The Pitfalls of Community Management
We’re often asked by companies: “why isn’t my community performing the way I would like it to?” As part of our community management service, our job is to help companies overcome common pitfalls, and to create communities that engage users and achieve their goals. Taking time to create a plan that will enable you to avoid these holes in the road is much easier than digging yourself out of them.
While we’ve written various guides talking about engaging specific audiences, we thought it was worth writing a series of posts on Community Management for all audiences. In this, our first, we share our top pitfalls to avoid when building and managing a community. They are common problems that we see across all manner of communities, targeting all ages.
If we’ve left any out, feel free to post comments – after all, that’s what community is all about!
Top pitfalls to avoid while managing a community:
1. The community is failing to engage with its members. One possible reason for this is that the tone of voice used by the company doesn’t marry up with the culture of the community. It’s a very good idea to determine what tone of voice and culture you’d like to create for your community at the beginning. This will be present in any communication you have with your members through House Rules, naming of your community areas (forums, chat rooms, worlds), contests, quests, treasure hunts, how your Hosts interact with the community, and many other places throughout the community.
Talk to your audience about things which interest them, in interesting ways, in a voice they feel comfortable with. Really do your research into the users, get into their heads, inhabit their worlds. Especially with children, teens and tweens, keep on top of their rapidly changing language and experiences. Look at the other places your community goes to – how are they addressed there? What do they want to talk about? What are they being offered?
2. Overtly pushing a brand message or product to community members. If the community is too obviously just a way of selling new stock, then users will turn away from it. Use the community to reinforce brand positioning, rather than as a hard sell. Remember, the community is about what people want from it, not what your company thinks it should be about. To quote Jake McKee on Community Guy: “People don’t form and interact with communities in order to support a company. They do it to serve their own emotional needs. It’s not about Apple, and it’s not about the Apple iPod. It’s about helping others find and listen to music. It’s not about helping Fox make money off of the show Firefly, it’s about ensuring that others can experience the joy of watching the great show Firefly.”
3. Not keeping the content on the community areas fresh; or offering ‘flat’ content. Rich, engaging content that is frequently updated is more likely to attract returning users.
4. It’s difficult for new people to join in the community: sometimes it can feel like arriving late to a party. A welcoming culture is key for new joiners. Moderators, superusers and community managers can all do their bit to welcome people into the community and help them get the best out of it. This will in turn create a helpful and welcoming culture that all members can enjoy.
5. The community isn’t signposted effectively, therefore it’s difficult for members to navigate around the community, find the information they need, or find members to talk to. Offering a simple community structure and navigation will help guide members through your community. Use member messaging when possible, and use creative ways to help engage a member to use all elements of your community. For example, create treasure hunts or quests on communities aimed at kids.
6. Not allowing free conversations. If you set a particular topic, but users clearly want to talk about something different, give them the space to do that. You may find that your community will expand organically if you give your members the opportunity to create their own topic of conversation.
7. Not allowing members to openly discuss your brand. Community members are a great source of information. Allowing them the opportunity to praise, criticise or ignore will provide you with a wealth of information, both positive and negative. As long as the members are abiding by your Terms of Service you will be certainly benefit from having an on-board focus group within your community. In fact, the brownie points that can be gained by picking up on a complaint and addressing it effectively can far outweigh the negative effects of the initial criticism. Your members will feel respected and that their voices are heard.
8. Not responding quickly enough to feedback, questions, complaints, or abuse reports. As mentioned above, the community will appreciate the time and effort you put into ensuring that their community remains a positive experience for all members. Inappropriate behavior that goes unactioned, or questions from community members that go unanswered can create a negative community experience.
9. Not resourcing the community effectively by not dedicating sufficient talent, money or time. A community doesn’t manage itself, but takes time and effort to grow and run well. An initial burst of resources can kick off the community correctly, but leaving it unattended over a long period of time will probably turn your hopes of a thriving metropolis into a ghost town. Be realistic. If your company isn’t able to dedicate the necessary resources, look at engaging expertise from outside.
10. Lack of promotion. Even if you have a wonderful community to offer members, you will need to put in that extra time to promote your community. While word-of-mouth is certainly a wonderful marketing tool, it won’t grow your community alone. Take the time to learn how to get the word out by looking for websites that promote your type of community, creating a Twitter profile, ensuring you are SEO-compliant, and, of course, sending out press releases. However great your community is, if you don’t have a plan to tell people about it, they won’t know it’s there.
11. Don’t hide your Terms of Service, or make them hard to understand by stuffing them full of legalese. The rules of behaviour on the site should be easily accessible: it’s a good idea to also provide the members with a House Rules area that condenses your Terms of Service for quick reference. Likewise, work hard on your moderation guidelines and apply them fairly and consistently. Moderation applied with a heavy hand can be very off-putting and will result in your members feeling resentful, (and probably being very vocal about it).
12. Not understanding what members might gain from your community. Do your market research first – don’t set up a community, whoever it’s aimed at, just to tick a box on a marketing plan.
13. Your company hasn’t fully bought into the community and doesn’t understand its purpose. Create a strategy with well-defined goals, and make sure that everyone in your company agrees with the strategy, and that everyone is committed to its success.
The next in our series of posts about Community Management will focus on best practice in managing communities. Please look for it on our blog in the coming weeks.
