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Six Absolute Guidelines for Online Community Development

March 28, 2009
As I continue to review my notes from MTO Summit Washington DC, I noted some absolute truths for association executives in designing infrastructure for an online community.  I consider these guidelines as important as the mortar that holds together a house:

1) Don’t rely on community members to drive content
If you leave it to the community members to spark the debate, you will end up with little interest and little debate.  Consider some of the lightening rod issues in your industry and place them into the discussion forum on a regular basis.  You will be surprised at how quickly you stimulate traffic and increase membership.

2) Participate today
I continue to meet association executives you tell me they are waiting to start up a community once they feel their members are ready.  This is a funny decision.  Chances are the community is already conducting online conversations, WITHOUT the association.  If you want to see whether this is true, google search your association’s name next to Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.  You will be surprised to see the results.

3) Release control 
Too many executives are frozen by the thought that legal issues restrict their ability to host online member comments.  I suspect they contacted their legal department before this decision was made.  Truth must be foundational in any message that is provided, but organizations are not required to be transparent.  The goal is relinquish control of public opinion but provide your association’s message.  Members will respect the association perspective, but only if it isn’t disguised as another member.

4) Recruit and empower influencers
If you want your members to return to your online community, gather the movers and shakers that are important to your cause.  Recruit them to participate.  They often have a large following  that might join.  Consider including conference speakers, board members, chapter leaders, exhibitors, and suppliers.

5) Generate community awareness through all digital communications
Once your organization has launched different social networks, advertise the opportunity to join through invitational icons.   These logos should appear on all of your general eNewsletters and marketing campaigns.

6) Award and grow participation
Find valuable ways to reward online community participation.  Don’t hesitate to recognize and award members that are stimulating interactions.  They will appreciate the recognition in front of their peers and it may encourage others to get busy.

What are your thoughts?  Did I accurately define the cornerstones to building a strong online community or did I leave a brick or two out? 

Posted by Stephen Nold on March 28, 2009 | Comments (0)