I had a really good surf around the net looking for a silver bullet, the answer to the question of how many users you need to make build and drive a successful social media application/community based web offering?

I have discovered there's very little in the way of anecdotal material (but if you find any, send them my way) that really offers a gauge on this subject.

This makes me conclude that it’s probably best approached, not as a mathematical problem, but as a human one. Most people don't, and probably shouldn't, think about achieving huge numbers of users when they set out to integrate or build community. Rather, it's sensible to remember that communities of people develop around points of interest, support, learning and other tangible reasons to essentially 'get together.'

The question of "what number of people is required to make my social application a success?" is therefore a red-herring. The most important question to ask is, will it be useful to people and thereby encourage community interaction to happen in the first place?

Assuming the social application you build is "useful" (and hopefully you've done your research on this point) the best advice out there on the web if you are getting in to building community is:

- Social media generally is characterised by a universal Power Law. This means you should aim to create (and contribute to) a small and dedicated team of internal/external users who are the glue of the community.
- After most web launches of this nature there'll be a spike that goes down to about 10% of its size (if we you are lucky) so you can use this as a guide to the actual size of your community starting out.
- You need to eat your own dog food and go on and engage with users
- Be on hand for feedback
- Have a place on the site to talk about your platform
- Have clear rules and guidelines
- Keep the atmosphere friendly and fun

That’s about all I can muster on this tough subject. We have some interesting projects coming up in the future through which we’ll be putting our money where our mouth is.