5 things that can go wrong in online communities -- and how to avoid them

Credit: Photomorphic

If you're setting up an enterprise social network, you have to take care to make sure it's doing more good than harm.

This week at the Gilbane Conference in Boston, Rachel Happe gave a presentation on online communities and how they can help an organization. Happe is the principal at The Community Roundtable, an company that helps organizations implement online communities and social networks internally and externally.

Happe said one of the big problems facing workers these days is being overwhelmed by technology and information, and online social communities are a way to help us deal with this. She said when we form strong online communities, it humanizes a situation that sometimes seem out of control for us and helps us connect with others to help us find answers and prevent us from constantly reinventing the wheel.

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But Happe said there are pitfalls when it comes to setting up online communities. Here are the five big things that can go wrong -- and how to avoid them.