Email lists. Facebook groups. Patreon memberships. These are just three media through which brands and creator educators build, nurture, and monetize their online communities.
In today’s competitive business landscape, offering great products only is not nearly enough to cultivate and maintain brand loyalty and advocacy; the key to achieving that is by offering continuous value to both past, existing, and potential customers. An excellent way to do that is by gathering these people, who likely span large geographical areas, into one digital space–a community–and providing them with exceptional content tailored to their interests and your industry.
Online communities have become a central force in building relationships, sharing knowledge, and facilitating engagement across various platforms. But if elaborate systems are not put in place early on, managing an online community can become an arduous task that will not only overwhelm you but will detract from how much attention you give to your business–which can hurt its profitability in the long run.
In this piece, you’ll learn what an online community is, why it’s important to brands, creator educators, and members themselves, the challenges of community management, and the different strategies you can use to manage your online community.
Skip ahead:
- What is an online community?
- The benefits of having an online community
- The challenges of managing a community
- How to manage an online community
- Build a thriving online community with Thinkific Communities
What is an online community?
An online community is a group of people who interact with each other via the Internet based on shared interests, goals, or purposes. These communities can exist on various platforms including:
- Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter;
- Messaging apps like Discord and Slack;
- Dedicated forums like Quora, Reddit, or Discourse;
- Independent platforms like email lists; and
- Membership platforms like Thinkific, Patreon, and MemberPress.
A great example of a community is The Millionaire Mommy Club created by Ellie Diop, the founder of The Ellievated Academy. In the Academy, Ellie offers paid online courses teaching people, especially women, how to grow a business from scratch and attain financial freedom.
In the Millionaire Mommy Club, however, Ellie gives members (predominantly moms who want to grow their wealth) access to all the courses in the Academy including future ones, as well as monthly live classes and training for a monthly (or yearly) fee.
Read: How Ellie Talks Money Made 7 Figures In Less Than A Year
The benefits of having an online community
Online communities offer several significant benefits for brands and creator educators, transforming the way they interact with customers and shaping their market presence. Communities also hold several benefits for members, helping them boost their knowledge, find like-minded people, forge relationships, and even explore business opportunities.
Brands
Here are some of the benefits of online communities for brands:
Customer engagement and loyalty
Online communities allow brands to engage directly with both existing customers and potential customers in real-time, which creates a more personalized and meaningful interaction. This direct engagement helps build emotional connections that are crucial for cultivating customer loyalty.
Community platforms also provide a medium for customers to voice their experiences and give feedback. Brands can use this information to improve their products and services, which demonstrates their prioritization of customer needs. When customers feel like a business cares about their needs, they’ll likely keep patronizing the business.
Brand awareness and reach
Active community members often become brand advocates. Their discussions and recommendations within the community and on other review/feedback platforms increase the brand’s visibility and attract new customers.
Online communities also serve as “hubs” where brands can share content directly with their target audience, which can amplify their marketing messages and get more eyes on their websites (and other distribution channels) without the intermediary of paid advertising.
Product development
Brands can involve community members in the development of new products or features through beta tests, discussion threads, and polls. Not only does this involvement notch up customer engagement, but it also ensures that the product (or feature) development process closely aligns with consumer needs and desires.
The ongoing interaction with the community also allows brands to continually refine their offerings based on user experiences and suggestions, leading to better product quality and customer satisfaction.
Brand differentiation
Brands can cultivate a unique culture within their community that differentiates them from their competitors. The shared values and norms of the community can turn into a competitive advantage that distinguishes the brand in a crowded market.
By encouraging and participating in valuable discussions, brands can also establish themselves as thought leaders in the industry. This increases their credibility and attracts both new customers and potential business partners.
Creator educators
Creator educators—individuals who produce (both free and paid) content aimed at teaching or informing—can derive much value from having an online community. Here are some of the benefits of online communities for creator educators:
Direct audience engagement
Like with brands, engaging directly with existing and potential customers helps creator educators build the trust that is needed for their business to thrive. This personal touch enhances the audience’s loyalty, increases retention rates, and translates into a more committed and enthusiastic community.
Creator educators can also receive instant feedback on their content from their community members, which allows them to gauge its effectiveness and adjust their teaching methods or materials accordingly.
Crowdsourced content and ideas
Interacting with community members can inspire new content ideas, topics, or approaches that a creator educator may not have considered independently. Members can also contribute their own knowledge and experiences, which enriches the content pool and provides diverse perspectives that improve the learning experience for the entire community.
Building a personal brand
By consistently providing value and engaging authentically with their community, creator educators can build a strong personal brand that increases their credibility and cements their authority in their field.
When a creator educator is seen as a thought leader in their field, there’s a higher chance they’d be invited to speak at events, collaborate with other content creators in their field, and partner with educational institutions and businesses.
Monetization opportunities
Creator educators can offer exclusive content, additional resources, or special access to themselves through paid memberships within their community. The communities themselves provide a ready market for related products or services, including online courses, books, and affiliate marketing of tools/resources that are relevant to the community’s interests.
Individuals
Individuals who join online communities gain a plethora of benefits that can improve both their personal and professional lives. Here are some of these benefits:
Access to support and advice
Online communities often provide a sense of belonging and support, especially in niche or interest-based groups where members share similar challenges or experiences. Therefore, individuals are often comfortable enough to ask for (and offer) advice and tips to peers who have encountered similar situations as they have.
Knowledge and learning
Many online communities–Ellie Diop’s The Millionaire Mommy Club, for example–are centered on learning new skills, from computer programming and photography to cooking and painting. In these communities, members can access a range of tutorials, online courses, workshops, and peer reviews that can promote continuous learning.
Some communities even provide opportunities for members to interact with experts or thought leaders who are offering insights that might not be accessible elsewhere.
For example, the Superpath community, which I’m a part of, contains close to 20,000 people in the marketing industry–from content marketers to graphic designers to agency founders. From time to time, experts in the industry do a Q&A session or host a webinar where members can ask questions and get in-depth responses from people who’ve “been there, done that”.
Networking opportunities
For career-focused communities, members can network with peers and industry leaders, which can lead to job opportunities, collaborations, or mentorship. In addition to being a great learning resource for marketing folks, The Superpath community also has two channels where people can list freelancing and full-time job openings for members to apply to.
Beyond professional networking, many individuals form lasting friendships with community members who share similar interests.
Sharing and collaboration
Communities can collaborate on projects that are beneficial to all members, such as open-source programming projects or group art exhibitions. These not only help members hone their skills, but can also help them have fun.
Members can also share their own content for feedback, exposure, and engagement, which is especially useful in communities related to arts, writing, and other creative fields.
The challenges of managing a community
Despite their benefits, managing an online community poses several challenges, especially when it has lots of members. Here are some of the common issues community managers face:
Engagement and participation
Keeping community members engaged and encouraging active participation is a continuous challenge for community managers. There can be a significant disparity between active and passive members (otherwise known as “lurkers”), and finding ways to involve the latter group is essential for a vibrant community.
To solve this problem, community managers often resort to putting out more content and prompting discussions. But as communities grow, the volume of content can become overwhelming, making it difficult for members to filter and engage with relevant discussions. This, in turn, can lead to decreased engagement if members feel their contributions are lost in the noise.
Moderation and governance
As a community grows, ensuring that members consistently follow and apply all the community rules and guidelines can be challenging. It has to be done, though, because inconsistency in rule enforcement can lead to dissatisfaction and a sense of unfairness among members.
For example, no matter how strict the entry criteria are for a community, trolls and people with bad behavior can slither through the cracks and start harassing or bullying community members. Curbing such behaviors promptly is important to prevent those people from undermining the community’s atmosphere and dissuading member engagement.
Member diversity and conflict resolution
Managing a community with a diverse range of cultural backgrounds can lead to misunderstandings or conflicts that stem from differing norms and expectations. These conflicts can also stem from disagreements with certain ideas or theories that community members propose.
The challenge lies in resolving these conflicts in a way that is perceived as fair and effective without escalating the issues further. Community members have to do this, while also ensuring that the community is inclusive, caters to the needs of various subgroups, and promotes an environment where all members feel valued.
As community members need to remain neutral while handling sensitive issues, maintaining this balance between inclusivity among diverse groups of people and fair conflict resolution can be difficult.
Scalability and resource allocation
As communities expand, issues related to scaling, such as maintaining community culture, moderating complex interactions, and increasing administrative workload can arise, especially for communities that lack significant financial backing.
Providing the resources needed to effectively manage a growing community–like time, staff, and technology–while maintaining a quality experience for all members can be challenging.
How to manage an online community
Managing an online community requires a nuanced approach that [SEGUE] Here are the steps to take to manage your community:
Define your community’s purpose and goals
Clarify the fundamental purpose of your online community—why it exists and what it hopes to achieve. This could range from providing educational resources, building out a user base for a new product, promoting a hobby, or building a network for social change.
Once you’ve defined your community’s purpose, set some SMART goals. SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.
An example of a SMART goal for an online community is: Increase member engagement by 20% within six months. This goal is:
- Specific – It’s clear that membership engagement is what you’re focusing on.
- Measurable – A 20% increase in membership engagement is a metric you can easily track via analytics tools.
- Achievable – With the right content marketing strategy and systems in place, it’s possible to get a 20% increase in membership engagement within six months.
- Relevant – Increasing membership engagement is vital to maintaining the health of the community and fulfilling its purpose.
- Time-bound – There’s a stipulated time period within which you want to achieve the goal (six months).
Choose the right platform
The success of your online community depends largely on the platform on which you choose to host it, so select one that suits the size and interaction style of your community. Here are some factors to consider when choosing a platform for your community:
- Purpose and goals. Different platforms cater to different needs—whether it’s content sharing, networking, customer support, or collaboration. Ensure that your platform of choice aligns with the purpose and objectives of your community.
- Features and functionality. Evaluate the features that are essential for your community, such as discussion forums, private messaging, media sharing capabilities, polling, live streaming, and event hosting. Also, check for customization options that allow you to tweak the platform to better match your needs.
- User experience and interface. The platform should be user-friendly, with an intuitive interface that makes navigation easy for all members, including those who aren’t very tech-savvy. This keeps engagement levels high and reduces the learning curve for new members.
- Scalability. Consider how well the platform can grow with your community. Can it handle traffic increases and high-volume content without performance issues? It’s crucial to choose a platform that can grow with your business.
- Cost. Determine your budget for managing the community. Some platforms are free but offer limited functionality or require payment for premium features. Evaluate the costs involved in both starting and scaling the platform.
- Moderation tools. Strong moderation tools are essential for maintaining a healthy community environment. Look for platforms that offer comprehensive moderation features, such as content filtering, user banning, and report management.
- Integration capabilities. Check if the platform can integrate with other tools and services you use, such as social media platforms, CRM software, email marketing services, and analytics tools.
- Data security and privacy. The platform must adhere to data protection regulations, and ensure the security and privacy of your members’ information. This is especially important if sensitive or personal data is being exchanged.
- Analytics and reporting. Ensure that the platform offers comprehensive analytics and reporting tools. Having access to detailed analytics helps you monitor engagement and growth, understand member behavior, and refine your strategies.
Develop a content strategy
If you plan to share content with your community members, plan the types of content you’ll share, who’ll create it, and how often it will be posted.
This content strategy should align with the interests and needs of your community members, and can include a mix of informational posts, discussion prompts, interactive content, and user-generated content. You can also organize regular events or themed discussion days to keep the content fresh and engaging.
Promote your community
The only way to get people to join your community is to tell them that you have one and you’d like them to be a part of it. The best way to do that is to leverage online marketing channels and personal engagement tactics. Here are some promotional strategies you can try:
- Social media marketing. Use social platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter (now X), and LinkedIn to share content from your community, post invitations to join the community, and highlight active discussions or upcoming events. Be sure to tailor your message to suit each platform’s audience and capabilities—for example, using Instagram for engaging visuals and stories, Twitter for quick updates, and Facebook for detailed posts and event creation.
- Content marketing. Create valuable and shareable content that appeals to your target audience, e.g. blog posts, videos, infographics, or podcasts that address topics relevant to your community. Optimize content for SEO to attract organic search traffic and include clear calls to action directing viewers (or readers) to join your community.
- Email marketing. If you have an email list, send your subscribers regular newsletters that include community updates, member highlights, and exclusive content to motivate folks to join. Email campaigns can effectively re-engage past members and attract new ones by showcasing the community’s activity and value.
- Collaborations. Partner with influencers, thought leaders, or other communities that share similar interests. These partnerships can involve joint events, guest posting on each other’s platforms, or shared promotions that introduce your community to a broader audience.
- Events. Host events such as webinars, workshops, or physical meetups that provide value and engage potential new members. Promote these events across all your distribution channels and ensure there’s a clear path for event attendees to join your community.
- Referral programs. If you have the budget, you can set up a referral program and encourage current members to invite friends or colleagues in exchange for incentives. The incentive can be monetary or perk-based, like exclusive content and access to private subgroups.
Encourage member engagement
The appeal of an online community is in the engagement that goes on within it. There are several ways to cultivate engagement in your online community, including:
- Welcome messages. Make new members feel welcomed by sending personalized greetings or creating welcome threads where they can introduce themselves. This helps new members feel included and more likely to participate.
- Interactive content. Develop interactive content, such as polls, quizzes, and interactive videos. Also, ask questions at the end of your posts to encourage comments and discussions.
- Events. Organize regular events such as webinars, live chats, AMAs (Ask Me Anything sessions) with experts, and virtual meetups within the community to give members a reason to participate.
- Highlight member content. As with user-generated content (UGC), showcase content created by members, such as articles, chapbooks, photos, or projects. This encourages the owners of the works and inspires others to share their own.
- Contests and challenges. Organize contests or challenges with small prizes or recognition. For example, writing challenges, photo contests, or fitness challenges can engage different segments of your community.
- Exclusive content. Provide your community members with exclusive content, such as eBooks, articles, or video content that is not available to non-members.
- Rewards system. Use a points or badge system to reward members for participating in the community. Points can be earned by posting, commenting, or helping other members, and can be exchanged for rewards or status upgrades.
Implement moderation
Effective moderation is crucial for maintaining a healthy community atmosphere. This involves enforcing rules as well as guiding conversations constructively and managing member conflicts. Here are some ways to ensure effective moderation:
- Establish clear guidelines and rules. To keep every community member on the same page, develop and publish a set of community guidelines that outline acceptable behavior and the consequences of violations. They should cover aspects such as respect for other members, prohibition of spam, topics of discussion, and privacy norms. Regularly review and update these rules as your community grows and evolves.
- Use moderation tools. Use software and tools that help streamline the moderation process, including automated moderation tools that filter and flag inappropriate content based on keywords, spam detection software, and user reporting systems that allow members to report problematic content or behavior.
- Balance automation with human judgment. While automation can help manage large volumes of content, human judgment is crucial for context-sensitive decisions. Ensure that automated systems are properly overseen by human moderators who can intervene when necessary.
- Train your moderators. Ensure that all human moderators are properly trained in the community’s policies, the nuances of dealing with conflicts, and the use of moderation tools. Having regular training sessions can help maintain consistency and fairness in moderation practices.
- Encourage self-moderation. Encourage your community members to self-moderate by respectfully reminding each other of the community rules and using report features when necessary. This reduces the workload on formal moderators and helps build a self-regulating community.
Monitor and measure performance
Monitoring and measuring the performance of an online community is crucial for understanding its health and how effective it is at improving your bottom line. By tracking specific metrics, you can gain insights into what’s working, what isn’t, and how to improve the community experience.
To track these metrics, integrate your community platform with analytic tools like Google Analytics, social media analytics, or specialized community management software that provides detailed reports and real-time data visualization.
Here are some metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) you should pay attention to:
- Engagement metrics. Track metrics like daily active users, number of posts, comments per post, likes, and shares. These metrics help you understand how engaged your members are and which types of content are most engaging.
- Growth metrics. Measure the growth of your community by tracking new memberships, retention rates, and churn rates. This data provides insights into your community’s attractiveness and the effectiveness of retention strategies.
- Member satisfaction. Conduct regular surveys and polls to gauge member satisfaction. Ask about their experiences, what they like and dislike, and suggestions for improvement. This qualitative feedback is invaluable for understanding member sentiment and making necessary iterations.
- Conversion metrics. If your community is part of a larger marketing or sales strategy, track conversions that originate from community interactions. This could include tracking signups, downloads, or purchases that occur as a result of engagement within the community.
- Health metrics. Monitor the overall health of your community by assessing the ratio of positive to negative interactions, frequency of conflicts, and resolution outcomes. This helps you understand the community’s atmosphere and pinpoint areas that may require more focused moderation.
- Content performance. Analyze which types of content perform best in terms of engagement, reach, and feedback. This analysis can guide your content strategy, helping you produce more of what works best for your audience.
Build a thriving online community with Thinkific Communities
No matter the kind of business you run, having an online community can help you increase brand awareness, boost brand loyalty and advocacy, and generate high-quality leads. Sure, there are many digital platforms you can use to build your community, but Thinkific Communities is your best bet.
Thinkific Communities is a powerful product designed to help you create a vibrant, interactive space where members can engage with content, participate in discussions, and connect with like-minded individuals. It also provides you with the tools to organize educational content, discussions, and resources effectively. This makes it easier for your members to find and consume the content that interests them, enhancing their learning experience and interaction with your brand.
Thinkific Communities is built to scale with your business, which makes it suitable for businesses of all sizes—from small startups to large enterprises. The platform offers extensive customization options, which allow you to tailor the community experience to reflect your brand identity and meet the specific needs of your audience.
With built-in analytics tools, Thinkific Communities provides you with valuable insights into user behavior and community engagement. These metrics can help you understand what works and what doesn’t, enabling you to make data-driven decisions to optimize your community strategies and content, and drive further growth.
Want to try out Thinkfic Communities? Sign up for our free plan today!