6 Tips for Keeping Members Engaged in Online Communities

Posted by: Jenise Fryatt

Monday, October 4th, 2010

As the newest community leader here at Engage365, the first thing I was curious to know is what keeps you all engaged in an online community. So I decided to make it the topic of Friday’s Water Cooler Chat, thinking that the answers would not only help me, but would probably be enlightening for members who run their own online communities for events.

It was a very lively chat and I thoroughly enjoyed it. But it was only afterward, when I was reading through the transcripts, that I realized how insightful the comments had been.

Here are six points from the chat that I think are especially helpful for keeping people engaged in any kind of online community.

1 – Make sure your community is relevant

As Cindy Marie Jenkins (@cindymariej) put it, “Sure, relevance to your audience is the most important factor in keeping ppl reading tweets, clicking thru, etc”

Some powerful ways a community can ensure it remains relevant are by staying focused on it’s mission (often the reason members joined in the first place); posting timely, relevant content; and getting thought leaders to participate.

Immediacy can also certainly add to a community’s relevancy. Online communities have the advantage of being capable of hosting real-time discussions anytime. If a debate breaks out on Twitter or in the comments of a blog, an online community can immediately respond by posting a relevant question, holding a chat, posting a related article or simply directing the community’s attention to the debate.

2 – Actively encourage participation from everyone

“What keeps me engaged? a community that is active…participants who are participating I guess you could say…many voices,” Traci Browne (@TraciBrowne).

People want to be involved in a vibrant community. They like hearing many voices, not just the same ones over and over again. However, often members need to be encouraged to participate.  Comments should get responses.  And to get things rolling, other incentives for additional participation might be considered.

3 – Create a safe environment for sharing opinions

The community must be a safe place to share; a place where personal attacks are not tolerated. As Kari Rippetoe (@KariRippetoe) put it, “Huge online community turn-off: first thing new visitors see are members arguing & flaming the heck out of each other.”

Controversy shouldn’t be avoided as it can draw traffic to the community, spark debate, and keep ideas flowing. However personal attacks shut down discussions and can scare potential members away. Community leaders should make sure the conversation remains respectful.

4 – Provide quality, relevant content

From my experience, this is where a lot of online communities fail. They seem to think it’s enough to provide a place for like-minded individuals to meet. The thing I’ve always admired about Engage365 is it’s commitment to feeding community thought & discussions by posting relevant content. As noted above, good content is relevant to the community’s mission and members. Platforms can include original & guest blog articles, video interviews, blog talk radio and more.

Also, several people participating in the chat said that promotion of other people’s content by members was very important as opposed to hearing the same members opining over and over again.

5 – Provide educational opportunities

“What keeps me engaged? Selfishly, a good online community delivers the learning and knowledge right to me.” – Nick Caston (@webcaston).

People are drawn to communities that offer something of value such as education. Again, here is a great opportunity to gain new members that a lot of online communities are missing.

Event planners can post webinars or talks by speakers that will be appearing at their events. They can post video recordings of sessions after the event to keep the community engaged and help draw new members who may attend next year and so on. Or how about just identifying members who have a skill or knowledge that they can share with the group in a webinar? White papers, e-books, the possibilities for providing good educational content are endless and potential sources are everywhere.

6 – Find ways to help members strengthen connections with each other

Of course we all take for granted that online communities exist because they provide networking opportunities.  But many of these communities still fail to keep their members engaged. A very interesting chat comment on this came from Adrian Segar (@asegar), “What binds me like superglue is when online connections=>gr8 f2f connections, as w/certain #eventprofs on this very chat ”

Strong online relationships beg to be taken offline. Event Planners, this may be the BEST reason for maintaining an online community throughout the year. But the reverse is true as well. Face to face events can serve to strengthen online communities.

In addition to big organized events, members can meet in small self-organized gatherings face to face. They can also explore opportunities to get to know each other via skype and video chatting sites like TinyChat. Online community organizers should encourage and support these meetings as strong relationships between members are likely to benefit the community as a whole.

I hope these tips are of use to you. I know they will be to me. If you have any thoughts, or more tips you’d like to add, please share them in the comments.

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