10 Ways to Generate Engagement Within Your Online Community
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Have you recently noticed a decrease in engagement with your online community? If you are unsure how to re-establish and increase online community engagement, we can help. You can grow your business by developing relationships with your online community through several different methods. Read on to learn about these relationship management tips and lead generation strategies.
10 Ways to Generate Engagement with Your Online Community
Ask-Me-Anything Sessions
The ask-me-anything sessions are a forum where your users can ask any question they wish. This is the perfect opportunity to increase engagement as your users like it when they can get the information they are looking for. They can receive this information from either other community members or an expert in your industry.
You should have these AMAs as a regular event on your content calendar. You can also tailor these sessions to events happening such as the promotion of a new product. Another way is to study your community metrics, past popular discussions, frequently used search terms, and other resources.
Provide A Special Time For Industry Tips
Another way to engage your community members is to provide a specific time that provides content just for industry tips. Provide a how-to content item at a regular interval on your content calendar. For instance, in this forum, you can share technology tips for interacting with the community.
Besides providing information, you can also increase engagement from your community members. You can ask your community members to complete any action that can benefit the community as a whole. It can be something as simple as updating their profile picture, making a recommendation, or responding to a thread. Any action on the part of a community member is engagement.
Provide Seed Content
Seed content is content containing resources or questions that the community manager posts on behalf of the community. This content intrigues members to respond and creates organic interaction between community members. The best way to establish your seed content is to study your most active community members and their actions in your online community, and base the content on their actions. When your community needs an increase in engagement, you can post this content that will drive engagement from these members.
Have A Community Member Spotlight
Periodically, you should put one of your most active community members in the spotlight. These members will appreciate the chance of recognition and love the chance to learn about other members. This is one of the best ways to build relationships with your community and add value to your network. For instance, your spotlighted member may have their own product or service to promote, and this rule of reciprocity will add value to connections and increase engagement.
Re-Engage with Inactive Users
If you notice a lull with some of your community members and they are not as active as they once were, find ways to engage them in your community again. To do this, study your inactive members and try to understand why they no longer participate. Are they inactive because they don’t know how to participate in the community? Target these users with a specific call to action (CTA) such as updating their profile information or participating in a quick poll. You can also create smaller, more specific discussion groups or find ways that can make them participate in the larger discussion groups that are not intimidating to them.
A Quarterly Newsletter
A community newsletter sent to members is another great way to generate engagement with your community members. This is a highlight of all your community’s activities and enables you to recognize some key members. The recognition will likely increase your community engagement. This creates a value-added connector framework by providing members with their value and increased awareness of your brand.
Engage with the Company in A Mutually Beneficial Way
A Company Corner is an opportunity for your company’s departments to engage with community members that mutually benefits both entities. This also gives your company the chance to nurture your organizational relationships. You should feature each department in your company at least once a year, while some others, such as product development, can be highlighted several times a year.
Create A Personal Sub-Community For Members
This is a dedicated thread that may run once a week where your community can share their professional and personal updates. This is more of an informal thread that can keep engagement going through effective community moderation. You members can get to know each other on a more personal level through this space specifically through more personal discussions.
Hold A Special Promotion or Contest
A surefire way to increase community engagement is through promotions or contests. You can do this in many ways including a trivia contest where you can ask users to guess industry-related facts about your company. You can also increase engagement with referrals. This is where you ask members to refer someone to your community and both of you get entered into a promotional contest.
Establish Community Leadership Programs
Take your most active community members and designate them as community leaders. Ask these leaders to begin community discussions and offer them the opportunity to promote their own initiatives in the thread. This engagement tactic is a great way to lead to many more organic discussions as the community members interact more with each other.
Promotora Systems Inc. can assist you with all your network management needs. We can show you how to make your business profitable through relationships. Contact us today to begin the next phase of your business development.