When it comes to community management, there are some important do’s and don’ts to be aware of. In this blog, we’ll share our best tips and advice.
What are the Do’s of community management?
Set clear ground rules: Make sure you have clear rules within your community. This way, you make it clear to everyone what is or isn’t allowed. This also creates a clear set of expectations, so members know what kind of content to expect or what the rules around comments and news items are.
Be active and involved in your community: As a community manager, you have to set a good example yourself. Post new content regularly, respond to questions, comments and any complaints. In addition, as a manager, make sure you are available and accessible to your members.
Value creation: Offering ‘value’ is of course a grey area. Every community has to provide value to its members in their own way. To provide real value to your community, it is important that you engage in dialogue with your target audience and carry out solid preliminary research. This will help you find out the needs of members in your community.
Ask for feedback: As a community manager, you should not only be prepared to receive feedback, you can actively ask for it! Place feedback forms in your (online) community or physically visit your members. This way, you can find out how to deliver even more value.
Encourage interaction: As a community manager, you have a connecting role. Bring members together and encourage them to seek further contact with each other. It is therefore important that you, yourself, have a good overview of who is a member within your community and what their needs are.
Seek contact with other communities: It always pays to check with your neighbours. Talk to community managers of other communities and learn from their best practices. Sharing knowledge is often the goal within your community, apply that outside your community too 😉
Start an ambassador programme: Together you’re more effective! As a community manager, you don’t have to do all the work yourself. Find ambassadors who want to contribute to the success of your community for a (symbolic) fee. Think of people who comment, post and connect within your community.
What are the Don’ts of community management
Using one-way traffic: Within a community, an open honest dialogue is extremely important. This means that as a community manager, you should not only send, but also listen to your members. The input your members give makes the community what it is. In fact, the whole experience hinges on your members!
Making big promises: Another don’t is making big promises. A bit of expectation management is important within a community. Get members excited about joining, but don’t make promises you can’t keep. After all, doing so will make you lose members as quickly as they come in.
Move away from your branding, norms & values: Your community is probably linked to your company or organisation. Although the objectives of your community may not correspond 100% with the rest of your organisation, the two are linked. Therefore, make sure your community cannot detract from your business or organisation’s brand perception or vice versa.
Thinking you know what is right: As a community manager, you will have to do research. That means speaking to members, processing feedback and making decisions based on the opinions of others. Thinking you know what your members want without actively asking for this is a good way to waste your time as a community manager.
Withholding information: It is important to be open and transparent about what is going on in your community. By withholding information, you can lose the community’s trust and cast doubt on your intentions.
Bundeling is the platform for your (online) community
Are you still looking for a handy platform for your community? Bundeling is the smart communication platform for every community. Connect Smarter thanks to our app and stay in touch with your members. With a Bundeling platform, you bundle all communication flows in one, and we design your platform entirely according to the wishes and house style of your community.
You can also expand your platform with all kinds of handy integrations and links. Would you like to know more about Bundeling? Contact us directly for a free demo!
