Just like a decade ago, corporations are jumping on the Internet – but this time instead of the blanket, uninformed statement “We need a website,” the suits are shouting the trendy war-cry “We need social networking!”

The benefits, when executed correctly, are obvious. Connecting with one’s customers and market in and allowing them to connect with each other at such a deep level is a modern marketer’s ultimate goal, but crowbarring a Facebook clone and blogs into your website probably isn’t the best method.

To anchor and focus the Web 2.0 strategy and planning for any client or web offering, I consistently turn back to Amy Jo Kim’s self-categorized “cult classic” Community Building on the Web: Secret Strategies for Successful Online Communities. It’s a book from 2000, but the concepts remain relevant in the new age of WOW and Wiki, Flickr and Facebook.

Kim outlines the practices she uses to this day for attracting customers and surfers and increasing stickiness to an addictive level. These practices are commonplace today among the best producers of online-ready games and community web sites, but others, including the corporations and organizations who see the potential of 2.0, don’t have the understanding that is truly necessary to drive users to join, build and return with friends in tow. Community Building on the Web pulls many of its concepts from successful offline communities. Ideally, users must feel that they are a part of something, and that their interaction with the site and with other members truly affects the content, direction and focus.

Amazon reviewer Donald Mitchell describes the design strategies Kim espouses, which I expand on here:

1. Define and articulate your PURPOSE

– As quickly as possible, the user must understand, what is the community for; who are the players involved; what are the benefits of joining and participating?

2. Build flexible, extensible gathering PLACES

– The current trend for Web 2.0 sites is to have a “forum” on every page where there is content. Blog-style comments allow users to interact on every page of the site. Where and how can your users interact?

3. Create meaningful and evolving member PROFILES

– Personalization is more than just putting the user’s name at the top of the page and saying “Welcome back.” Just like in offline communities, users need to feel that their personality and profile affects the way the site works for them and how others interact with them. How can you further define your users, thereby further defining your site?

4. Design for a range of ROLES

– As users join and embrace your community, how will you welcome and instruct newcomers; empower and honor your leaders?

5. Develop a strong LEADERSHIP program

– What better way to create stickiness and simplify maintenance than to allow passionate users to create content, police other members while lowering your costs?

6. Encourage appropriate ETIQUETTE

– Arguably the most difficult to implement, appropriate etiquette is more important than one might think. Web 2.0 sites struggle with it now in many different ways, with chain letters, cyber-bullying, copyright infringement and spamming filling up YouTube’s content and commentary. If the users create the content of your site, how does your site’s voice “sound?”

7. Promoting cyclic EVENTS

– How do your groups “meet,” how can you promote performances and competition?

8. Integrate the RITUALS of community life

– Kim uses an older example from the Ultima MMORPG, where advancing levels or rank, much like in school or at a job, becomes much more important if the transition involves an award ceremony, or going out for drinks. How can you create rituals to entice and reward users?

9. Facilitate member-run SUBGROUPS

– Subgroups are the cornerstone Facebook and World of Warcraft. It is simple enough to say, “We’ll allow users to create and join groups or to link up with friends.” The challenge is to match your Subgroup strategies with your site’s purpose. Who can create subgroups and who can join them? What is the process? What are the benefits? How do others know that a user is a part of these groups?

The book also proposes 3 design principles:

1. Design for growth and change

2. Create and maintain feedback loops

3. Empower your members over time

Amy Jo Kim’s “handbook for community builders” should be read by anyone who wants to build a social network.

She currently operates ShuffleBrain and teaches game design at USC.

You can also check out her Musings of a social architect here.

I’ll be first in line if she decides to write a new version of Community Building on the Web.