BuddyPress.org

Hi all

We’re debating whether we should set up an online community on our site. We have a very active G+ community and a semi-decent FB page going on.

However I’m aware, from a purely brutal point of view, that such interactions do the users a world of good but don’t necessarily bring them to our site. In a recent survey we found that a great deal of our community users had never even come to our site. As a result we miss out on the pageviews that prove to our advertisers and content providers that we are worth committing to. Brutal, but then that’s what I’m paid for in the business.

I’m also aware, because I’m human, that people are likely coming to our social communities BECAUSE they don’t have to come to our site and because it’s provided within the context of the environment that they are most comfortable with (Facebook or G+ as they prefer).

Hence I wonder whether, even looking at pageviews, setting up our own online community is really worth investing the time and money in.

I’m really interested in peoples thoughts about this. Clearly you are all BuddyPress users and admins here, so probably are already using it to run sites and thus are already semi-biased but I’d love to hear your thoughts, views and the like.

Thanks

Olly