Seth wrote a blog post about me. Well, kind of.

The multitude of new social networks – Facebook, MySpace and Dogster alike – are complaining that users no longer have any loyalty. They arrive, create profiles, upload some photos, and stumble on to (upon?) a new tool or community and move on, sometimes never to be seen again.

(Consequently, marketers are very worried about what this foreshadows for their brands. That’s another blog post, however, and more suited to my new (shameless plug alert) blog, Badvocates.com.)

To build a strategy that prepares for this, each community should consider focusing on the five ‘I’s of online community. They aren’t rocket science, but they address the common mistake that site and tool builders are making: focusing on the hip and nifty 2.0 technology at the expense of defining the true value of that tech and the community one hopes it will foster.

Take twitter for example — launched in June of 2006, and the favourite of the elite when trying to sound in the know. Half a million users and a thousand copy cats. But most non-twitterers, and even many twitterers themselves, still question the value of the tool.

Twitter, and the designers of your online community (social network, blog, fan page, online brand presence, or twitter rip-off) must consider the five ‘I’s of online communities:

1. Investment

I’m not referring to your VC. But rather your users’ investment, and how you design your community to allow them to invest their time, energy and effort in to your community. The more a user feels they have invested in a community, and the more that community is able to interact with them, the less likely they are to move on to the competition.

2. Incentives

What incentive is there to join? To tell a friend? To stop lurking and really start contibuting to the community?
… And how difficult is it? It’s certainly not enough to say “everyone else is using it” — The public may come, but this fact won’t make them stay… It’s a self-defeating strategy.

3. Information

Arm your users with the info to understand the ever-increasing value of your product. Netvibes does this well — inserting a bright banner on my personal homepage whenever they improve their toolset. (Which I accept and close at my leisure.) Furthermore, arm your users with the ability to advocate your service. Twitter could benefit greatly from this. People are constantly questioning the value of the service, and it’s a difficult concept to sell, unless you’ve tried it.

4. Interaction

Ah yes, the most difficult element to conceive, capture and champion. How do your users interact with each other? How do they even find each other? How do they interact with you? How do you braodcast new improvements? This is the core of Facebook’s value . Members most find out about new applications when friends choose to use them, creating easy access and viral adoption.

5. Innovation

What are you doing better than before? Better than the competition? What’s the next improvement you’re launching? Can your users evangelize it in- and outside of the community?

Ultimately, a successful online community doesn’t come from the tool, it comes from the adoption of that tool and its continued use.

How do you foster online community?

Take these five ‘I’s and turn them into a ‘We.’