the more the host plays a larger role conversely the larger the community the more self sustaining

Tanya

Great advice for small brands - stick with what you can handle and throw a small but rocking party in your small house!

also great to hear that large brands have challenges too - the flip side is how do you make their communities feel intimate!

Laura / Jim

Don't focus too much on the SaaS aspect of this post - I just read The Big Switch by Nicholas Carr and that type of B2B tech company was on my mind when I wrote the post - could be any small tech firm

But I definitely think you keyed into some of the aspects of SaaS firms that would make them successful in the future and in community building as well!

I'm marketing director just such a company. We're a small SaaS vendor supplying a proprietary content management system designed for SMBs and ad agency resellers.

We're about to (finally) start a blog for each of our two Web properties as well as a group blog targeting issues of concern to small business so far as developing an online presence is concerned.

My hope (and belief based on experience) is that we can create enough engagement through these venues to justify the investment of time on the part of our staff.

Ultimately, I'd like to see us create our own socnet for customers, resellers, vendor partners and prospects. The blogs are the first step in the progression.

I think it all depends on the product. For instance, the nature of video games and the gamer culture gives makes it easy for obscure independent developers to build a strong community with a small budget. We know many of our players by name and have worked with them for years. They often cite the "community" as one of the top reasons why they love our game even though it is graphically outdated.

I have also found that, in the video game industry at least, the larger the game/company the worse the community experience (the internet ****-wad theory comes to mind). This is a huge deal because community is a key element in cultivating a sense of belonging. Not all gamers require a good community to enjoy a game, but it definitely keeps them playing.

With that, a lot of bigger companies are starting to their attention to developing "community" and "interaction with developers" but the problem is that they are simply too big to achieve the same sense of closeness that smaller games have. You can't always have your cake and eat it too.

>>So here is my question for you: Are community plays the domain of large brands only? Or can a small brand have a thriving community, too?<<

Small brands absolutely can have thriving communities! I would argue that smaller brands with smaller but brand-loyal communities actually have a distinct advantage because the quality of the exchanges will be higher and more meaningful.

I would also argue that it is more important for these smaller brands to create strong communities to foster communication about the brand. The more people talk, the higher the probability of positive word-of-mouth marketing.

A lot of people said "yes", but I think "maybe" is closer to the truth. It's the quality of the community rather than the size of the brand that dictates success. Is the content engaging? Is the community interactive? Do conversations flow or do comments stay unanswered? I am about to launch a Global Guerrilla Marketing community. I'm working hard to set it up as an interesting place to go and participate. I want to create a place were people feel like they are hanging out with friends and colleagues, rather than being sold a brand. Although this is part of my branding plan for an upcoming book of the same title, it will fail if my focus is on what's in it for me rather than what's in it for the members.

How do you make your community interesting for participants? Is your community interactive? Do people feel connected to it? I think Marketing Profs is a good example of a community where people feel connected and engaged.

I don't think this is size dependent. Years ago I worked for a software company with a total user base of about 100 companies, and we have one of the most active user groups I've ever seen. (This was before online social networking, of course.) It wasn't bit but our product was crucial to their businesses, and so we had annual user conferences, regular customer advisory board sessions, and customers were eager to take time out to come visit us, talk to us, tell us what they were experiencing, and so on.

I just don't think size is a particular relevant factor here.

I agree with Dave. The smaller communities that I have participated in have had more loyal members and relevant exchanges. Most of them have been interest based (photography , sports).

Knowledge is freely shared, there is a sense that people want to help one another and it has fostered offline connections - jobs!

While large organizations have brand clout and marketing dollars, sometimes they don't have the agility that smaller brands do. Large brands are sometimes unwilling to grant control to the community in order to protect the brand which can stifle the 'success' of the community.