Building Community Online vs Real Life

Much is made about how we need to build our online communities.Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus, Pinterest, Instagram, Tumblr, email, blogs — all those are in our online community-building toolbox. "Engage!" we shout like Capt. Picard on the Enterprise. "Share great content!" "Be transparent!"Yes, sure. All of these things are important. And as much as I hate buzzwords, I do find myself using some of these words from time to time, because they're simply easier and everyone knows what you're getting at when you use them.The real engine behind some of the most successful communities, however, is in meatspace. IRL, In Real Life, where we can see each other's faces as we're speaking with them and hear a peal of laughter after we say something particularly witty and funny. It's not always possible, of course, particularly if your community is spread across the state, country or world. But when you can, building a firm foundation online is the first step toward creating a group of friends or fans — or whatever you want to call them — who will be there for you.One of my favorite community builders is James Lopez, founder of The Phat Startup. A couple years back, James had put together a way to teach entrepreneurship through hip-hop. To share these lessons, Lopez and his cohorts created a Meetup group and began holding events. Speakers at these events have included Alexis Ohanian, Gary Vaynerchuck, Jason Calacanis, AJ Leon, and other big names in social, marketing and entrepreneurship.James understood how to use social media to build a community that he then would bring together in real life at these events. The community has grown and grown, month by month.The American Museum of Natural History lies at the other end of the spectrum: A huge, legacy institution with gazillions of people passing through its hallways each year. In the past few years, they've built up their online community and then bring it all back to real life with tweetups around new exhibitions and events throughout the year. I've seen the opening of a special exhibit about whales and got a behind-the-scenes tour where they do all sorts of science to determine the age of specimens.Yes, I said they do science. Wanna make something of it? There are huge machines and powerful microscopes and all sorts of people in white lab coats, working on fossils, meteorites and other specimens found around the world. What better way to get your biggest advocates spreading the word about your work than by bringing them in-house to witness it?I'm fortunate to be able to spend time talking about community with Lopez and with Matthew Kirsch of the AMNH, along with Harley Block of ROKKAN, a New York City-based digital agency that represents such brands as Tag Heuer, Hyatt and Hyundai. We'll be speaking at Internet Week New York in May.  (Note: you can vote for us to speak at IWNY headquarters, though we'll hold the panel somewhere no matter what.)How do you bridge the gap between your online and offline communities?Image by Karin Dalzeil via Flickr Creative Commons.