When you're building a Web site it's easy to get carried away with all the bells and whistles. And if you've been reading this site and others like it, you'll know that one of those bells is online community. The idea is that if you create community on your Web site, more people will be interested in coming to your site, and coming more often. This will result in more page views, and ultimately more sales and so more money in your pocket.
But
This is only somewhat true.
It's very true that if you can create a strong community on your Web site, people will identify with that community and want to be a part of it. They will visit your site in order to feel like they are a part of something bigger, and this will generate all the good things that you've heard about community.
But if you create an area for your Web community and no one comes, this can be almost worse than having none at all. A forum that is prominently advertised on your site, but has no posts makes it look like no one cares. "And if other people don't care," your customers are thinking, "Why should I?".
Plan Before You Build
There are some questions you can ask about your customers and their habits as well as your abilities as a Web community administrator, and finally about the content that your community would revolve around.
The Customers
The customers are the people who will make up your community, and if they aren't online
or just aren't interested in talking, you'll have a tough time building community.
- Are your customers already active online?
If they aren't, setting up online community for them is going to be challenging at best. You'll have to get them online and comfortable with being there before you can even ask them to join your community. - Do your customers want to talk to other people?
Your community needs to have people who want to interact with other people. That is why collectors communities do really well, but online carpet sites might not. People don't feel a need to talk to others at great length and over many sessions about their carpet. - Will your customers be willing to share their information?
Topics that are of a very private nature would not make good community builders.
The Administrator(s)
The admins are the people who are actually participating in the community from the "insiede".
These are employees who answer questions, participate in chat, or write the company blog.
- Do you have the time for community?
Once a community gets going it can take a lot of time to keep active. If you start your community with a lot of direct interaction from you or others in your company, your customers will begin to expect that. If you can't keep up that level of attention, the customers will get upset and leave because they're feeling ignored. - Do you have the "voice" for community?
Many larger companies have found that community run by people not approved for PR work can be problematic. They don't always know what they can and cannot say. Plus, you need to have a voice that matches your audience, too formal for a casual crowd, and you've lost them (and vice versa).
The Content
This is the topic of your community. In most cases, it's not enough to just put up a
forum and let people have at it. Some will start bashing your company, while others
will talk about what their kitten played with today.
- Is your content something people are passionate about?
Like my carpet example above, if you don't have a topic that people really care about then your community won't work. Unfortunately, for many corporations, most of the customer passion is surrounding negative experiences and not talking about the wonderful nature of the products. - Is your topic related to a specific lifestyle?
Motorcycle fanatics will congregate offline and if you have a motorcycle site, you might consider community so that they can congregate online as well. This same fact applies to other lifestyle choices like Web Designers - as Meetup.com has discovered.
Thinking about what you're aiming for before building an online community is crucial.
