By KiKi L’Italien, Senior Consultant, Technology Management
Associations have always been about connecting people. Today those connections can happen online and associations are in the best spot to make that happen. After all, who knows the importance of relationships better than an association?
As much as the rules for building communities are the same online as they are IRL (in real life), there are some specific steps that apply to the virtual. If you follow these ten steps, you will be more likely to have success with your member communities. Promise!
1. Specify the Who
Recognize who you are trying to reach and what you want them to do. Is it a small group or a large group? Is it a group dedicated to a cause? Is it a committee?
2. Identify Objectives
Know your objectives for the community before you get started. What is it you want to achieve with this group?
3. Give Focus
Limit the number of social objects on your site for members to focus on—preferably no more than three.
4. Test
Fortunately, we live in a time when we can test options fairly quickly. You can quickly discover if things will work, if the site needs improvement, or if it might fail. Beta test and choose your beta testers wisely. If you fail, fail quickly and move back to the first step!
5. Maintain Relationship Building
Just like the relationships in your personal life, online relationships require maintenance. Remind and reward members of the site for their activity. Recognize when someone is especially helpful to the community on a regular basis. Pay attention to alerts and emails from the site always! Monitor the conversation and nudge people to participate. In the beginning, you are teaching people how you wish for them to act. Lead the way, and encourage your community to follow.
6. Foster Content Development
Start with a plan for adding regular content and then identify ways to enhance that content. The easier you make this for the members, the better.
7. IRL Encouragement
Look for a chance to get people revved up about the community at related or sponsored events that offer members a chance to talk with other members and meet face-to-face.
8. The Power of the Direct Ask
Remember the direct ask. The direct ask is the number one, most reliable way to get people to buy in to your community (or anything you ask them to do). A personalized phone call or individual request by email is flattering to the participant and effective for building your community one person at a time. Try it!
9. Promotion
Tell your intended audience all about the community over and over again. Promote the site in all of your traditional messaging and be sure to tell them how to join.
10. Don’t Make Them Think!
Make it easy for the member to join, participate, and benefit from the online community. Does your community require a separate login? Is it easy to navigate the page? Is it obvious what a member is supposed to do once they arrive on the site? Make it easy!
Finally, online communities can be an amazing resource for those involved, but there must always be a clear answer for why an association should have them. If you can easily state why you want an online community and the answer isn’t, “Because we want to be on Facebook,” (remember: the tool is not the answer) you are in great shape to start building.