A robust online community has the potential to build trust, drive sales, improve loyalty and reduce service costs. But the essence of a thriving community is not just profit; it is all about creating valuable interactions and long-lasting relationships. Profit will follow. Regardless of how great your features are, if you don’t focus on building your community from a customer-centric point of view, you will be left with just people who visit and leave your platform without creating an impact.
To build a thriving online community, start integrating the following features to build strong relationships.
Table of Contents
Relevant user-generated content
It is important to understand the value of creating a safe environment that encourages creators to produce relevant and authentic content. User-generated content, genuine and honest, increases the engagement between community members, strengthening the bond and perceived value of your community platform.
Communities with relevant user-generated content will witness a significant number of subscribers and will continue growing. As real people with real content maintain the community for a real audience, the community platform will be trusted and shared, helping with the brand growth.
Mobile responsiveness
Above 90% of the global population access Internet from their mobile devices, says Statista. While earlier, websites of all types were created for desktop users and their user experience, these days, websites are being created for mobile users. It is critical to give importance to the mobile responsiveness of your online community platform to ensure the experience is rewarding to all users.
Personalization
Curating the feed of your community website to display personalized content relevant to user interest inspires them to contribute more towards the success of your online community. Hence, personalization is an important aspect that contributes to the success and growth of your website.
Make sure you serve the interest of your members by understanding their needs. Over 80% of users are more likely to interact with the community if they receive a tailor-made experience. Personalization has proved to increase marketing spending and holds the power to increase sales by up to 15%. To implement the custom features you can rely on a pre-made turnkey solution to create your online community platform.
Relevant and engaging communication
The key to running a successful online community platform, no matter personal or professional it is, is communication. The ability to communicate clearly and precisely will help you achieve your vision and also helps in efficient collaboration. Make sure you give your community a space where they can create and share their ideas, stories, and vision in real-time with other people.
This helps to improve community engagement which will also help your online community to feel close. In addition, you must offer a safe and private space for your members in an online community feature, the most desirable feature of a community platform.
Track user behavior
Successful online community platforms thrive as they offer their subscribers the content they desire. To offer what your audience needs, you must be well aware of their interests and what your members are searching for. When running a community platform, data becomes your best company.
To gather and analyze valuable data that drives your business decisions, you must implement analytical tools that allow you to measure and track the user behavior of your community members.Using the analytical and reporting tools, you can understand which users are most likely to communicate with your posts. This data can help you offer exclusive member deals that can help to build trust among your community members.
Moderating content
Every community will face issues related to offensive content or content that violate the platform’s rules. Hence, monitoring and moderating content are important as they can affect the reputation of your community platform. Implement features like banning members, administering profane language, and limiting the use of personal contact details among the members, so that you can grow your community into a private safe place for your users. This will help you maintain the decorum and the overall reputation of your platform.
Essential feature checklist for your online community platform
Here are some of the other general features you must integrate to build a community platform.
UI and UX
The online community platform must have a simple yet user interface along with a great user experience. It must be paired with features that help you to reflect your brand message, engage your members, and encourage smooth interactions between your users. Make sure you add social media widgets, SEO-friendly pages, different content types, and threaded conversations.
Multi-channel reach
One of the best features of reliable online community platforms is the multi-channel reach which allows members to access the platform from the platforms of their choice. It must be accessible through the website, mobile app, and social media platforms too.
SEO compatibility and social sharing
A community platform must be compatible with SEO and social sharing. This feature helps with content discoverability through organic searches and social networks.
Third-party integrations
The community platform must support integration with third-party services like CRM, social networks, and knowledge base. This helps to establish a seamless connection between your brand and its online community.
Updates and notification
Make sure your online community platform allows users to filter their content based on their interests. Members must also be able to receive notifications and content updates on the basis it is uploaded to the platform.
Performance
Another necessary functionality of your online community you must pay attention to is the performance. Your platform must be responsive and run smoothly across different devices. It must also adhere to the safety and privacy requirements of the industry.
Easy and affordable implementation
The final feature is that your community platform must be easy to implement and affordable as well. A turnkey solution like Fanso makes a great choice to build your online community platform as it comes with pre-integrated features essential to building a community site.
Conclusion
The list put here might seem like a never-ending one. But building and running a community platform takes a good deal of effort and careful integration of essential features to ensure the smooth functioning of the site. You must do it with dedication, considering the advantages online communities can bring to your business.
