Creating an online community is the easy part. You can use any online community platform to set it up and let members join. The difficult part is getting community members to engage with your brand.
If you’ve already launched your online community, you’re probably wondering what you can do to increase engagement. In this article, we’ll share our best tips for increasing member engagement in your online community.
By the time you’re done reading, you’ll know what you need to do to boost member engagement.
#1: Ask community members questions
Instead of waiting for online community members to find a topic to start a discussion around, why not ask them questions yourself?
By asking community members questions, you encourage them to share their knowledge, experience, and opinions with the community. This is a simple yet effective way to boost engagement in your online community.
Start by creating a list of questions or prompts to share with your online community members. Here are some examples to help you get started:
- What’s the number one thing you want to get from joining this community?
- In the last week, what’s one post or thread in this community that struck a chord with you or that you found especially memorable?
- What’s one skill you’ve learned in this community?
- What’s your favorite thing about this online community?
Posing questions is a great way to encourage community members to share their thoughts, and you can use this information to learn more about your members.
#2: Organize AMA sessions
For those unfamiliar, an Ask-Me-Anything (AMA) session is when community members get an opportunity to ask expert questions and learn from their personal experiences.
To execute a successful AMA session, notify community members about it a few weeks in advance. This gives members a chance to learn about the AMA expert (host) and brainstorm questions they want to ask them. Over the weeks leading up to the AMA event, you can collect questions from community members to give the AMA session a strong start. Community members should also be allowed to ask questions in real time on the day of the AMA event.
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The great thing about an AMA session is that it’s community-specific. Members are given a chance to ask experts specific questions and glean valuable insight from their experiences.
#3: Publish fresh content regularly
To run a successful online community, you need to publish fresh content regularly. Ideally, you should plan out a content strategy before launching your online community so that you have a good starting point.
How frequently you publish new content in your online community will determine how engaged online community members are. If you track analytics, you might find that community members are most engaged in the online community each day you publish fresh content.
For this reason, it’s important to develop a content publishing schedule and stick to it. Be consistent with your publishing schedule, and you’ll see an increase in member engagement.
If you haven’t done so already, create a content calendar to help you create and publish fresh content more regularly. Depending on your niche and the type of content you create, this could mean new content every other day or once every week.
#4: Try out different types of content
People respond to different types of content differently. Some people prefer short videos, while others prefer to listen to a 3-hour long podcast. Some prefer reading content, while others would rather watch a video tutorial.
One of the most underrated community engagement strategies is to try out different types of content. So, if you mostly publish long-form video content, you might want to try creating short videos, blog posts, polls, discussion posts, online courses, and events.
By trying out different types of content, you’ll quickly learn which type your online community members respond to the most and which ones drive the most user engagement. Once you’ve figured out which ones are your community members’ favorites, keep creating those types of content pieces to drive engagement.
You might even consider setting up different ways for community members to interact with you and with fellow members. This means setting up a forum board and discussion board to see which medium most community members prefer using.
#5: Invite members to share success stories
People like to share their success stories and learn from the success stories of others. It provides real-world experiences and practical knowledge that members can use to solve problems and learn from.
As an online community creator, you can invite members to share their success stories with fellow members as a way to increase engagement. For example, if you sell a product or service or online course, you might ask community members how it has helped them achieve their goals.
You can encourage community members to share their success stories with community members in a forum post (e.g., AMA style), video, or a blog post.
#6: Celebrate wins
Appreciating community members and celebrating their achievements fosters a positive environment.
As an online community creator, consider celebrating the wins – big and small. As an example, if you run an online community around fitness, you might want to celebrate members when they reach their fitness milestones. To take things a step further, you can create challenges and celebrate the winners.
In addition to this, you can think of other ways to show community members that you appreciate their participation and notice their wins. You might offer a small gift to community members on their community joining anniversary and do a recap of their achievements.
#7: Host weekly events
What’s one thing the most successful online communities have in common? They organize events regularly.
Organizing an event for your online community members doesn’t necessarily mean you need months of planning and a huge budget. You can host small-scale events to increase engagement in your online community, as well.
For example, you might organize an event that centers around a specific discussion topic or a webinar that’s meant to educate community members in an interactive environment.
The great thing about events is that you can set them up however you want! There are no rules. You could start with something small that doesn’t require any preparation, like a “Coffee Talk,” where community members are encouraged to join for some casual conversation with fellow community members.
#8: Schedule live streams
Live streaming is a great way to drive member engagement in your online community. By live streaming, creators provide members with more authentic opportunities to engage with you and your brand.
What people like most about live streams is that presenters are more “real”. It gives audience members a different perspective and can help you humanize your brand. Allow community members to engage with you in real time by connecting through live chat. You can even do a Q&A session during the live stream where community members use the chat option to send in their questions.
#9: Make community members feel delighted
There are many reasons why people join online communities. Some of the most common reasons include connecting with like-minded individuals, learning a new topic or skill, and gaining valuable feedback from experts.
Find out what made your community members join the online community and figure out what you can do to make them feel delighted. If most members joined with the intent of learning a new skill, you might create a bonus online course that goes deeper into a topic and offer it to community members first at a discount. Or, you might create special products (e.g., downloadables or printables) that are meant for community members only.
#10: Request feedback from community members
Your online community is constantly growing and evolving, and much of that has to do with your own plans to improve your online community site. However, you should also request community members to share their feedback. This helps you learn your community members’ wants and needs and puts you in a better position to build a better community.
To request feedback from community members, you can create a simple feedback form and publish it on your website. It’s also a good idea to prompt members in email newsletters, live streams, and webinars to share their feedback.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What is online community engagement?
A: Online community engagement refers to the level of interaction, participation, and collaboration within an online community. It involves building relationships, fostering a sense of community, and encouraging members to actively contribute to discussions and activities.
Q: How can I increase online community engagement?
A: There are several ways to increase online community engagement. Some effective strategies include regularly sharing valuable content, hosting live events or webinars, actively participating in discussions, creating a sense of belonging, encouraging collaboration, running contests or giveaways, and soliciting feedback from members.
Q: What should I do when a new member joins my online community?
A: When a new member joins your online community, it’s important to make them feel welcome. Send them a personalized welcome message, introduce them to other members, provide them with information about the community guidelines and any ongoing discussions or activities, and encourage them to actively participate.
Q: How can I build trust among members of my online community?
A: Building trust in an online community is crucial for increasing engagement. To build trust, make sure to be transparent and authentic in your interactions, respond to members’ questions and concerns promptly, address any conflicts or issues in a fair and unbiased manner, and enforce community guidelines consistently. Encourage open communication and create a safe and respectful environment for all members.
Q: What are some effective community engagement tactics?
A: Some effective community engagement tactics include asking thought-provoking questions, actively listening and responding to members’ comments and feedback, organizing virtual meetups or networking events, using gamification techniques to encourage participation, and highlighting and celebrating member achievements or contributions.
Q: How can I create a sense of community in my online community?
A: Creating a sense of community in your online community is crucial for increasing engagement. Some ways to create a sense of community include encouraging members to introduce themselves, facilitating meaningful connections between members, organizing regular group discussions or forums, and providing opportunities for members to collaborate on projects or initiatives.
Q: What is Higher Logic?
A: Higher Logic is a leading platform for online community engagement. It provides organizations with tools and features to build and engage their online communities, including discussion forums, event management, member profiles, and analytics to measure community engagement and success.
Q: How can I build an engaged online community?
A: To build an engaged online community, it’s important to have a clear purpose and value proposition for the community, provide valuable and relevant content, create opportunities for members to connect and collaborate, actively listen to and respond to members, and continuously monitor and measure community engagement to identify areas for improvement.
Q: What are the best ways to increase community engagement?
A: Some of the best ways to increase community engagement include fostering a sense of belonging and inclusivity, providing valuable and engaging content, encouraging meaningful interactions and discussions, organizing events or activities that align with your community’s interests, and recognizing and rewarding member contributions and achievements.
Q: How can I increase engagement in my Facebook group?
A: To increase engagement in your Facebook group, you can post thought-provoking questions or discussion topics, share valuable resources or tips, encourage members to share their experiences or knowledge, organize contests or challenges, and actively respond to and interact with members’ comments and posts.
Conclusion
Keep your community member’s wants, needs, and expectations in mind when trying out different tactics to increase engagement in your online community, and you’re bound to succeed.
Remember to measure member engagement as you try out different techniques, so you know how impactful each one is. And when you find the engagement strategies that resonate the best with your community members, repeat them frequently to encourage members to stay engaged with your online community.
We shared some of our best tips to help you increase engagement in your online community. Hopefully, you’re in a good position now to take the next steps.
Do you have any questions on how to increase engagement in your online community? Which techniques are you excited to try? Let us know in the comments section.
