Online Community Managers Can Follow Structure But Still Go With the Flow
For many community managers, the idea of putting together a new online destination can be a little… scary.
And so, they might embrace structure and rules and corporate requirements with zeal. And that’s great!
But that’s only part of it. Going with the flow can also bring results. And, I might add, it may be the best way to start, grow, and sustain a community.
So, let’s start with not the absolute beginning. Rather, we’re going to start with a small community that already exists. Your definition of ‘small’ may differ from mine, so recognize that your mileage may vary.
Think of it as, perhaps, a community you just bought. Or maybe you’ve exhausted your friends and family and are looking to leap to the next degree of relationship with you—acquaintances. Or maybe you want to go even further, and into strangers’ territory.
Community Managers: From Small Things, Big Things Sometimes Come
Every forum starts out small. Getting started is one thing. How do you get big?
The secrets to getting big go hand in hand with those for getting started: Search Engine Optimization and content.
SEO
Let’s start with SEO. If you haven’t checked your keywords in three months, check them now. Compare them to your competitors, and check Google Adwords. Consider changing up your keywords for a while and see if you can draw more traffic.
The basic principles of offsite SEO still apply. Yes, even now, in the age of AI search.
Get your site linked to by other sites which are more popular. Also, consider article marketing (if appropriate) and guest blogging. Perhaps some of your best content can be repurposed as articles or blog entries.
Ask the creator(s) of that content for their permission (even if your Terms of Service say that you own all posts, this is courteous) and update and repackage the content.
Articles can still be a great way to generate interest in your site so long as you add your URL into the “About the Author” section. And make it clear that you allow reprint rights only so long as the article remains completely intact, including the “About the Author” section.
Blogging
One good blog deserves another. If you want to see if your better content can go on others’ blogs, why not create your own site blog? So, at minimum, you can use it to inform your users of site changes and planned outages. But you can use it for a whole lot more.
Because you can showcase and expand better content, announce contests and promotions, and keep important site information front and center. Plus, if you add a blog, you can again make the rounds of basic social media bookmarking sites such as Reddit.
Add an RSS feed if you have not already. You can often feed it into Twitter (X) and Facebook using a promotional site like HootSuite. And for blogs, you can usually just link to the appropriate feed and have WordPress do the reposting for you. I do.
Create a Facebook fan page and, at minimum, populate it with the RSS feed. Community managers can also use it to assure users if your site goes down, particularly for unexpected outages. Because such an outage can make some users nervous.
So, Facebook (and X/Twitter, too) can be a means by which you reassure them. But don’t stop there! You can use Facebook as a means of attracting people to the site by reposting the good stuff. And just with good old social media marketing.
Site Redesign
Another area where you might be able to better grow your user base is with some site redesign. Be careful with this as a community can often take (frequently somewhat unfounded) proprietary interest in the site’s look and feel.
One way you can ease users into a change is by telling them (don’t ask for permission) that you’re going to be testing some site changes. Consider using A/B testing and compare a few different versions and see which one works better.
Simplified Registration
Consider simplifying your registration process, if you can, and embrace user-centered design. You still want to use a captcha code, and you still want to have your members sign up with a real, usable email address. Plus, you’ve got to comply with GDPR.
But look at your process and see if there are any unnecessary hurdles. Are you asking for something like a potential user’s middle name or home city? Isn’t that kind of useless (and many users would feel that home city information would be excessively intrusive)?
Jettison the question and your registrations might increase.
Since you’re tinkering with the signup process and not the overall look and feel of the site, your regular membership might not take so much of a proprietary interest. They might not even notice.
But Google, which cares a lot about UX design when it comes to search, will notice.
Analysis
Check your metrics. Small things on a daily basis are not going to matter too much. But if you’ve got a continuing decline over time, or if membership is staying the same and not really increasing much, you may need to take action.
To grow your site, you need to continue to promote fundamental principles: improve your site design and test it; take care to add and promote good, keyword-rich content; and continue good onsite and offsite SEO practices.
And be patient as small things become bigger ones. Most communities weren’t built in a day.
And keep in mind that truly organic communities don’t stay on topic forever. But that’s okay. It’s a big part of going with the flow.
Community Managers: Let’s Look at Going off Topic
Is going off topic ever a good idea? Surprisingly, yes. There is nothing more like going with the flow than going off-topic.
And this is a part of every community, and it is a sign of health. Don’t worry about this. Because otherwise, people aren’t interacting naturally.
How Community Managers Can Fix the Problem
Well, it’s not much of a problem, truth be told. Still, targeted off-subject conversations can work. There may be targeted, related topics you can try, if you’re having problems getting engagement or people sticking around.
So, give your users more topic leeway, and they might be more inclined to stay and become customers – a trade-off that any Marketing Department should love.
And then there are the superstar users who, seemingly, can do no wrong.
Community Managers: Consider Superstar Users
What are superstar users? Some people just seem to be born with it. If you’ve ever spent some time on forums, you immediately know who they are.
Their topics rarely go without a response for long. And their contributions are routinely applauded (either using available site software or via written praise) by the other users. Their absences are lamented (and noticed!).
Fellow members celebrate their returns. In addition, people rarely forget their birthdays and membership milestones.
They are superstar users.
They can be made by the community, or they can be nudged along by you, the Community Managers. The community can sometimes choose stars that don’t promote your company’s vision very well. But you can combat this by selecting some superstars of your own.
How Community Managers Can Start Converting Users into Superstars
How do you make superstar users? Almost the same way that the community does. However, you may have some added tricks up your sleeve. First of all, choose a few likely candidates. Go into your member list and sort by number of posts, from most to least.
Select your top 20 posters.
You probably know who they are already. But if you don’t, if you have a posts/day statistic, copy that down. Put all of this into a spreadsheet. Add in the dates each user joined the site and the dates of their most recent posts (which may be the day you compile this information).
If anyone has overwhelmingly negative social signals (vote downs, ignores, complaints or reports against them), if you can put your hands on that information quickly, discard that member from your list and replace him or her with the next one.
Ignore sock puppets and second accounts, if you have good proof that two accounts belong to the same person.
Again, just move onto the person with the 21st-most posts/day, etc.
Now look at your list. Who is the member with the most recent posting date, with the highest number of posts/day, who has been a member the longest? Rank that person #1 and rank everyone else in order behind him or her. Ties are fine.
This is a rough calculation, not meant to be perfect.
Researching Superstar Users
Now you’ll need to do a little more research. If you have this data readily available, use it: the section(s) of the site where your top 20 users spend most of their time. This could divide by tags or subforums or categories.
It really depends on however your site is divvied up. However, if this information is not readily available, research it by investigating everyone’s last 10 posts.
Of course, their most recent 10 posts could potentially not be perfectly characteristic of their behavior on the site. So, you take that chance. Nothing is set in concrete; you can always revisit this later.
If your #1 user’s last 10 posts are all on message or in the section(s) of the site devoted to your company’s message, that person stays at #1. But if not, weigh them as against their 19 competitors.
And if #2 is close to #1 but a lot more on message, switch their rankings. Also use this measurement of being on message (or not) to resolve any ties.
Continuing
Now look at your list again. #1 should be the user who is most on message, with a lot of posts and recent activity, who has a long history on the site and whose negative social signals are minor.
There are usually some negative social signals, particularly for long-time, popular posters. That’s fine; just try to stay away from universally reviled people. This is the first person you want to approach.
And, how do you approach them? Handle this both indirectly and directly.
Indirectly by promoting their posts, topics and replies, with up votes, applause, positive ensuing comments and making their topics sticky. In short, do whatever your software allows which provides them with attention and positive reinforcement.
Don’t do this all at once. Spread it out over time. Community managers, you’re in a marathon, not a sprint here. Provide the same indirect positive reinforcement to your other candidates, but less as you go down your list.
Directness
The direct approach: engage them, both openly on the boards and in private messages (most sites have the means to do this). You should never out and out flatter them. Instead, offer encouragement or point out their posts that you find interesting.
Or tell them about others’ posts that you feel might interest them. Again, don’t do this all at once. Offer these little tidbits gradually.
Every few months or so, review your list and consider whether to add or drop anyone. If you’ve made friends with these users then of course don’t drop them from your personal life just because they’ve gone off message too much!
But certainly, curtail your official Community Manager messages to them if there are others who would be more receptive.
Why do community managers want to do this?
Superstar users can help to bring your site out of a funk. They can (and do) make you aware of spam. Superstar users create and promote good content. They help trolls lose their power. They can help to calm the site down and ease it into and out of transitions.
You can count on them.
However, they need to feel valued. And, even more importantly, they need to feel that you don’t just call on them when you want something.
Provide positive reinforcement when there is no crisis and you’ll be able to call on them when there is one. And the corollary is true as well: superstar users, if unappreciated, will leave, and other users will follow them out of your forum.
Ignore them at your peril.
Want More About Community Management?
If my experiences with community management resonate with you, then check out my other articles about how online communities work.
Community Management Tidbits
• A Day in the Life of a Community Manager
† Analytics
• Get Together
† Going From a Collection of Users to a True Community
• Handling Yourself as a Good Netizen
† How Online Community Managers Can Go With the Flow
• Let’s Get this Party Started
† Look at Me!
• Risks of a Community Without Management
† Snakes in the Garden
• The Circle Game
† Are Off Topic Posts Ever Okay?
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