Comments on: 7 Harsh Truths about running online communities

By: Mark Cahill

Mark Cahill — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 19:16:24 +0000

@Tom H – what you propose is more like social media marketing than social media…
Brands in my mind shouldn’t be trying to create communities…they need to work with existing communities.

By: Neil Lynch

Neil Lynch — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 10:03:16 +0000

We sell commercial vehicles and have a quite a busy forum for the size of the industry. However we struggle with users mentioning competitors products and advertising their own vehicles which is a conflict of interest for us. We charge people to sell vehicles and do not want them doing it for free on our forum. Surely there is a case for a certainly amount of censorship on a corporate forum?

By: Jason

Jason — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 08:54:21 +0000

I find the key to communities is not to go into it by yourself. Trying to raise a community on your own is incredibly time consuming and involves a lot of hard work.
Its a far better to go into it with a team of preferably 3+ people. This way, you can ping ideas around and have discussions on the forum between you. This brings some activity to your board at the beginning and encourages new visitors to stick around.
Without this you spend a lot of time speaking to yourself hoping that someone will join in a discussion with you.
The other advantage of a team is that you can spread the workload of development, design and moderation amongst each other allowing you individually to have more time for the community itself.

By: JohnONolam

JohnONolam — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 20:46:00 +0000

Does this mean you're going to harp on about the success of list based posts again on the podcast? ;)

By: Lee Theobald

Lee Theobald — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 20:21:33 +0000

I’ve got two points I’d add myself. First one I would add is to give your users some kind of incentive to post. It doesn’t have to be much, just something to let them know that you are there and actively listening to what they are saying. If a lot of people are asking for a certain feature, consider it and let them know if you are going to implement it or not, giving a reason if possible. Having them feel like someone is taking their input seriously is a good way to keep them coming back. It can also make them feel like they were a part of something – never a bad thing.
Next thing I would say is to not go it alone. Running a forum takes time. The more people you can have to keep things ticking over, the better. A good thing Paul also does on the forum here (boagworld.com/forum) is that he’s asked a few of the people on the forum to be “community leaders”. These are people who are there to start topics, keep things on track and to just general keep the forum vibrant & friendly. We get the warm fuzzy feeling from being appreciated for our opinions (back to point one there). Paul get’s a bit of breathing space knowing the forum isn’t going to turn into 101 posts over why “Apple suck” overnight.

By: tom_h

tom_h — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 19:36:52 +0000

to expand a little on point 7.
Another way of getting involved in social media without going to the expense and effort of creating one is to look at what your users are already doing and offer to support it.
If there’s an existing community resource where your product is being discussed, offer to cover the hosting costs, encourage staff to participate and empower them to address or escalate concerns or issues on behalf of your brand.

By: David Hobbs

David Hobbs — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 19:15:59 +0000

Thanks Paul for another excellent blog post. I think all of your points are valid, but I especially like the last one -- adding features/sections/etc too early can certainly make a place seem empty (and I know that's one thing that has me hit the "back" button when I run into an empty community with lots of topics that no one is talking about). Hopefully people will get away from a Build It And They Will Come mentality about community sites.

By: Angela Connor

Angela Connor — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 19:07:23 +0000

I am writing a book about this very topic at the moment. It's called "18 Rules of Community Engagement." It's amazing that people expect a community to form on its own and that they can create a major online destination for visitors without working at it and putting in a great deal of work. You are dead on with this post, my friend! And in your conclusion you mention that readers might deem it too much like hard work. Well it is hard work and it's time that people accept that as gospel.

By: Mark Cahill

Mark Cahill — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 18:44:14 +0000

Amen! This is required reading for all community managers, and anyone who even thinks about putting "social media" in their twitter or Facebook profile. I've been managing online communities since 1995. Some great successes, and some other "lessons learned." Virtually universally the unsuccessful sites fell prey to one, and most likely several of your 7 harsh truths.