How to Build Momentum in Your Community – A Three-Part Series

Part I – Getting your Online Community Started

“How do I get people to start signing-up and interacting in my online community?”

It’s the right question to ask, whether you already have an active community and seek to add more spokes to your hub, or you are starting a new online community from scratch. At every stage in the process – inception, establishment and maturity – it’s smart to have a strategy for building and maintaining activity in your forums. 

To that end, we’ve curated some of the best practices used by professional community managers to help attract members and build momentum from day one.

First it’s good to know that the most sustainable online communities grow organically, just like their geographic counterparts. Experts agree that it’s best to take the long view with the goal of steady growth through small campaigns that slowly build on one another.

In the very beginning, unless you already have a big social media presence, a loyal customer base or group of employees or organization members, the best tactics involve reaching out to individuals.

• Growing a community takes true engagement. Set out to connect authentically and to develop genuine relationships. If you engage company executives to promote your brand, hire a professional community manager, or rely on volunteers to man your forums, find folks who really care and who view social connections as opportunities rather than obligations.

• Identify key players early in the process. You can incentivize those early adopters to bring their friends into the conversation and the community.

• Celebrate newcomers. Statistics show that the sooner you engage a new member in the conversation, the more likely they will become a long-term participating member. Welcome newbies within 24 hours, mention them by name, and personally introduce them to key participants in your community.

• Resist the temptation to save time by outsourcing or relying on tools and automation. Building a community takes consistency, commitment and a personal touch.

• Always seek to benefit the community rather than the organization. Remember that an audience expects a passive, one-way experience, whereas community seeks an interactive two-way conversation.

• Enable and encourage forum members to share by talking about them rather than about yourself.

• Consistently make engagement a priority! Have a plan for how and when to respond to inquiries, comments, requests and other posts. Keep an ongoing list of conversation starters to seed new threads.

• Ensure a safe place for visitors, members, advocates and other stakeholders to interact by providing well thought-out rules.

• Have fun and measure your success along the way. By keeping notes about what works and what doesn’t you’ll soon establish a solid foundation for growing to the next level.