Fool-Proof Guidelines for Online Community Building

Online Community Guidelines FollrBuilding an online community – whether it’s for your business, special interest, religious group, or even your child’s little league team – can seem like a constant uphill battle. If you’re struggling with your online community, or if you just want a few tips on how to enhance yours, we’ve got your all-you-need-to-know, comprehensive-yet-concise guide to online community building here. You’ll find tips on how to get started, what and when to post, and how to retain members/followers.

 

Getting Started

–               Once you’ve chosen your platform get to know the site by clicking around to other members’ profiles and communities. Take note of what you like and what you don’t like, a.k.a. learn from others’ mistakes.

–               Decide who your target audience is and don’t divert from it. Focus directly on this group of people and start following key prospective members on twitter and other social media outlets.

–               Search relevant hashtags and see what others are talking about around your topic or interest. This will tell you the kind of content you should start posting and discussing once you have your community up and running.

–               Keep in mind that building a following of members is not a one-time job. Keep searching and following, keep joining conversations and continue to invite key prospective people to your community. Shoot for one new active member per day.

–               Once you have a small community of members, start connecting them! Search their profiles for skills or interests they might have in common and encourage them to communicate with one another. If your followers see you as a connector who wants to help build their reputation and career, they’ll be more inclined to do the same.

–               When you get stuck, take a peek at this great list of Online Community Building Resources.

Posting & Engagement

–               Post content between 3-5 times per day and always once at the very least (yes, even if you’re on vacation!). Members want to see consistency and commitment.

–               Post original content – a link to your most recent blog post or, a conversation starter, etc. – at least once every other day, and post other relevant content often. Just make sure the source is credible and you’ve read the article in its entirety first.

–               ALWAYS respond to a member’s contribution with a thoughtful and gracious response.

–               Keep in touch with members who may become less active over time. Reach out and ask about a project their working on or a life event.

–               Frequent and meaningful Engagement is the key to scoring and retaining members. Keep at it no matter what and always be positive.

Member Retention

–               Offer thought-provoking content related to your topic of interest or business. Your goal is to make your community a staple of their online experience.

–               Try one of these 4 Online Community Engagement Ideas and see which one(s) your members respond to best.

–               Be candid. Put yourself out there. Tell the truth. Give members something they can relate to. They’ll feel more connected and feel drawn to keep checking in every once in a while to see what’s new.

Good Luck with your new online community!

4 Easy Online Community Engagement Ideas

Follr Online Community Engagement IdeasDo you ever feel out-of-touch or disconnected with your online community? It can be difficult to feel connected to your online community in the same ways you feel connected with your physical community. Members need to not only feel like their input is valued, but also feel like they’re tapping in to a place of valuable content and information. In order to cultivate some of that same closeness and camaraderie, try one, two or all of these online community engagement ideas!

1. Caption Contest

It may seem silly, but think about it – no matter how old you are or what your interests may be, coming up with a funny or clever caption is hard to resist! Consider posting of photo of your pet checking out what you have cooking in the kitchen if you have a recipe or cooking group. Members with pets will relate to you, and they might even feel obliged to share a similar post in the future.

2. Give-Away

Everyone loves things that are free, especially if the thing being given away is of particular interest to your community members. Engage them by posting about a give-away. You could give away a favorite product of yours: say you have a community revolving around books and literature, give away a new copy of an old classic. Or it could simply be a piece of original poetry if your budget is tight. Encourage members to comment on the post to be entered and pick randomly 3-5 days later. Once you’ve found your winner, tag them in a follow up post to offer congratulations!

3. Internet “Scavenger Hunt”

This may sound daunting, but it’s really just a sneaky way to get your members visiting another one of your sites. Say you have a blog in addition to your online community. Engage your members by giving them 2 or 3 specific posts of yours to find and read, and ask them to prove they were successful by leaving a short comment on each. Who knows, you may even pick up a few more followers!

4. Controversial Question

This is a bit of a no brainer, but rookie online community builders can sometimes be afraid to rock the boat. What tentative community builders aren’t taking advantage of is the fact that we, as citizens of the internet, L.O.V.E. a good controversy. Pick a recent political or business-related scandal and post a link to an article summing it up. Don’t give hint as to where you stand on the issue, just encourage members to leave comments with their thoughts and opinions. Members will feel heard and perhaps you’ll learn something new!

If you have a chance to give one of these Online Community Engagement Ideas a try, let us know how it went! And feel free to share your own community engagement ideas!