How To Boost Member Engagement In Online Communities
Most community builders agree that member engagement is ten times more significant than growing their group’s member base. So if you’re struggling to learn how to increase community engagement and build an effective strategy, you are not alone.
“I’d rather create 25% more value for every member in the community than grow the member base by 100%. Creating more value for current members will attract the right future ones. Having more members doesn’t necessarily create more value,” says David Berkowitz, founder of Serial Marketers.
In today’s article, we’ll cover how to build real value for your users and engage your community. Let’s get into it!
Community Engagement Strategies
Member engagement is a key element in a successful community. There are many strategies to help managers understand how to increase community engagement.
But they all revolve around two main concepts, according to Jessie Breugel: producing and curating valuable content and being consistent.
#1: Make Interaction Fun With Discord Polls
Polls are a great way to engage with your community. And Discord is one of the best platforms to do it! It not only brings a bit of fun to your server but gives users the opportunity to vote for their favorite feature, item, or whatever you ask them.
Also, if you’re looking for strategies to boost your community engagement, Discord polls will be your perfect ally. Polls incentive member participation while helping you collect valuable information from your audience.
Ask for people’s opinions, preferences, and experiences! Learn more about your community and show your members that you’re interested in what they have to say.
#2: Make New Members Feel Welcome With an Onboarding Process
A welcoming onboarding process is a key to making new members feel good when joining your community. Think about onboarding as your group’s cover letter. It needs to make people want to be part of your group. And feel like they’re joining a safe and warm space.
Therefore, the second good strategy when learning how to improve community engagement is making sure your new members feel welcome. The onboarding process should also suggest some first steps they can take to begin integrating into the community.
That’s why the onboarding process usually includes basic info about the group, such as its goals and purposes. The essential thing to keep in mind when creating the onboarding process is to be authentic! Let your values and core beliefs shine through.
When building your onboarding process, think about what experience you want new members to have. How can you make sure they feel comfortable and welcome?
#3: Organize Networking Activities
One of the main reasons people join communities is because it enables them to connect with like-minded individuals. So offering networking events and activities is a sure bet if you’re trying to increase community engagement.
Some networking activities online groups organize are virtual or hybrid events, such as Q&As and interviews. Another good option is to explore in-person events, such as members-only breakfasts or cocktails.
#4: Organize Webinar Events
Another option is to organize webinars or other learning events, such as online courses, workshops, boot camps, and exclusive training. You can apply a tiered membership model. As subscribers move up the hierarchy of the membership model, the more they access the community’s benefits, including all these learning events.
#5: Share Curated Content Created by Members
In his interview with Unita, David Berkowitz also said a key factor about his community is that it’s a safe space for people with different views about topics such as marketing, culture, and politics.
If you’re a community manager, you could collect diverse content and information created by members (user-generated content) and produce original and curated content to be easily digested by a wider audience.
User-generated content is a KPI that answers the following question: How much of your community’s content is published by its members?
Because if members are active and create their content, it means they enjoy engaging in conversations and discussing topics of interest with other members.
#6: Have a Proactive Community Manager & Moderator
Keeping group members active is key to having an engaged community. As a community manager, it’s essential that you’re active too and that you interact with other members as well.
A good way of doing so is to use this user-generated content and make a content curation, adding your unique point of view and professional value, which could be your expertise on the matter.
Building a safe, friendly, and welcoming environment is key to increasing member engagement and retention. Moderating user-generated content and taking the necessary steps to reduce inappropriate content works wonders to increase community engagement.
That’s why moderation efforts are essential for any community. And as a moderator, you need to be concerned about the number of posts or comments that are deemed offensive by other members.
#7: Reward Member Participation
Another good option to increase community engagement is offering valuable deals to members, including vouchers, discounts, and exclusive offers. This will not only serve as an incentive for people to be more active but they will also love to feel appreciated by you!
#8: Offer Free Trials
Another useful way to bring in new members to your community is to offer a free trial of your product or service. This way you’ll get more users on board and your audience engaged!
For example, Calee Shea is a Hormone and Holistic Health Coach who sporadically gives away free access to one of its classes related to hormone balancing.
At the end of each of these masterclasses, she speaks to her audience about what her boot camp is all about. Also, she gives new members a $100 discount for the next 24 hours post-class.
Member retention is one of the most complex aspects of being a community manager. While there are hundreds of strategies, it can take days to find the right one that will drive engagement in your community. So be patient and once you find the one that works for your community, stick to it!
This post was originally published in Unita.co on September 28, 2022.
