5 Steps for a Successful Online Community
Community building is crucial in creating a safe, enjoyable environment for peers. As stated by i-SCOOP, humans are naturally “communal” as they gravitate towards interacting with others and building relationships (i-SCOOP, n.d.). Though many like being alone, people crave bonding with others simply by interacting, holding conversations, and sharing thoughts and opinions that can connect them to others. For this reason, face-to-face communities have been successful in creating that safe space people seek to for comfort and belongingness. Because face-to-face interaction has all of these positive benefits, online community building isn’t always easy to achieve. Here are 5 things to keep in mind when building a community online:
1. Create a trustworthy environment.
“Trust is a crucial component of any successful team,” (Wooll, 2022). Though this can be difficult to achieve online than in person, you can build trust by being vulnerable. Once individuals see that the online community members are vulnerable with one another, they’ll be more inclined to open up themselves because they’ll begin to notice how those community members are trusting others with information they wouldn’t typically share with “strangers.” This opens trust with these strangers that eventually form part of your community. This doesn’t mean to share things you aren’t comfortable sharing, but simply being honest and authentically yourself will translate to a trustworthy online community.
2. Schedule regular online events.
As an online community creator and leader, it is a good idea to schedule regular online events. This can simply be setting up an hour during the day where everyone can have the opportunity to log in and see everyone online at the same time. This will make community members feel as if they are part of an event and will make them look forward to interacting with others online. It’s easy to have community meetings in person, but translating this to an online forum can be difficult. Scheduling regular online events will keep the activity going.
3. Listen to others.
Online communities are all about people (i-SCOOP, n.d.). In an online community, you create a mutual relationship with everyone and it is no longer just about you, but it is about others as well. Fabian Pfortmüller explained that the shift from behavior in communities is going from ME to WE (Pfortmüller, 2018). When you join a community, you go into it with the intention of being helped, but part of a strong community is also being able to help others and with that comes listening. This means that just as much as you want to continue sharing, there should be a good balance with sharing and expecting help, and listening and lending help.
4. Be active.
Activity is a huge part of a successful online community. Ways you can be more active are by providing feedback when others share their thoughts, opinions, and experiences. Likewise, sharing your own personal thoughts, opinions and experiences can increase activity and motivate others to participate. Even something as simple as liking others’ posts can go a long way, so that those who post and share can feel seen by others even if they don’t necessarily respond back. No one wants to participate when they feel like no one is paying attention.
5. Have clear guidelines.
This a huge one! When sharing in an online community, guidelines can often be overlooked. In person, it’s easier to disclose privacy by simply telling others not to share outside of the community, but when a member shares something online, it can get easily forgotten that the things that are shared online can stay there forever. Elana Premack Sandler from Psychology Today talks about an incidence where a community member felt uncomfortable sharing anymore because she kept on getting asked by other members if they can share her post. She felt incredibly uncomfortable because had assumed that it was a given to not share outside of the online community, but she was wrong (Premack Sandler, 2011). This is why it is crucial to assure that you have clear rules and guidelines for your online community to avoid any discomfort from any member.
An online community can be just as successful as an in-person community. By noticing how these successful face-to-face communities go about creating a safe and enjoyable environment, an online community can succeed as well!
