Starting up your Online Community

In the first post in our series on Community Management, Pitfalls of Community Management, we looked at the most common mistakes brands make. In this second post, we want to focus on best practice in building an online community. It’s a pretty big subject, so we’re going to start at the beginning, with advice on what to consider when you’re embarking on setting up a new online community.

Online communities are now, more than ever before, created as part of a customer loyalty strategy on behalf of the brands behind them. This is a significant shift in the last couple of years; previously a community was more of an add-on to a brand programme, a test of whether it was worth spending the time and money on building something longer term. It’s encouraging to see that more companies are taking advice on how to build a sustainable, loyal online community at the outset of the project, rather than tagging something onto a brand programme.

So, here is our list of steps to take when first building an online community, compiled by our team of experienced community managers and moderators. If you have anything you’d like to add, or would like to share your experiences, please tell us by commenting on this blog!


First steps to building an online community:


1. Before you start, step back, and think about what you’re trying to achieve before you commit time and budget to your community. Consider these questions:
a) Why are you starting a community?
b) What are your goals, both quantifiable and qualifiable?
c) Who are you targeting?
d) What can you offer your users?
e) What will attract them initially to your site?
f) What will keep them coming back?

2. Do the community services and tone align with your brand’s objectives and strategy? If your brand is all about high-quality, luxury products, make sure that the services you provide and the tone you use with your audience reflects that. For example, providing a virtual world with a flashy design may not match your audience if you are building a community for the lovers of classical music. It's an extreme example, but it's essential to keep your target audience's needs in mind.

3. Make sure your audience will understand the purpose of your community, and are able to get what they want out of it. You will be defining your community through your choice of platform, design, graphics, language, products, signposting, structure, User Interface, navigation, terms of service, and the list goes on.... Users of online communities vote with their feet (or their mouse), and you want to ensure that they have a positive experience.

4. Test your idea with your target group. This could be the best research you’ve ever undertaken. If you already engage with people in the audience group you want your community to target, open a conversation with them through other channels (your blog, forums, online research, Twitter, or by running a focus group). Help them help you develop the community. If your users have bought into the idea at its development stage, they’re much more likely to bring other people in with them. Be open to change at this stage of the development, and be honest with yourself. If it’s not right, much better to know now so you can make the necessary changes.

5. Commit resource from within your brand to developing the community. This should never be an addendum to someone’s objectives. You’ll need a dedicated resource to build and lead the community, particularly at the beginning of the project when it will need constant nurturing. This resource can either be internal, or can be outsourced to a company that specialises in Community Management

6. Plan the logistics of the community carefully. Is it easy for users to sign up? Can they recommend a friend to join? Can they talk to an administrator to give feedback? Is the site easy to navigate? While design and look is important, it shouldn’t be at the expense of functionality. The site must be easy to use.

7. Listen to feedback and act on it. Feedback from your members is vital to the ongoing growth and development of your community. People could be talking about functionality, moderation, design, products, or even your brand. Dedicating time to review and act upon this information will not only strengthen your community, but can provide valuable information about your brand.

8. Remain flexible, and monitor your community closely. Communities mirror real life. Imagine you’re at a party, and you start a conversation with a small group of people. The conversation is likely to develop – and often in a direction you couldn’t foresee. Now imagine that you stilt that conversation’s development, by constantly forcing people to return to your original subject. Pretty soon, that group will leave you, and will be talking somewhere else. Review the objectives of your community regularly.

9. Draft your terms of service, and get expert advice on how to do this. Make sure there are no legal holes in your community that could put your users at risk, or give your brand a liability headache. Make sure the terms are not written in ‘legalese’ but are plain speaking, straightforward and easy for your members to understand.

10. Put in place a plan to manage and moderate the community. Take the time to consult experienced professionals (inside or external to your company) to put in place moderator guidelines which are comprehensive and realistic, with a clear and effective workflow. Plan for emergency out-of-hours escalations (think bomb threats and server failure - worst case scenarios do occasionally happen). Don’t underestimate the time and effort this takes, and be prepared to spend the first few months fine-tuning these with your moderation team.

11. Plan to promote your community. Although word-of-mouth is one of the best forms of marketing, by itself it isn’t enough. Ensure you have a robust marketing plan. This could include spending time seeding the community, making sure you can be found by search engines, encouraging early members to bring in their friends, and listing yourself with the relevant online directories. Also, think about where else your target audience can be found. With the correct approach, Twitter, MySpace, Facebook, and YouTube are great social media platforms that you can utilize to promote your own community.

In our next post, we’ll focus on the next stage of community development: once your community’s up and running: the best ways to engage users within the community. We’d love to hear your feedback on the series so far. If there’s any particular issue you’d like us to address, please let us know on the comment section of this blog.