20 Fantastic Content Ideas For Your Online Community

The best content for any online community is content about the community. Too many communities focus on advice or industry news. You should focus on community people and activities. Here are 20 fantastic ideas you can use:

1. Week ahead. Write a weekly piece about what members can expect in the week ahead.
2. Events preview. Write an events preview, include predictions from members, short snippet of interviews and other material that involves a broader group.
3. Events review. Review recent events. Let others contribute their opinion. Members can reflect on the event together.
4. Predictions. Invite members to make predictions about the future, everyone loves to do it.
5. Interview members. Members interviews should be cornerstone content. It creates engaged readers for life, encourages referrals and gives people means to compare themselves to others.
6. Interview VIPs. VIPs are usually eager to talk to connected groups of people. Mumsnet has interviewed no less than two Prime Ministers. Who is a VIP in your industry?
7. Product reviews. What products are members likely to be using in the future? Can you review some?
8. Member achievements. Who has achieved something fantastic this week? Ask members to submit their achievements.
9. Gossip column. Risky, but often popular. Invite members to submit topical gossip and publish it as a weekly column. Go easy on the venom, heavy on the fun.
10. Member of the week/month. Like the above, but a member of the week/month tends to be popular. Use promiscuously.
11. Statement from the community. On a frequent basis I’d ask members to contribute to a statement from the community. i.e. We’re furious bank fees are going up, please input on what you would like in a statement from the community.
12. People on the move. Who is moving? It might be people changing jobs or people moving house or any relevant ‘move’. Hard to resist this sort of content.
13. Latest news. Overused in most communities, but often useful. What’s the latest news in your topic?
14. Job vacancies. Any jobs available? Reach out to recruiters or compile a job tips page. Any information that would encourage people to participate in the job vacancies page.
15. Competition. I ‘usually’ hate competitions. When they’re done right they’re really a lot of fun.
16. VIP spotted. Has any member spotted a VIP at an event recently, submit it here.
17. Opinion pieces. Give people in your community a chance to give their opinion in a rotating-authorship opinion section. Everyone gets a turn.
18. Guest columnists. Will any relevant business in your sector write a guest column?
19. Advice section. Summarize the latest advice, what’s the general consensus of the online community?
20. News round-up. What is the round-up of the news this week? It’s a simple place a member can visit to see what’s new without trawling various sources of industry news.

Do you have more? Please share them.

Comments

[Joshua Dorkin]

Great tips. The keys, of course, are providing ways to engage with your users and giving them ways to stay tied in to others in the community. If you can manage to do that, then you're well on your way to establishing a strong online group. I definitely will have to try one or two of the ideas here that we have yet to tackle. Thanks!

[Larry]

Great tips - I may even go all old school and print them out and put them on my noticeboard to remind myself of other ways to generate content than what I usually do. Thanks!

[Simon Bunker]

Great article - This will come in very handy for a couple of my clients who are building community sites.
Thanks for sharing this
Simon

[Geno Prussakov]

Awesome post, Richard.

Another one I'd add is: crowdsource to Create Lists & Ratings (based on experiences of community members). Those are always popular, and generate great interest both on the stage of compiling the lists (or voting on options), and when you announce them.

[Klaus]

yes, great stuff!

@ Geno: a true classic! and all kinds of lists can be easily complemented by some kind of poll to either have a final voting or start the whole thing up.

[Mikemost]

great stuff - conferences / events calendar and use something like Google Calendar to make it easy for people to keep up to date. Any meet-ups as well?

[Steph Lee (@iamstephly)]

Great article, thanks! I'm following Larry and printing it out for a reminder on some fresh ideas!

[Paul Armstrong]

Great list Richard! I would add:
Pop culture...anything. Check the trending topics, top viewed videos etc - ask for opinions etc. If in doubt whip Lady Gaga out.

Quotes or word of the day - these add a friendly feel and make you a resource. Avoid using urban dictionary!

Exactly what this post is... A list! Great ways of getting info across and if you do a top 10 and only do eight a great way to engage the community and have them form bonds with you / the content creating the last two!

Http://www.paularmstrong.info / @munkyfonkey / @themediaisdying

[Jane Lee]

Richard:

Thank you for posting up this blog article. Just started a facebook fan page which is a community of bloggers, so I will be incorporating some of the 20 ideas that you disclosed.

Jane

[Suranga]

very useful content.. I am in the process of preparing my slides for my workshop on Social media mktg, and this is the area/topic that I creating the slide. Your article accidentally came to my attention at the right time

[Mark Luton]

Some really good tips thanks, I will print them out also and refer to them reguarly.

[Andrea]

Great list -- thanks for sharing!

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[greg cryns]

Richard,

This is a really good piece. You've given me lots of ideas for my membership site.

[Smohkim]

Really useful tips!And i guess it is also pretty advantageous if you participate actively in other communities and networking with people. I have tried this in the last few months and the results have been loyal followers

Thanks for the tips!

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