Photography - the perfect social activity?
I've been thinking a lot about what makes a good social activity around which a community can be built. I don't think there's any perfect formula out there, but clearly some activities work better than others.
Out my own interests, I've noticed that photography is the activity that seems to work really well on social media. Customers of ours who include photo based functionality are rarely disappointed with the response. Communities like Flickr, Aminus3.com and more recently Google+ have hugely vibrant, engaged and activities. I think this is due to a number of factors: Photography can be highly technical. The gear and the processing has always involved a high degree of complexity and whether discussions are motivated by gadget lust or by understanding processing techniques there is a lot to talk about. At the same time photography is also artistic. As Nikon recently found when they posted that "a photographer is only as good as his equipment" photographers are aware that for all the technology, the best photographers are more like artists. As art is subjective this gives another angle for discussion. Photography also has a shareable outcome. Unlike running or cycling (my other interests) photography produces rich, interesting results that can be easily shared online. It's a lot harder to share a great run or ride online and involves a lot more work. It's also interesting that photography is most often a solitary activity at the time you carry it out. Running or cycling lend themselves well to carrying them out with others, but most of the time a photographer will be on their own when taking or processing photos. This probably increases the urge to share your experiences with others when you can. Finally photographers want validation. They're doing something technical, artitistic and solitary and by sharing it they're often asking for validation that they've done it well. It's interesting that constructive criticism is a rare sight on photography sites - almost all comments tend to be simple "great photo" responses - which probably reflects an understanding at some level that photographers just want their photos to be liked and don't necessarily want them criticised. I think this is an interesting exercise when planning a community, to think through the characteristics of the activity or subject you're going to focus on. Being realistic about what buttons the community is going to push will help keep your expectations realistic and help you design the community well.
