Online communities often serve as the hub of member activity for associations. In one digital space, members can receive updates about association activities, network with peers, discuss the latest industry trends, and more. However, for users to get the most out of their visits and commit to renewing their memberships, you must make this benefit worth using.
In this quick guide, we’ll cover four features that all the best online member communities share. Get up to speed now to boost community engagement.
A Robust Resource Library
Members are often looking for your association’s reports, journals, and other educational resources when they visit your website. Even if you keep publicly accessible resources on your main website, consider moving member-exclusive content to your online community.
Create a large resource library that community members can explore any time they log in. As you move content over, make sure that everything in your resource library is:
- Relevant and useful: All of your resources should be clearly relevant to your association and members’ interests. Avoid throwing in content that doesn’t directly relate to your field, and check your existing documents for anything that’s outdated or no longer useful to members.
- Accessible to all members: Clearly link your resource library in the sidebar or the top navigation so users can find it easily. In the library itself, follow association digital accessibility guidelines to ensure that everyone can benefit from your resources, even those using screen readers or keyboard navigation.
- Clearly categorized: Your content is more useful to members if it’s organized. Use categories and tags to group resources by type, subject, industry, and other markers that make sense for your members. For example, you might create one category for “Early Career Development” and another for “Executive-Level Insights.”
- Easy to search and filter: Along with basic search functionality and filtering, the best communities have an intuitive search tool powered by artificial intelligence (AI) to provide immediate answers to members’ questions.
When your content library is integrated with your online community, members can get answers to their questions much more quickly. For instance, if they search “How to use the job board,” they might find a how-to infographic from your association, a community-generated best practices document, and a discussion thread about the job board’s latest updates.
Active Discussion Boards
Your discussion forum is the core way members engage in your online community, so it’s essential to maintain high levels of activity and engagement.
This is where super users come in—they’re a great asset for starting conversations, engaging with threads, and encouraging other members to dive deeper into certain topics. Identify these members early on, and reach out to them personally to thank them for their contributions and suggest more topics to cover.
To inspire activity in community discussions more generally, you might also:
- Use gamification strategies like points, awards, digital badges, and community leaderboards.
- Make branded posts with community announcements, new blog posts from your association, and Ask Me Anything (AMA) sessions with association or thought leaders.
- Spotlight members to recognize the top discussion contributors, industry experts, and community champions.
Regularly monitor engagement on community discussion boards and note what they discuss most. Analyzing member activity can give you insights into which types of conversations see the most interaction, which members are especially active, and where users typically drop off.
Personalized Community Digests
You need more than just welcome emails to keep members engaged with your online community. Instead of relying on generic marketing messages, the best member communities share personalized digests that keep members in the loop.
These emails should compile a selection of relevant community-generated content for each member, using their demographics, interests, and engagement habits to determine what might interest them most. Along with this content, share association updates and encourage contributions to specific discussions.
Your online community software should make it easy to compile, personalize, and distribute these digests via email. Once you’ve sent them out (or as they automatically send), use your platform to analyze engagement with your community digests and identify what types of content inspire the most activity.
Community-Integrated Programs
So many factors and association benefits contribute to member retention. However, members won’t use all of their benefits if they can’t easily access them. Since your online community is already a hub for members, it makes sense to centralize benefits there to improve access and encourage members to use them.
This is why the best online member communities are integrated with other core programs and member benefits. For instance, your online community can be a space for:
- Courses and certifications: If your learning management system (LMS) integrates with your online community platform, members can access course content and discuss what they learned with peers in the same space. Members can even display their certifications in their profiles alongside other community badges, inspiring others to try certification courses.
- Volunteering: Post volunteer opportunities in your online community so members don’t miss out on the chance to speak at conferences, serve on a specialized committee, or mentor younger association members. When members do volunteer, they can earn additional points or badges to show off in the community.
- Job boards: Integrate member-exclusive job boards so users can browse career opportunities in the same place where they network. Showcase relevant job listings right in members’ newsfeeds and make applications easier using their existing community profiles.
When multiple programs are centralized in your online community, members will be more likely to log in and engage with their benefits, and in turn, see the value your association brings to them.
Don’t worry if your online member community isn’t thriving right away. Consistently use these tactics and features to inspire more engagement, and you’ll build an active community that keeps members involved long-term.
