How To Build An Online Community: The Ultimate List Of Resources (2013)
This is a collection of my favourite and most popular posts from the last six years. It should give you a great overview about both the strategy and the process of creating an online community from scratch.
The Online Community Basics
- A Primer About Successful Online Communities
- The 11 Fundamental Laws of Online Communities
- The Four Tenets Of Professional Community Managers
- Building An Online Community: How You Start With 0 Members
- How Do You Build An Online Community?
- 7 Contrary Truths About Online Communities
- Don’t Start A Community For Any Of These Reasons
- Basics Community Building Principles
- What Is An Online Community?
- Different Types Of Communities
- The 4 Fundamental Things A Community Provides Its Members
- Types Of Communities And Activities Within Those Communities
- Visitors, Lurkers, And Members
Strategy & Planning
- A Free Online Community Strategy Template
- The Online Community Lifecycle
- Understanding Conceptualization: The Process You Go Through Before Launch
- How To Develop Your Community Management Strategy
- How To Write A Practical Online Community Plan
- Online Community Strategy & Data
- Setting Objectives For Your Online Community
- Settings Targets For Your Online Community
- Starting An Online Community? First Get The Concept Right
- Planning For A Big Online Community?
- How To Make Your Community Better, Not Just Bigger
- The Online Community Ecosystem
- Total Feasible Audience Size: And Why It Matters
- Which Communities Tend To Succeed?
- Big Launch Syndrome: Don’t Faill Victim To This
- From Maturity To Mitosis: The Problem Facing Large Communities
- The Establishment Phase: Building Structures & Shifting Processes
- The Huge Gap Between Reading and Participating
- Identifying And Articulating The Community Benefit
- Audience Analysis In Online Communities
- Ensuring Your Community Personifies The Interests Of Its Members
- The Rush To The Niches
- How To Position Your Online Community
- The Importance Of Developing A Strong Community Identity
- Don’t Target The Wrong People
- How To Make An Accurate Membership Projection
- Naming Your Online Community
- 12 Ways To Doom Your Community Before You Launch
- A 3-month Pre-Launch Strategy
- The Assets Businesses Need To Develop Successful Communities
- Don’t Dilute The Community Identity
- Make The Community About Your Members
Building An Online Community Website
- Before You Spend $500k On A Community Platform
- How To Optimize Your Community Website
- Test Before You Invest
- How To Design Your Online Community
- 20 Things That Should Be Included In Every Online Community Website
- The Perfect Landing Page
- 8 Overlooked Elements Every Online Community Should Have
- A Radical Change In Our Approach To Community Platforms
- Developing Forum Communities
- Easy Ways To Add Value To Your Online Community
- The Toolbox Of Community Reputation Systems
- A Simple Reputation System
- Pick An Online Community Platform That Works
- Stopping Human Spammers
- 7 Things A Community Can Live Without
- The Problems With Incentives
- A Basic Online Community Wireframe
- Essential Elements Of Community Platforms
- The Notification Cycle
- The Case Against Facebook As A Community Platform
- Using Your Real Estate: A Quick Case Study
- Easy -vs- Difficult -vs- Impossible: Exporting Community Data
- Refine or Develop?
- Social Density In Online Communities
Launching An Online Community
- 5 Things Every New Online Community Should Focus On
- 20 Ways To Start An Online Community
- Never Wait For The Website To Be Ready
- Seeding Your Online Community
- Who Are You Trying To Reach?
- Who Do You Need At The Beginning?
- How To Find Your Community’s First Members
- The Founder Role In Starting A New Community
- Create An Easy Reason To Take A Small Step
- How Small Businesses can Launch Successful Online Communities
- Simple Steps To Creating An Online Community
Converting Newcomers Into Regulars
- How To Convert Newcomers Into Regular Members Of Your Online Community
- Designing The Perfect Newcomers To Regular Conversion Journey
- The Ultimate Welcome For Your Online Community’s Newcomers
- How To Keep Newcomers Hooked For 21 days
- Awesome Questions To Ask New Members Of Your Online Community
- Which Visitors Are Most Likely To Become Regulars?
- Newcomers: Are They New To The Topic?
- The Online Community Joining Process
- Optimize That First Contribution
- How To Help Members Overcome Their Fear Of Initiating Discussions
Growing Your Online Community
- How To Grow Your Online Community
- Why People Aren’t Joining Your Online Community
- Create A Criteria
- Types Of Community Growth
- Use The Right Symbols To Attract The Right Members
- Growing A Community: A Campaign-Based Process
- How To Get More People To Join Your Online Community
- How To Find Your Community’s Founding Members
- Basic Tactics To Grow Your Online Community Without Any Promotion
- Target Clusters Of People At A Time
- How To Get Members To Invite Their Friends
- 3 Perfectly Acceptable Ways To Invite Someone To Join Your Online Community
- Growing From A Social Media Following To Small Groups
- How To Persuade Your Employees To Join Your Online Community
- How To Get The Best People To Join Your Online Community
- The Right And Wrong Way To Grow A Forum
- The Problem With Asking Members To Invite Friends
- How To Convert Existing Contacts Into Active Community Members
Increasing Participation
- How To Increase Activity In Your Online Community
- Why People Join And Participate In Online Communities
- A Brief Guide To Reaching Unbelievably High Levels Of Participation In Your Online Community
- How To Keep Members For The Long Term
- Increasing Activity And Participation In A Community
- Using Social Proof To Increase Activity In Your Community
- Creating A Sense Of Community
- Sustaining Long Term Participation In An Online Community
- Initiating And Sustaining Discussions
- The Basics Of Increasing Interactions In Any Online Community
- Why Members Participate: Fame, Money, Sex, Power
- A Few Quick And Simple Tips To Boost Activity In Your Online Community
- 4 Types Of Contributions You Want Your Members To Make
- The Only Way To Keep Everyone Active
- 20 Questions which Will Stimulate Activity In Your Online Community
- 7 Kinds Of Conversations That Always Stimulate Activity
- Concentrate Activity
- A Weekly Debate: A Good Idea
- How To Find New Discussion Ideas For Your Online Community
- Simple Tactics To Encourage Your Members To Talk More
- Sense Of Ownership
- Two Types Of Participation Problems
- Programme Of Activities
- Epic Events
- How To Find Major Issues To Boost Activity And Unite Your Community
- Why People Stay In Your Online Community
- Create A Guide To Be A Top Member
- Segmenting And Contacting Members
- What You Can Do To Make Your Community More Fun
- 8 Ways To Encourage Individual Contributions In Your Community
- The Benefits Of Off-Topic Conversations
- Open -vs- Closed Questions
- Themes And Topics
Managing an Online Community
- The Community Management Framework
- The 10 Principles Of Professional Community Management
- Building An Online Community Team: The 5 Roles You Must Fill
- High Value Community Management
- What Tasks Should Online Community Managers Prioritize?
- Community Management: Planning The Week
- Moderation Strategy
- Turning Data Into Activities: A Simple Example
- What Affects Most Members Over The Long Term?
- Interact With Your Community Like A Human Being
- Attaining Power And Influence
- Hierarchy Of Communicating With Your Members
- Uniting Your Online Community: Creating Strong Ties
- The Art Of Forging Strong Friendships
- A Process For Dealing With Complaints
- The Base: Every Regular Participant Is A Big Win
- The Behaviours You Really Want To Discourage
- How To Subtly Influence Members Of Your Online Community
- How Many People Can You Really Look After?
- Creating Momentum
- The Personality Of Community Managers: A Few Tips
- A Brief Guide To Building Relationships With Your Top Members
- 10 Excellent Rewards You Can Offer Members
- Creating Titles For Members
- How To Use Transferrable Elements To Develop A Strong Sense of Community
- The Unlimited Supply Of Important Work You Need To Do
- The Small Simple Processes Which Make The Biggest Difference To Your Community
- How To Handle Troublemakers
- Using Data To Prevent Violations Of The Rules
- Finding Inspiration In Other Communities
- Reorganizing Your Forum
- Allocating Your Time As The Community Grows
- The Status Dilemma: Don’t Bite The Hook
- 11 Processes For Scaling Online Communities
- Huge Online Communities: What Do You Work On Next?
- Resolving Problems
- Building Strong Relationships Between Members: A Few Practical Steps
- Why Fights Are So Important
- A Guide To Rewarding Members Of Your Community
- Helping Members To Have Influence
- Community Guidelines
- The 24-Hour Response Rule
- 14 Events You Can Organize And Celebrate In Your Online Community
- What Would A Passionate Community Manager Do?
- Link Your Community Management Activities
- Member Lifetime Value
- Explaining Conflicts In Communities
Content
- Creating A Content Calendar
- The Secret To Awesome Content
- Basic Community Newsletter Tips
- Converting Traditional Content Into Community Content
- Information Needs And Why Content-Driven Community Strategies Are Flawed
- Writing Content That Bonds Your Online Community
- 20 Fantastic Content Ideas For Your Online Community
- The Power Of Exclusives
- Interviewing Members
- Every Online Community Needs A Local Newspaper
- An Online Community Newsletter Clinic
Community Psychology
- Getting Members Into The Community Mindset
- Motivation, Opportunity, Ability
- Understanding Motivation In Online Communities
- Recognition Is A Complex Tool
- Influencing Behaviour And The Problem With Broken Windows
- Permeable Boundaries Between Groups
- What Discussions Are Most Popular To Men And Women?
- 40 Participants In 20 Minutes And Information Overload
- Participation for Intrinsic Reasons
- Community Boundary Maintenance And Behaviour Modification
- Compliance Without Pressure
- An Aligned Process – Motivation To Participation
- The Shame Effect
- The Efficacy Factor: Increase Participation By Accentuating Impact
Measurement/ROI
- Techniques To Help Measure The ROI Of An Online Community
- Measuring An Online Community: Master Your Data To Gain An Unfair Advantage
- What To Listen For, And How To Listen For It
- Establishing The Value Of Online Communities
- Measuring The ROI Of Online Communities
- Ace The Community ROI Question
- How To Check Your Community builder Is Doing As Promised
- Communities, ROI, And Misplaced Enthusiasm
- Measuring DIY
- Proving Benefits Of Building A Community
- How To Spot Your Community Is In Trouble: 8 Red Flags
- The Huge ROI Of Small, Exclusive, B2B Communities
- Data Secrets
Monetizing
- The Definitive Guide To Monetizing Your Community
- Becoming A Community Intrapreneur
- 40 Ways To Make Money From Your Online Community
- The Pros And Cons Of Charging For Membership
- Community Souvenirs
- How To Give Sponsors Access To Your Online Community
- Integrating Your Community With Your Business
- Getting Innovative About Monetization
Branded Online Communities
- Never Let Your Company Start An Online Community
- 10 Things Organizations Should Be Comfortable With When They Launch A Community
- 12 Steps For Successful Online Communities
- Brands Must Use Their Unfair Advantage To Build Successful Communities
- A Case Study Of A Branded Onine Community
- Why Most Online Communities Shouldn’t Try To Create A Community
- Why Branded Communities Fail
- 6 Huge Advantages Big Organizations Have Over Amateur Community Builders
- A Requirement For Branded Online Communities
- Brands: Get The Benefits You Want Without Upsetting Members
- Common Branded Community Mistakes
- The Choice Most Brands Don’t Know They Have
- The 2 Most Common Reasons Why Branded Communities Fail
- Decide Between These 2 Types Of Communities
- How Do Online Communities Make Your Business Money?
- Why Amateurs Build Better Online Communities Than Businesses
- Failed Corporate Communities
- Your Dream Online Community
Non-profits and Online Communities
Examples
- The Slow And Steady Evolution Of A Successful Online Community
- 15 Examples Of Successful Online Communities
- 15 Ideas You Can Steal From The UK’s Best Community
- You Can Learn A Lot From This Wildly Successful Community
- The Best Online Community You Can Begin Today
- Case Study: How To Improve A Recently Launched Community
- Some Great Ideas From A Terrific Community
- What Is A ‘Successful’ Community?
- The Genius Of Kotex’s Community
- A Simple, Effective, Community Design
- 10 Examples Of Great Online Communities
- A Great Example Of An Online Community
- Never Hire A Marketing Agency To Build Your Online Community
- A Great Example Of An Online Community
- Hampton People
- A Great Examples Of Game Mechanics In Online Communities
- The Usual Errors From The Big Brands
- Importants Lessons From A Failed Online Community
- A Lesson In Successful Communities
- The Evolution Of A Big Community Launch
- Stories, Clicks, and Relationships: The Sad Story of MetroTwin
Resources
- A Simple Example Of A Great Online Community
- 8 Brilliant Posts About Online Communities
- Essential Reading For Online Community Managers
- Forrester Wave Report
Misc
- How To Improve Any Online Community Without Spending A Penny
- Great Findings From Social Sciences Applied To Online Communities
- Creating A Community From Your Social Media Efforts
- The One Essential Task For Newly Hired Community Managers
- The Online Community Narrative
- Social Scaling Processes
- Rethinking How We Hire Community Managers
- The 7 Most Likely Ways Your Online Community Will End
- Struggling To Build An Online Community? Try This Easier Approach
- What Data Disproves Common Community Myths
- The Easiest Solutions To Your Community’s Biggest Problems
- An Example Of How To Diagnose And Resolve Common Community Problems
- 10 Steps To Building An Online Community In Your Spare Time
- 8 Ways To Merge Your Online Community With The Real World
- How To Revive Your Local Community
- How To Create Exclusive Online Communities
- 6 Social Psychology Hacks For Online Community Managers
- 5 Features Of Really Strong Online Communities You Can Embrace
- Searching For Online Communities
- The One Book Every Community Manager Should Read
- Rules For Growing A Group Of Insiders In Your Community
- Community Awards 2010
- Beyond Your Website
- What’s Wrong With Community Management?
- Turning Employees Into Stars: A Tip For Internal Buy-In
- Integrating The Community With Major Events
- Making Tough Community Decisions
- Tactics -vs- Processes
Reports & eBooks
- 2012 State Of Community Management
- 2012 State Of Branded Communities
- Howard Reingold – The Virtual Community
- The ROI of online customer service communities
- The Forrester Wave Report
- eModeration White Paper – Communities of Purpose
- Deloitte – 2009 Tribalization of Business Study
- Lithium – Community Health Index
- Radian6 – Building & Sustaining Brand Communities
- Jono Bacon – The Art of The Community
- Forrester – The ROI Online Support Communities
Websites & Assocations
- e-Mint
- The Community Manager
- The Community Roundtable
- Facebook Community Manager Group
- Community Builders
- The Community Management Group
Blogs
- Alison Michalk
- Amy Sample Ward
- Angela Connor
- Blaise Grimes-Viort
- Community Roundtable
- Connie Benson
- Dave Cayem
- Debra Askanase
- eModeration
- Eric Foster
- Holly Seddon
- Jake Mckee
- Jeremiah Owyang
- Jono Bacon
- Judi Huck
- Juergen Derlath
- Kirsten Wagenaar
- Lauren Klein
- Mario Ogneva
- Martin Reed
- Matt Rhodes
- Michael Norton
- Patrick O’Keefe
- Phil Wride
- Rachael Happe
- Sue on the web
- Ted & Rosie O’Neil
- UX Booth
- Vanessa Dimauro
- Vanessa Paech
Academic articles
- McMillan and Chavis (1985) Sense of Community
- Robin Hamman (1997)- Introduction to Virtual Communities Research and Cybersociology Magazine Issue Two
- Moore and Serva (2007) Understanding Member Motivation for Contributing to Different Types of Virtual Communities: A Proposed Framework,
- Williams and Cothrel (2004), Four smart ways to run online communities (Sloan Management Review, 2000)
- Bughin & Zeisser, (2001) The Marketing Scale Effectiveness of Virtual Communities
- Iriberri and Leroy (2009) A Life-Cycle Perspective on Online Community Success
- Ridings and Gefen (2004) Virtual Community Attraction: Why People Hang Out Online, JCMC 10 (1), Article 4
- Ardichvili, Page and Wentling (2003) Motivation and barriers to participation in Virtual knowledge-sharing communities of practice, Journal of Knowledge Management, 2003; 7,1
- Wang and Fesenmaier (2003) Understanding the Motivation of Contribution in Online Communities: An Empirical Investigation of an Online Travel Community, Electronic Markets, Vol 13, No 1.
- Sugiyama and Rothaermel (2001) Virtual internet communities and commercial success: individual and community-level theory grounded in the atypical case of TimeZone.com, Journal of Management 27
- Sangwan , S (2005) Virtual community success: A uses and gratifications perspective
- Andrews, D.C (2002) Audience-specific online community design, Communications of the ACM, Vol 45, N. 4
- Barab, S.A, MaKinster, J.G, Scheckler, R. (xxxx) Designing System Dualities: Characterizing An Online Professional Development Community
- Baym, N.K. (2007) The new shape of online community: The example of Swedish independent music fandom, First Monday, Volume 12, Number 8 – 6
- Stanoevska-Slabeva, K. (2002) Towards a Community-Orientated Design of Internet Platforms
- Arnold, Y. Leimeister, J.L, Krcmar, H. (2003) CoPEP: A Development Process Model for Community Platforms for Cancer Patients, Community platform engineering process
- Porter, C.E. (2004) A Typology of Virtual Communities: A Multi-Disciplinary Foundation for Future Research, Journal of Computer-mediated Communication, Vol, 10. No. 1.
FeverBee’s Products
- FeverBee’s Podcast
- Book: Buzzing Communities: How To Build Bigger, Better, And More Active Online Communities
- CommunityGeek: Community Geek is an exclusive community of practitioners dedicated to sharing knowledge about how to grow and curate successful online communities.
- On-Demand Training Courses
- Live Training Course
- FeverBee’s Community Consultancy
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