How to Create and Engage with a Community Online

How to Create and Engage with a Community Online

The word community derives, ultimately, from an Old High German word which meant to have in mind. It is the same source for the word common. 

Therefore, a community is a group of people with something in common, and the word inherently embraces a sense of togetherness, or to have each other in mind. 

The word has been used both for people with a common location as well as with common interests, such as the professional community or the medical community. 

The internet has blended that element of location more closely with the element of common interests. When meeting at an online community event, people are in the same virtual location, making it easier to build communities online than in real life because one is not limited by physical location constraints. 

Here is a broad and effective game plan on how to build a strong online community.

Steps to building an online community

Find people with a common interest

Before you can find people with a common interest, you need to understand your own interests. You will likely end up being the person in charge of the community, at least initially. Being in charge of something you do not have a personal passion for will turn that baby into a juvenile delinquent. 

For very niche audiences, such as Italian Mothers in Hungary who Like Classical Music, there might not be enough people to form a new, distinct sub-community. But for extremely large communities, such as Star Wars Fans, a good way to find a common interest is to break the community down into very precise categories. You could separate the subcategories by:

• Location
• Sub-interests
• Member characteristics

Decide on the online community platform

The platform(s) you will use to meet and communicate with your community must be decided early on. It is not impossible to change later, but it can be difficult once the community is already going on that platform. 

Many communities often grow around a forum with a particular topic.  

It is crucial to determine if the community platform is open or closed. Examples of an open community platform are:

• Forums that you own, i.e., you own the domain and have configured self-hosted forum software that you can access the database for, as opposed to just starting a thread or sub-group at a forum that is run by someone else. 
• Registration-enabled websites that you run, such as WordPress or Drupal. These are more difficult to set up, and they do require some knowledge of tech so you might want to team up with someone who knows the subject before going this route. These websites were also not particularly designed to host communities and it takes a bit of fancy footwork to set them up this way. Again, a technically skilled person here is essential. 
• EventsX

Open versus closed platforms

It is possible to use an existing platform such as Facebook or Twitter to start up some form of community. There is no initial setup required and all one needs to do is find people with a common interest and then strike up a conversation. 

The primary drawback to this is that neither the community nor the content it creates are under your control. The platform owner could pull that online community from under your feet any time it wants to, and you would have no recourse because of Section 230 in the 1996 Communications Decency Act which protects large tech companies in this respect. 

Promote the community

Initially, it will be necessary to promote the community as much as possible to get new members. As the online community grows, other members can start to take over the actions of promotion. This is usually done by word-of-mouth. 

The best way to get a community to promote itself is to offer value to the community. If people see that they are gaining something from being in that online community, they are highly likely to go and tell others about it through their own social media channels. 

What do people consider valuable in a community:

• Advice
• Friendship
• Help when needed
• Improved circumstances
• Genuine friendship
• Kindness

It is important to assign moderators for the community. Unfortunately, there will always be that occasional troll who stomps into a community and tries to upset its members. Moderators are able to move these people aside quietly so the rest can have a good time. This is another way to add value—making the community an island of kindness and help.

Hold regular, engaging events

Whether you opt for a closed or open platform, or use a forum or blogging platform to build your community, you should hold regular online events to further nurture that sense of community. These events will help engage new and existing members, and help them get to know other members. 

One of the primary reasons EventsX added AI-driven matchmaking and networking features to its online event platform was to make it easier to increase this sense of community between attendees. 

Online community events can also have gamification built into them to increase engagement, as well as polls, quizzes, and surveys to keep community members interacting with each other and enjoying themselves at the online event.

EventsX also offers the option to automatically make the event sessions available on-demand after the event so that the community can continue to interact with that event in the future. This is a great way for new members to gain a quick appreciation for how the community has evolved. 

Takeaway

To build a successful online community, one should:

• Pick a common interest
• Choose the correct platform
• Hold regular, community-building events that are fun and engaging for members
• Give members value for being a part of that community

Kindness, tolerance, and mutual assistance are some of the most important things that people look for in an online community. If you focus on those above all else, much of the above eventually sorts itself out on its own.