Getting people to join and contribute to your online community can be hard work.

There are many barriers to overcome.

When someone does decide to join, you want to capitalize on the momentum and make sure they can get involved as soon as possible.

New members of The Bump are greeted with a surprise after joining (click to enlarge):

“You need to have been a member of The Bump for
a couple of days before you can start to contribute.”

Some new members will wait the required ‘couple of days’. Some won’t.

One certainty, though: All new members will feel frustrated.

This can be avoided by getting rid of the cooling-off period entirely (recommended) or by making it clear that there is a waiting period up-front, before a new member joins.

When frustration is the first emotion experienced by a new member of your online community, you’re not off to a good start.

The best way to deal with troublemakers in your online community is quietly (and quickly).

There is no ‘one size fits all’ way of dealing with abusive members.

You may want to privately discuss any issues you’re having with individual members on a one-to-one basis behind the scenes.

You may decide to delete content or ban members.

That’s your prerogative as a community manager (or moderator).

It’s important not to end up spending too much time on this issue, though.

It’s even more important that you don’t draw attention to the kind of behavior you’d rather not see in your online community.

Unfortunately, that’s exactly what the Atheist Forums website does with their Hall of Shame.

Creating and maintaining a hall of shame consumes time that is better spent cultivating your community. It also acts as a badge of honor for those listed. It could even encourage other disillusioned (or bored) members to try getting on the list.

They’re best avoided.

If you think every new member joins your community with the aim of actively participating and adding value, you’re wrong.

Most new members join purely for selfish reasons. They want to solve a problem.

That’s why you see so many new members ask a question very early on.

They aren’t interested in becoming a true member of the community (yet).

They’re in it for themselves.

The challenge for community managers is turning this individualism into something that will end up benefitting the entire community.

You do this by encouraging ever-increasing participation.

Over time, new members will see the community as something they want (and even feel obliged) to add to, not just take from.

An unavoidable cliché: variety is the spice of life.

Something to be aware of as a community manager, though.

Your community learns from your leadership. They learn what the community’s accepted behaviors and norms are.

What you do influences the culture of your community.

Make sure you’re not creating the same type of content over and over again.

More importantly, make sure you’re not rewarding the same type of behavior over and over again.

If you’re always directing the spotlight at community members who are making the type of contributions you want to see in the community, you’ll be attracting more of the same.

Useful and valuable content, no doubt.

But:

When everyone thinks the same, when everyone concedes their opinion to the stronger personalities, when everyone is scared to go ‘against the grain’, your community becomes dull and lifeless.

It’s your job to stir the pot and make sure things stay interesting.

If not, quit now.

To be an effective community manager, trust is absolutely vital.

Your employer places their trust in you. Your members place their trust in you.

You need to be able to follow through on your promises. You need to always under-promise and over-deliver. You need to be able to keep secrets (plenty will be shared in a thriving community).

You need to respect privacy and you need to respect the community guidelines you’re responsible for enforcing.

What does distrust breed?…

…Nothing you want in your online community, that’s what.

Sometimes your community will come up with (and act upon) their own ideas. Sometimes these ideas will work. Sometimes they won’t.

What I can tell you is this: most of the time, their ideas will work – and their success rate will always be higher than your own.

The reason for this is simple:

When you come up with an idea, you’re making an educated guess at what individuals in your community want.

When members of your community come up with an idea, they’re telling you exactly what they want.

Ignore their ideas at your peril.

Let’s boil this right down.

At a bare minimum, all online communities need:

1. A clear, communicable identity and purpose.

You need to be able to keep the purpose of your community short and snappy.

Think elevator pitch – but even shorter.

If you can’t condense the purpose (and benefits) of your online community down into a few sentences, then it isn’t focused enough.

2. To focus on the best.

You should be continuously striving to be the best in your chosen niche.

Your community needs to be able to attract the best members, it needs to create the best content and you should always be drawing attention to your best content and your best members.

3. Appropriate barriers to membership.

Free, quick and easy isn’t always desirable.

You may want to make it difficult to join the community. If you’re running an online community for professionals, you may want to put up an application form (not everyone gets in). You may want to charge an application fee.

Many forget that how you allow people to join your community has a big influence on the type of community you’ll be managing.

This is especially relevant if you’re at the planning stage for an online community or if you’re stuck with a community that doesn’t seem to be working.

The purpose of your online community needs to be aligned with the desires of the members you’re hoping to attract (and keep).

The problem is, most of the time these values aren’t the same. The result is a failed online community.

Ask a company why they want a community, they may say things like:

• So we can tell members about new products and services,
• So we have a permanent pool for cheap focus groups,
• So we can gain a competitive advantage,
• Because everyone else is building one.

Ask an individual why they’re a member of an online community, they may say things like:

• I have a sense of recognition and belonging,
• I feel valued and appreciated as a member,
• I am learning more about my interests,
• I have friends here.

If you’re planning a community, or managing one that’s struggling, draw up a list with 2 columns.

Column 1: What we want from a community. Column 2: What members want from a community.

Your aim is to ensure that column 2 is significantly longer than column 1.

Ideally, column 1 will also say ‘See column 2′.

Now, change the title for column 2 to: What we’ll give members of our online community.

In the early stages of community building, you’ll spend a lot of your time attracting new members.

You’ll seek out your ideal members, build relationships with them and invite them to join your community.

There’s no denying that this can be a labor intensive process.

Getting members on board one by one may seem like a lot of work (even too much work), with relatively little payback.

However, what many inexperienced community managers don’t realize is that most online communities reach critical mass thanks to a small group of hardcore members (as few as five – or even fewer).

These members are obsessed by your community.

They come up with new topic ideas, keep discussions alive, and make your community more attractive and inviting.

So, next time you’re wondering whether it’s worth all the time and effort you’re putting into attracting new members when you end up convincing only one or two to join – the answer is a resounding ‘yes’.

You never know the influence that one member will have on your community.

They could be the tipping point you’ve been waiting for.

A very basic mistake I see being made time and time again in online communities (particularly new ones): failed threads.

I wrote about this back in 2009 but I still see it all too often, so today I am revisiting the topic.

If you’re seeing new conversations end before they’ve even begun (there’s a new topic posted but no responses after a couple of days), then you’re not being a proactive community manager.

This problem is most common in new online communities, or ones with low userbases. Give new topics at least 24 hours before jumping in. If there’s still no activity, it’s time to get involved.

1. Think of other community members you think would be interested in the conversation and reach out. Send them a private message or email. Tell them you think they’d be interested in the topic (and why) and that you would love to see them get involved.

2. Look outside your community. Who do you know (or who could you know) that will likely be interested in this new discussion? Reach out to them and invite them to get involved. Threads that once signaled a stagnant community could become one of the best recruiting tools for your community.

3. Draw attention to some new topics (not all of them, though) by highlighting them and their authors.

4. Highlight the best new discussions in your community newsletter and encourage involvement (you do have a community newsletter, right?).

5. Make a reply yourself. Make it meaningful.

There are plenty more ways you can encourage discussion in your online community. These 5 are simply designed to get you started and to get you thinking.