Top 4 Questions to Answer before Starting an Online Community
Posted Tuesday, February 22nd, 2011 at 6:00 am by Ashleigh (6 posts)
In today’s online landscape there are an overwhelming number of ways that people can connect with one another. How can your organization get in on some of the action and tailor a community experience for your constituents to foster discussions, information posting and more? Creating an online community where they can congregate is a start. But first you need to ask yourself, is an online community right for my organization? The answer is: it depends.
Here are some important questions to get you thinking and help you make informed decisions:
1. What goals are you trying to accomplish by having an online community?
Be wary of your own intentions. Do you want to build an online community just because everyone else has one or because it’s a good idea? Make sure to distinguish between whether your community is more about creating a space for your constituents, or about promoting your own message. Potential benefits for your organization include increased brand awareness, driving revenue and memberships, and empowering your employees to have a voice and communicate directly with constituents.
2. What value will you and your constituents receive from this tool?
Are your current constituents interested in this type of resource? Does it give you a better way to communicate with constituents or is it just one more thing your staff will have to manage? Some benefits of online communities are that they enable constituents to connect with your organization, while allowing you direct, casual access to them as well.
3. What are the gains and risks of creating an online community?
As mentioned under question #1, gains may include increased brand awareness, improved customer loyalty and better feedback from constituents. On the flip side, risks may include competitor overlap and community failure due to a poor constituent outreach plan or user support. In addition, you can harm relationships with constituents if they have an unsatisfactory experience on your site.
One of the highest perceived risks of hosting an online community is that it loosens control over organizational branding. However, this can be a gain. Keep in mind your comfort level with informal, word-of-mouth and social media marketing that may be a result from your online community. If you try to control every action of your constituents (e.g. approving comments before they can be posted and more), community members will miss the “instant gratification” of a true community and potentially lose interest.
4. Do you have the resources to manage the online community, including a budget to properly develop the community and staff to act as a community manager?
Unfortunately, an online community is not something you can build overnight and then leave unattended. They require attention and care from dedicated staff to manage them. Effective online communities need to be seeded with initial content to survive, and require careful nurturing until the community reaches critical mass. Do you have “supervolunteers” who will help jump start the community and welcome new users as it starts growing?
Parting Thoughts
On the bright side, if your organization is already spending time online, engaging with constituents through Facebook, Twitter or blogging, you’re nurturing a community. These constituents have opted into engaging with your group and cause. You should still take the questions above into consideration before launching a new, more formal online community, but getting started may not be as difficult.
Remember, that as a community owner, you must be the biggest contributor. Your job is to not just post content, but encourage community members to connect with you and one another, ask questions, police posts and more. Communities take time and passion, and you should only create one if it’s fulfilling a business purpose for your organization.
