Yesterday, I announced to my colleagues that I would be closing our private MBA network. I created GNET back in 2006 to help MBA students connect with other students, faculty, and alumni. The process of creating this network, and marketing it to the community, was a great learning opportunity. Today, Linkedin and Facebook provide the services in a form more valuable and less time consuming to maintain, and closing the network will aid in the transition. I’d like to share what I learned in the process about community building.

You Must ‘Know Thy Audience’

MBA’s are busy people. I remember this old adage well when I was in the midst of earning mine: “Work, Sleep, Play– pick two.” It’s no joke. You are constantly working, so when does a MBA have time to fill out an online profile and start blogging? They don’t. So I needed to meet them where they were at. To do this I held multiple lunchtime workshops, provided support, and made the network as easy to use as possible, and as of now it has a 90% membership rate.

Provide a Benefit, and Identify Common Goals

Community is formed when there are common goals and benefits of joining with others. The common goals in the MBA included support for projects,career & job search help, along with seeing the community in action– via pictures and video. The benefits of joining included access to program information such as documents, special Amazon booklists and archive, and student based forums and wikis. Identifying the benefits and common goals will drive your content production and ensure that your community is tightly knit.

“Interaction” doesn’t matter, too much

Sure, it makes it easier to measure and report on, but that doesn’t mean that you should base success on whether somebody interacts with the content being produced (ie. a comment or a share). I was always surprised to hear stories from people who used the network as a “spectator;” even though many of the blog and forum posts didn’t have comments, I would hear from people who had read and used the resources provided, or who had connected with someone because they read their profile.

Know when to fold em

The reality is– the network served it’s purpose. It created a bridge while the MBA was in transition. It was a common place for people to gather and see who else was in the program, what backgrounds they have, and what they are doing. In recent years, Linkedin has completely taken over this space and is a powerful tool for MBA’s to stay connected and expand their network. While the private network had benefits such as a private forum and blog, everything can pretty much be done on Linkedin and Facebook. Eliminating the network allows for the MBA to focus their social media strategy, and eliminate any confusion on where people should go for what.