10 ideas for community engagement to
If you've ever run communities, either online or offline, you've learned something. Inviting people to join within a community is awesome. Making them feel engaged and excited about attending is even more effective.
Sometimes, that's a challenge. It's sometimes difficult to convince people to dive into the action and be involved. Some people are willing to remain on the fence for long periods. If you're not able to keep participants to be involved There's a chance of them being a part from the group altogether.
Okay, enough for the scary stuff. It's good to know that it doesn't have to be very difficult to get individuals involved in the community.
In fact, with the right tools and strategies it is possible to get your member engagement going in during the week.
The funniest aspect? Engagement can work like an iceberg. When more of your members are involved as they become engaged, the more active members will help other members become more engaged. That means the efforts you make to get your members engaged will result in an impact over the long term which you're not able to imagine.
If you're looking to begin, these will help. These are the top 10 ways to engage with your community that to try this week!
If you want more support in building your online community, come join OUR Mighty Community for free as well as meet fellow new and experienced community leaders! We'd love to meet you. Join to join for no cost!
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1. Customize the new member user experience
5. Know your Ideal Member with a Big Purpose
1. Make it easier for new members to customize their user experience
Okay, let's talk about the most crucial point of a member's journey beginning with their first minutes, hours, or days within a community.
This is the most terrifying part for the new family member. This is like becoming the new student in school. The whole class knows each other and knows the situation, but it's not easy to join in.
So you need to provide the best welcome experience for new members. Make sure that every single person in your community is aware of how to start. The goal is to get them into discussions and make them feel comfortable to show them where the opportunities are , and the possibilities to do, and remind them that you're there to assist them.
In an online community This can be accomplished through building a great digital experience for new members.
In the example of a Mighty Network, we created the checklist for new members that you can customize and make your personal. Everyone who joins the network sees this, and it walks them through steps like setting up their member profile and saying hi in the community, asking their first question, or RSVPing to their first live event.
The way you design it is up to you. What's for certain is an amazing user experience for new members won't let people go. They'll jump in and start participating.
*We have a free training on building a magical new user experience for the Mighty Community! *
2. Go live... a lot!
We love live streaming. Whether it's a planned event or an unexpected surprise live streaming adds an element of real online community.
Live streaming could come with an occasional "um" an, but don't get hung up on the. In the midst of all the perfect created social media channels available some humanity is welcome.
In order to increase member participation Try going live on a regular basis. It is possible to discuss what you're learning, talk to members of your community, or an outsider, or even have an answer-and-question time or an AMA.
Also, before you ask, yes those butterflies the moment you start live streaming are totally normal. It's a little nerve-wracking to live stream when you've never tried it before. If you tear off the band-aid you'll love what happens next. Increased engagement.
And by the way, your presentation skills will improve over time. The butterflies will also go off. Give it a go!
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3. Updates to emails
OK, now that you consider your strategy for engaging with the community take a look at the role of email.
One of the benefits that a great community platform, and especially one that has a beautiful, built-in app it is that members do not need to be bombarded with emails on everything. They should be getting notifications with their community platform (and the best platforms will give them options to customize their notifications). ).
This gives you the option to be really strategic in your use of emails. There is no need for emailing your members every single day. You can send out information or let them be aware of certain events. If people have been away from your platform for some time, this could be an effective strategy to bring the users back.
And when life gets hectic, as it will every week, an update of the events in your community can help people stay connected and help them get ready to dive back in.
4. Play with Incorporate
Communities are supposed to be enjoyable. Sometimes, we have an urge to be overly serious, particularly when members are charged for membership. It is possible that you are feeling the pressure to try to deliver an service that is... "professional. "
There's a time and location for it. It's not that we're saying it's not appropriate to be professional.
However, being "professional" isn't always about having to take everything seriously all the time. A great community should also include a fun element. If you are able to get your members to laugh together by sharing their vulnerability of playing and having fun and playful, you'll be creating an amazing experience for your members.
Consider incorporating some exciting things. An online game show. Karaoke. Things that break your community from the ordinary and increase engagement through entertainment. If you're in search of an event idea that is fun and engaging you can find a complete listing of ideas here.
5. Find your ideal member and the Big Goal
We recommend doing at the planning stage of your community. It's called the process of Community Design(tm). Even if you didn't do this step at the time of planning, it's not too late to start these activities today.
Every community needs two things. In the first place, there must be an ideal member. It is essential to understand who your community is for. Make sure you are as precise as you can about the members you have; learn the characteristics of them, their hopes and their dreams as well as what they are passionate about.
If you can identify a certain ideal member, this will aid in the engagement of your community. Since instead of throwing objects on the ground to see what sticks, you can simply focus on helping others.
Ideal member to solve the issue that they are facing. Ideal Member is a way to get members involved and get involved.
The other part is to create what we refer to as the Big Purpose. The purpose of your Big Purpose is to define who you are in your community and how you can assist them in doing. This is how it looks.
And, by the way We offer absolutely free tutorials on how to identify your ideal members as well as the purpose behind your participation within our massive community.
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6. Moderate that one thing
Engaging your community in a positive way isn't just about what's in your community. A big part of it is knowing the things your community shouldn't have.
That's the point where a well-thought out community moderation approach comes in.
Members should feel comfortable in the community. They should know that they won't be bullied or abused. They must be confident that they will not see content that are racist, sexist, homophobic, or some other form of discrimination.
In order to build a community in which people feel safe, you need to build the right moderation strategies. Inform your members of what expectations they should be following, and make sure to review them frequently. Don't be afraid to use the moderation tools on your community platform to block or flag offensive material. And think about choosing the most active, loyal members to help you out with the task of moderated content.
Moderation isn't very exciting from the beginning. Nobody gets their thrills from sitting down and writing out the rules.
But trust us, the psychological safety that your members have is well worth the risk. When people feel secure and secure, they're more likely to engage.
7. Create rituals
Imagine stepping all the way back to human societies that existed hundreds of years long ago. The time when our forefathers gathered in campfires. What brought them together?
One of the main factors in community bonding was the power of rituals. Rituals served to signify belonging in the group. They were used for major changes in life, such as the rituals that marked the transition between being a child and being an adult. Also, they were utilized to mark the passage of time. This included months, weeks and years.
Your community can benefit from the power of rituals too. As you go through the life of your community, pay attention to instances that are worthy of being ritualized. Perhaps it's something that you've tried with new members and you want to keep doing to everyone, like the experience for new members we talked about above. Maybe once a year you hold a particular type of community-based event that people look at looking forward to. Maybe it's just the community's monthly happy hour.
In creating these events by naming the moments and making them unique by creating rituals, you're creating them. This is something that humans have done since the beginning of time, making rituals a powerful community engagement tool.
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8. Ask questions
As we've looked at communities, we've discovered one thing again and again that creates engagement. It's not a secret.
The point is...questions!
Questions can draw people in. Questions ask something of them. Questions get them to pull off their own experiences and expertise, which is something that people are all happy about. In short, questions might be the key to the engagement of your members.
In actual fact, we are passionate about questions so much that a while back we came up with this amazing guide for 1,000 discussion questions which you can utilize to spark discussion in your group. Get it here for free.
9. Go on quests
Another thing we've put into our game that we're overjoyed about. Quests. Like the knights of yesteryear, quests take your community in a quest. We offer a complete and no-cost training for creating quests for Our Mighty Community too!
10. Unscripted
Here's another tip to get into the mind-blowing power of community engagement. Do you have the right tools?
Unscript.
As community managers, it could be tempting to keep a tight rein on everything. It is tempting to scrub everything. So that everything looks impeccable. But ask anybody who's spent any time in a group and they'll inform you that the most memorable moments tend to be the ones which nobody anticipates. They're the ones that aren't scripted.
The live stream that the guest isn't allowed to participate and the discussion that follows ends with more power than what the actual session might have been. It might be the moment where a community member breaks into tears while you watch the others jump into support and cheer the person.
It's obvious that there's nothing you can plan to include unscripted events. It would defy the point.
However, do allow space and time to be with each other in ways that don't seem to be perfectly scripted, and be ready to witness the magic unfold.
11. Empower your best people
Community, as the word suggests, shouldn't be done by oneself. Leadership of a group shouldn't be performed on its own as well.
One of the secrets for a successful community engagement strategy is to bring people in and not try to be an all-person event. Sometimes, it is necessary to hire an administrator for the community. But often it just means giving members the tools they need to be there.
You can do this with things like an Ambassador Program that offers members rewards for inviting new members. Also, you could promote your best members to co-Hosts or moderators. These can be paid or unpaid positions, and you might be surprised to find those who are invested in your community love having the chance to assume an active role in the community and get further.
Ready to start?
We hope these tips have you excited about adding new life to your neighborhood. Be aware that even having thousands of members will not bring much value if they aren't engaged. Utilizing these suggestions will aid in bringing new members and keep them there. We've seen many times members may join communities to benefit from classes, however people are able to stay for long periods of time because of the relationships that they make within them.
If you're in search of an incredible platform to build your community, give it a try ! It's a complete community engine that brings together forums, messaging, subgroups, live streaming, courses along with integrated events and many more. You can charge for membership, sell courses and subgroup access, or bundle all of them. And it comes with an app you and is loved by your customers.
Don't believe our word for it; you are able to try it for free in fourteen days!
Are you ready to begin building your community?