Mukund Mohan’s blogs at http://www.bestengagingcommunities.com/ offer an insight into the reasons that make an online community successful. Lets review some of them here.

1) An effective community manager. He is one who listens, responds well and facilitates discussions/participation among community members.

2) The growth of cross-organizational communities within a corporation.
This results in the sharing of ideas, thoughts, solutions and contributes to the benefit of the entire community.

3) Great questions asked by community members.
This is a key metric for measuring the success of a community and results in great discussions as well as increased participation.

4) The need for people to connect and feel connected.
This has resulted in an explosion of successful online communities.

5) The growth of the personal social index as an accepted measure of a person’s true indicator of
wealth. This is increasingly a measure of a participant’s self-esteem with his peers and takes into consideration factors such as
• which communities you are a part of
• how often do you blog
• do you say anything that’s useful

6) Branding of products using online communities by consumers.
This is a way for companies to increase brand loyalty and attract new customers.