Similar to yesterday’s post.
Your goals and the value to your members must align.
For example, you might assume the more frequently members visit, the more your members will benefit. But one study shows visit frequency and tenure had little impact on community attachment or its key benefit (reduced emotional distress).
A community manager who constantly pesters members to visit more frequently is doing a disservice to a member.
Some, perhaps most, communities are simply there and available to members when they need them. In these communities, you look at the culture, the speed of response, the empathy of the response and work to improve each. You refine rules and nurture new social norms with top members. You develop systems to get faster responses. You work to help each person feel safe sharing parts of themselves they can’t anywhere else.
You might measure a satisfaction rating via a pop-up poll or survey every 6 months to a sample of members.
Ultimately, remember the engagement paradox here:
The engagement paradox.
Everyone wants more engagement, except community members.
— Richard Millington (@RichMillington) November 10, 2020
Alignment is harder than it looks.
