How Do People Feel When They Visit The Community?

You’re not going to spend much time in a place where everyone complains.

This a challenge for customer support communities. People visit, complain, get a response, and leave.

Why would they want to visit the moan zone again?

This is true for functional communities too. If people are only sharing serious (but dull) questions and getting serious (but dull) answers, that’s not a place you would choose to spend much time. You might visit when you have a problem, but that’s about it.

If you want people to choose to spend more time there, you need to make sure people feel better about themselves while being there. Folksy probably does this better than most.

This means focusing on the positives, showing success, having places where members can highlight and celebrate each other’s achievements.

There are limits to this, but even within the most serious of professions, you can change the emotion people associate with the community from one of boredom to at least one of curiosity (as Figure1 have done so well).

Consider carefully what emotion you want people to feel when they visit your community and make sure that’s what you’re projecting. As a rule, people avoid misery and seek out joy.

Use your pinned posts and menu of discussions to make sure it reflects the right emotion.