Power can be a good thing. There are many different types of power. You have reward, referent, legitimate power, coercive power, and expert power.  Coercive power is basically the power to punish. This type of power can be used by moderator of forums who has the ability to ban an account.  Reward power, as there are many kinds of rewards, this power can be used in a variety of ways, ranging from a positive comment to financial reward.  Legitimate power is the power granted by some kind of authority.

On a social networking site, it normally belongs to the organization operating the site, which can define the rules to be followed and execute them. Then you have expert power. Expert power is extremely relevant in the online world; expert power comes from experience or education. If you are recognized as an expert, people will count with your opinion and are more likely to follow your leadership.  Referent power is probably the most important type of power in the online communities.

Referent power comes from admiration or respect. In the online world without hierarchies and boundaries people with referent power are the most influential ones. This power comes from character, the values and integrity that a person represents. I personally find that the most effective power is reward power and referent power. I run a guild in world of Warcraft and after looking at the different types of powers I see where I actually use a little bit of each of these types of power but most of what I use is reward and referent power.

As the Guild mistress of the guild I have to use my power at times to get my guild members to do what I need them to do. Today, I had a guy join the guild; as soon as he joined he started asking for gold. This sets a bad image for him. So I told him that he needed to not ask for gold upon joining and explained to him that this just did not look right. He continued to do it, so we removed him from the guild. After that he apologized. I and my officers decided to give him one last chance and I told him ‘if you do it again you will be removed permanently from the guild’. This is an example of how I used coercive power while yet exercising my legitimate power ( Because I went to the officers of the guild who have ability to remove and promote and all this good things to help me running the guild)  and at the same time I gained respect from this member giving me referent power over him.

What type of power do you have?