Building a real (and profitable) online community, well, that’s another. Having the members stay active is whole different problem. This has many community managers worried about disappearing participation, silent members, and low-value interactions that don’t stimulate real connections.
The good news? Virtual community engagement need not be a bloodcurdling mystery. With a few good strategies, you can turn your online community into a titan, where members actively engage, swap ideas, and if you’re doing it right, make friends.
This playbook uncovers 8 practical tools that have been successfully utilized by proven community builders to increase community engagement activity and achieve lasting online community growth. These are strategies that produce real life results, regardless of your community’s size or niche.
Understanding Virtual Community Engagement
Virtual community engagement gauges how involved people are in your online environment. It’s not just about metrics, for example, how many members or page views. Engagement is not participation, it is helping to shape a real conversation sharing information and helping one another.
In short, engaged communities create a ripple effect. Active users lead to more new members, a growing repository of valuable contributions, and the social proof that motivates others to sign up. This “virtuous cycle,” of engagement springing from success, is what underpins sustained community success.
How to build an engaged online community
Tactic 1: Develop Content That Initiates Dialogue
Content is the first point of entry for many community interactions. But not all published content leads to engagement. The best communities create posts that naturally generate responses and conversation.
Pose open-ended questions that draw on the experiences of members. Rather than asking something like “What is your favorite marketing tool?” try “What was your biggest marketing mistake this year and how did you correct it?” This fosters a culture of storytelling amongst the members where they open up and learn from each other.
Post behind-the-scenes glimpses from your company or field. People like receiving insights they can’t find elsewhere. This is the kind of content that tends to get real engagement, that feels exclusive and worthwhile.
Share contrarian, yet respectful, views on industry subjects. Of course you don’t want to have offensive content, but disagreement and thought can really help stimulate debate which ultimately leads to members visiting your group constantly to see what’s being said.
Tactic 2: Implement Gamification Elements
Gamification appeals to an innate aspect of psychology. People like earning rewards, competing with other people, and tracking progress against goals. Smart cities apply these principles to improve citizen participation.
Develop points rewards systems for various levels/types of engagement. Reward points for posting, commenting, sharing useful resources and greeting new members. Show leaderboards that highlight top contributors in a way that doesn’t make it all seem like cutthroat competition.
Create design badges at significant goals. Acknowledgement of achieving posting runs, influencing a huge number of people, and ability added content will keep people coming back.
Hold regular challenges that unite members around common goals. Monthly photo contests, creative challenges or team quests keep people logging in and active.
Tactic 3: Create Personal Relationships Among Members
Our communities thrive when relationships are built between members, and that includes relationships between members and the moderation team. This deliberate work to make connections between people yields dividends in the form of engagement, but it requires effort.
Develop member spotlight features to encourage mingling. Briefly interview your members, share success stories, or fun facts about your members! This touch adds warmth and humanity to the space.
Host virtual meetups, or breakout sessions for smaller groups. Large communities can be intimidating; instead, smaller groups facilitate more in-depth conversations and tighter relationships.
Facilitate posts for members to share personal updates or milestones. Create separate areas for celebrating wins, asking for assistance during rough patches, or for members to share what’s happening in their lives.
Tactic 4: Give Unique Value & Resources
Members stick with you when they get value they can’t find anywhere else. Members will have access to exclusive content, early information and perks to motivate ongoing participation.
Provide members-only content, such as templates, guides or training materials. The people who know they’re getting something out of it — just for being a member of your community — tend to be there when you need them.
Grant early access for new products, services, or announcements. This exclusive treatment will allow members to feel exclusive and valued and will also allow them to check back in the community regularly.
Hold special events such as expert Q&As, workshops or networking sessions. These exclusive opportunities not only generate buzz, but give members tangible reasons to stay involved in your community.
Tactic 5: Hearing, Addressing Concerns with Authenticity
Virtual community engagement is particularly challenged by response time and quality. The members need to feel heard and valued, particularly when they’re making comments or posing questions.
Try to respond to threads and comments within 24 hours and even less if you can. Fast replies demonstrate that the community is alive and what you are contributing means something. Even just an acknowledgment is enough to earn a response.
Educate moderators to reply with a real rather than rehearsed response. Personal, considerate replies link better in comparison with standard responses.
Develop mechanisms to escalate critical questions to subject matter experts. People are more likely to ask again and recommend the community to others if they get great answers to their questions.
Tactic 6: Leverage Data to Enhance Community Experience
In order to grow your online community successfully, you need to know what works and what doesn’t. You can make informed decisions about where your community is heading, by continuously tracking engagement metrics.
Monitor critical data, such as post engagement rates, member retention and conversation quality. Search for patterns in your most successful content and engagements.
Keep polling community members about their experiences, preferences and ideas. Direct feedback will often expose improvement needs that data itself could overlook.
For example, try different posting times, type of content, and engagement. Even minor experiments may result in major changes in community activity.
Tactic 7: Set A Clear Community Culture and Guidelines
Good communities have certain standards that they expect of their members. Give people a sense of what is expected and what is saluted, and they will tend to chime in positively.
Develop detailed but accessible community guidelines. Address appropriate behavior, content standards and penalties for infractions. Post these rules somewhere that everyone can see them at all times.
Let all your associations be of a kind to lead higher the standard of morals. Community leaders lead by example, and consistent positive moderation leads to consistent, positive member behavior.
Recognize members who represent the values of your community. Public praise for helpful, positive, or particularly thoughtful comments strengthens the culture you seek.
Tactic 8: Set up Regular Events and Activities
Events provide excuses for members to visit your community and engage with your community on a time-sensitive basis. They provide opportunities to share experiences that help grow community.
Host weekly or monthly live sessions such as AMAs (Ask Me Anything), expert interviews or skill-sharing workshops. Routine activities support members in forming habits around community involvement.
Some have seasonal activities or themed weeks that create a type of excitement and directed effort. Seasonal events, industry-awareness weeks, or the annual conference might add some points of focus throughout the year.
Host collaborative projects that are experienced over time. Group tasking, user generated content, or collaborative learning projects maintain participation over time.
Building Your Community Engagement Strategy
It takes hard work, draws and purpose to successfully engage a community in the virtual space. Begin by putting into place one or two tactics that make the most sense given the needs and resources of your community. Test the results, get feedback from members and then slowly roll out other tactics.
Keep in mind, engagement doesn’t happen overnight. Concentrate instead on producing real value for your members while building an atmosphere where people want to join in. These tactics have helped communities grow and thrive, and now, here’s how you can implement them in your own virtual space.
