Applying Techniques to Your Online Community
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, online communities were created and being implemented more than face-to-face communities were. As online communities grow, there has to be more features and regulations applied to them to make them well functioning as if they were face-to-face.
The first way is by building trust with your users, so that they will feel more open discussing with others online. In a face-to-face community, it is easy to build trust with someone by seeing their personality and body language. However, in an online community you can only know someone based off their profile picture which is hard to tell much. This is why the use of video is key to building trust with your online community. Whether it being pre-recorded or live videos, it will show your members that they have been communicating with actual humans and not a computer. For instance, with a live video, your members can interact with you in real time and have the chance to get to know you better as if they had met you in person.
The second way is listening and responding to your users’ concerns to make them feel acknowledged. In a face-to-face conversation, it can be very simple to sit and listen and respond to someone’s issue because all you attention is on them in that time. Unfortunately, online communities are not quite like that because it can take time for a member to receive a response or even feel acknowledged. This is why engagement is extremely important within an online community because without it, your group could potentially become dysfunctional. It is a good rule of thumb to make a schedule of when you can check in with your group and respond to any questions or concerns. The time you put aside will show your members that you value their input and actually dedicate time to engage with them.
The third way is setting the tone for your group. In a face-to-face community, there may posters around the room stating the different rules that are set in place and to show as reminders. With an online community, you can set the tone by providing a clear description of your rules before a user even joins, so they can know what kind of atmosphere your group will be. You can also set the tone by creating a welcome video so the user can see who is actually behind the group and feel more comfortable about joining the group. Don’t look at rules as being strict and dictative, look at them making your group stays in control and prevent any dysfunction from occurring.
As you can see, online communities have the potential to be as successful as a face-to-face community. You have to apply techniques as you would in a face-to-face community. These techniques include building trust with users, listening and responding to users’ concerns in a timely manner, and setting the tone for your group to feel comfortable. After applying those techniques and maintaining them, you online community will be well-functioning.
References:
Baiocchi, S. (2021, February 5). How to build and maintain an engaged online community. IMPACT Inbound Marketing Agency. Retrieved January 17, 2022, from https://www.impactplus.com/blog/how-to-build-and-maintain-an-engaged-online-community
