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

1. A Primer About Successful Online Communities
2. The 11 Fundamental Laws of Online Communities
3. The Four Tenets Of Professional Community Managers
4. Building An Online Community: How You Start With 0 Members
5. How Do You Build An Online Community?
6. 7 Contrary Truths About Online Communities
7. Don’t Start A Community For Any Of These Reasons
8. Basics Community Building Principles
9. What Is An Online Community?
10. Different Types Of Communities
11. The 4 Fundamental Things A Community Provides Its Members
12. Types Of Communities And Activities Within Those Communities
13. Visitors, Lurkers, And Members

Strategy & Planning

1. A Free Online Community Strategy Template
2. The Online Community Lifecycle
3. Understanding Conceptualization: The Process You Go Through Before Launch
4. How To Develop Your Community Management Strategy
5. How To Write A Practical Online Community Plan
6. Online Community Strategy & Data
7. Setting Objectives For Your Online Community
8. Settings Targets For Your Online Community
9. Starting An Online Community? First Get The Concept Right
10. Planning For A Big Online Community?
11. How To Make Your Community Better, Not Just Bigger
12. The Online Community Ecosystem
13. Total Feasible Audience Size: And Why It Matters
14. Which Communities Tend To Succeed?
15. Big Launch Syndrome: Don’t Faill Victim To This
16. From Maturity To Mitosis: The Problem Facing Large Communities
17. The Establishment Phase: Building Structures & Shifting Processes
18. The Huge Gap Between Reading and Participating
19. Identifying And Articulating The Community Benefit
20. Audience Analysis In Online Communities
21. Ensuring Your Community Personifies The Interests Of Its Members
22. The Rush To The Niches
23. How To Position Your Online Community
24. The Importance Of Developing A Strong Community Identity
25. Don’t Target The Wrong People
26. How To Make An Accurate Membership Projection
27. Naming Your Online Community
28. 12 Ways To Doom Your Community Before You Launch
29. A 3-month Pre-Launch Strategy
30. The Assets Businesses Need To Develop Successful Communities
31. Don’t Dilute The Community Identity
32. Make The Community About Your Members

Building An Online Community Website

1. Before You Spend $500k On A Community Platform
2. How To Optimize Your Community Website
3. Test Before You Invest
4. How To Design Your Online Community
5. 20 Things That Should Be Included In Every Online Community Website
6. The Perfect Landing Page
7. 8 Overlooked Elements Every Online Community Should Have
8. A Radical Change In Our Approach To Community Platforms
9. Developing Forum Communities
10. Easy Ways To Add Value To Your Online Community
11. The Toolbox Of Community Reputation Systems
12. A Simple Reputation System
13. Pick An Online Community Platform That Works
14. Stopping Human Spammers
15. 7 Things A Community Can Live Without
16. The Problems With Incentives
17. A Basic Online Community Wireframe
18. Essential Elements Of Community Platforms
19. The Notification Cycle
20. The Case Against Facebook As A Community Platform
21. Using Your Real Estate: A Quick Case Study
22. Easy -vs- Difficult -vs- Impossible: Exporting Community Data
23. Refine or Develop?
24. Social Density In Online Communities

Launching An Online Community

1. 5 Things Every New Online Community Should Focus On
2. 20 Ways To Start An Online Community
3. Never Wait For The Website To Be Ready
4. Seeding Your Online Community
5. Who Are You Trying To Reach?
6. Who Do You Need At The Beginning?
7. How To Find Your Community’s First Members
8. The Founder Role In Starting A New Community
9. Create An Easy Reason To Take A Small Step
10. How Small Businesses can Launch Successful Online Communities
11. Simple Steps To Creating An Online Community

Converting Newcomers Into Regulars

1. How To Convert Newcomers Into Regular Members Of Your Online Community
2. Designing The Perfect Newcomers To Regular Conversion Journey
3. The Ultimate Welcome For Your Online Community’s Newcomers
4. How To Keep Newcomers Hooked For 21 days
5. Awesome Questions To Ask New Members Of Your Online Community
6. Which Visitors Are Most Likely To Become Regulars?
7. Newcomers: Are They New To The Topic?
8. The Online Community Joining Process
9. Optimize That First Contribution
10. How To Help Members Overcome Their Fear Of Initiating Discussions

Growing Your Online Community

1. How To Grow Your Online Community
2. Why People Aren’t Joining Your Online Community
3. Create A Criteria
4. Types Of Community Growth
5. Use The Right Symbols To Attract The Right Members
6. Growing A Community: A Campaign-Based Process
7. How To Get More People To Join Your Online Community
8. How To Find Your Community’s Founding Members
9. Basic Tactics To Grow Your Online Community Without Any Promotion
10. Target Clusters Of People At A Time
11. How To Get Members To Invite Their Friends
12. 3 Perfectly Acceptable Ways To Invite Someone To Join Your Online Community
13. Growing From A Social Media Following To Small Groups
14. How To Persuade Your Employees To Join Your Online Community
15. How To Get The Best People To Join Your Online Community
16. The Right And Wrong Way To Grow A Forum
17. The Problem With Asking Members To Invite Friends
18. How To Convert Existing Contacts Into Active Community Members

Increasing Participation

1. How To Increase Activity In Your Online Community
2. Why People Join And Participate In Online Communities
3. A Brief Guide To Reaching Unbelievably High Levels Of Participation In Your Online Community
4. How To Keep Members For The Long Term
5. Increasing Activity And Participation In A Community
6. Using Social Proof To Increase Activity In Your Community
7. Creating A Sense Of Community
8. Sustaining Long Term Participation In An Online Community
9. Initiating And Sustaining Discussions
10. The Basics Of Increasing Interactions In Any Online Community
11. Why Members Participate: Fame, Money, Sex, Power
12. A Few Quick And Simple Tips To Boost Activity In Your Online Community
13. 4 Types Of Contributions You Want Your Members To Make
14. The Only Way To Keep Everyone Active
15. 20 Questions which Will Stimulate Activity In Your Online Community
16. 7 Kinds Of Conversations That Always Stimulate Activity
17. Concentrate Activity
18. A Weekly Debate: A Good Idea
19. How To Find New Discussion Ideas For Your Online Community
20. Simple Tactics To Encourage Your Members To Talk More
21. Sense Of Ownership
22. Two Types Of Participation Problems
23. Programme Of Activities
24. Epic Events
25. How To Find Major Issues To Boost Activity And Unite Your Community
26. Why People Stay In Your Online Community
27. Create A Guide To Be A Top Member
28. Segmenting And Contacting Members
29. What You Can Do To Make Your Community More Fun
30. 8 Ways To Encourage Individual Contributions In Your Community
31. The Benefits Of Off-Topic Conversations
32. Open -vs- Closed Questions
33. Themes And Topics

Managing an Online Community

1. The Community Management Framework
2. The 10 Principles Of Professional Community Management
3. Building An Online Community Team: The 5 Roles You Must Fill
4. High Value Community Management
5. What Tasks Should Online Community Managers Prioritize?
6. Community Management: Planning The Week
7. Moderation Strategy
8. Turning Data Into Activities: A Simple Example
9. What Affects Most Members Over The Long Term?
10. Interact With Your Community Like A Human Being
11. Attaining Power And Influence
12. Hierarchy Of Communicating With Your Members
13. Uniting Your Online Community: Creating Strong Ties
14. The Art Of Forging Strong Friendships
15. A Process For Dealing With Complaints
16. The Base: Every Regular Participant Is A Big Win
17. The Behaviours You Really Want To Discourage
18. How To Subtly Influence Members Of Your Online Community
19. How Many People Can You Really Look After?
20. Creating Momentum
21. The Personality Of Community Managers: A Few Tips
22. A Brief Guide To Building Relationships With Your Top Members
23. 10 Excellent Rewards You Can Offer Members
24. Creating Titles For Members
25. How To Use Transferrable Elements To Develop A Strong Sense of Community
26. The Unlimited Supply Of Important Work You Need To Do
27. The Small Simple Processes Which Make The Biggest Difference To Your Community
28. How To Handle Troublemakers
29. Using Data To Prevent Violations Of The Rules
30. Finding Inspiration In Other Communities
31. Reorganizing Your Forum
32. Allocating Your Time As The Community Grows
33. The Status Dilemma: Don’t Bite The Hook
34. 11 Processes For Scaling Online Communities
35. Huge Online Communities: What Do You Work On Next?
36. Resolving Problems
37. Building Strong Relationships Between Members: A Few Practical Steps
38. Why Fights Are So Important
39. A Guide To Rewarding Members Of Your Community
40. Helping Members To Have Influence
41. Community Guidelines
42. The 24-Hour Response Rule
43. 14 Events You Can Organize And Celebrate In Your Online Community
44. What Would A Passionate Community Manager Do?
45. Link Your Community Management Activities
46. Member Lifetime Value
47. Explaining Conflicts In Communities

Content

1. Creating A Content Calendar
2. The Secret To Awesome Content
3. Basic Community Newsletter Tips
4. Converting Traditional Content Into Community Content
5. Information Needs And Why Content-Driven Community Strategies Are Flawed
6. Writing Content That Bonds Your Online Community
7. 20 Fantastic Content Ideas For Your Online Community
8. The Power Of Exclusives
9. Interviewing Members
10. Every Online Community Needs A Local Newspaper
11. An Online Community Newsletter Clinic

Community Psychology

1. Getting Members Into The Community Mindset
2. Motivation, Opportunity, Ability
3. Understanding Motivation In Online Communities
4. Recognition Is A Complex Tool
5. Influencing Behaviour And The Problem With Broken Windows
6. Permeable Boundaries Between Groups
7. What Discussions Are Most Popular To Men And Women?
8. 40 Participants In 20 Minutes And Information Overload
9. Participation for Intrinsic Reasons
10. Community Boundary Maintenance And Behaviour Modification
11. Compliance Without Pressure
12. An Aligned Process – Motivation To Participation
13. The Shame Effect
14. The Efficacy Factor: Increase Participation By Accentuating Impact

Measurement/ROI

1. Techniques To Help Measure The ROI Of An Online Community
2. Measuring An Online Community: Master Your Data To Gain An Unfair Advantage
3. What To Listen For, And How To Listen For It
4. Establishing The Value Of Online Communities
5. Measuring The ROI Of Online Communities
6. Ace The Community ROI Question
7. How To Check Your Community builder Is Doing As Promised
8. Communities, ROI, And Misplaced Enthusiasm
9. Measuring DIY
10. Proving Benefits Of Building A Community
11. How To Spot Your Community Is In Trouble: 8 Red Flags
12. The Huge ROI Of Small, Exclusive, B2B Communities
13. Data Secrets

Monetizing

1. The Definitive Guide To Monetizing Your Community
2. Becoming A Community Intrapreneur
3. 40 Ways To Make Money From Your Online Community
4. The Pros And Cons Of Charging For Membership
5. Community Souvenirs
6. How To Give Sponsors Access To Your Online Community
7. Integrating Your Community With Your Business
8. Getting Innovative About Monetization

Branded Online Communities

1. Never Let Your Company Start An Online Community
2. 10 Things Organizations Should Be Comfortable With When They Launch A Community
3. 12 Steps For Successful Online Communities
4. Brands Must Use Their Unfair Advantage To Build Successful Communities
5. A Case Study Of A Branded Onine Community
6. Why Most Online Communities Shouldn’t Try To Create A Community
7. Why Branded Communities Fail
8. 6 Huge Advantages Big Organizations Have Over Amateur Community Builders
9. A Requirement For Branded Online Communities
10. Brands: Get The Benefits You Want Without Upsetting Members
11. Common Branded Community Mistakes
12. The Choice Most Brands Don’t Know They Have
13. The 2 Most Common Reasons Why Branded Communities Fail
14. Decide Between These 2 Types Of Communities
15. How Do Online Communities Make Your Business Money?
16. Why Amateurs Build Better Online Communities Than Businesses
17. Failed Corporate Communities
18. Your Dream Online Community

Non-profits and Online Communities

1. Fundraising From Online Communities
2. What Non-Profits Need To Change

Examples

1. The Slow And Steady Evolution Of A Successful Online Community
2. 15 Examples Of Successful Online Communities
3. 15 Ideas You Can Steal From The UK’s Best Community
4. You Can Learn A Lot From This Wildly Successful Community
5. The Best Online Community You Can Begin Today
6. Case Study: How To Improve A Recently Launched Community
7. Some Great Ideas From A Terrific Community
8. What Is A ‘Successful’ Community?
9. The Genius Of Kotex’s Community
10. A Simple, Effective, Community Design
11. 10 Examples Of Great Online Communities
12. A Great Example Of An Online Community
13. Never Hire A Marketing Agency To Build Your Online Community
14. A Great Example Of An Online Community
15. Hampton People
16. A Great Examples Of Game Mechanics In Online Communities
17. The Usual Errors From The Big Brands
18. Importants Lessons From A Failed Online Community
19. A Lesson In Successful Communities
20. The Evolution Of A Big Community Launch
21. Stories, Clicks, and Relationships: The Sad Story of MetroTwin

Resources

1. A Simple Example Of A Great Online Community
2. 8 Brilliant Posts About Online Communities
3. Essential Reading For Online Community Managers
4. Forrester Wave Report

Misc

1. How To Improve Any Online Community Without Spending A Penny
2. Great Findings From Social Sciences Applied To Online Communities
3. Creating A Community From Your Social Media Efforts
4. The One Essential Task For Newly Hired Community Managers
5. The Online Community Narrative
6. Social Scaling Processes
7. Rethinking How We Hire Community Managers
8. The 7 Most Likely Ways Your Online Community Will End
9. Struggling To Build An Online Community? Try This Easier Approach
10. What Data Disproves Common Community Myths
11. The Easiest Solutions To Your Community’s Biggest Problems
12. An Example Of How To Diagnose And Resolve Common Community Problems
13. 10 Steps To Building An Online Community In Your Spare Time
14. 8 Ways To Merge Your Online Community With The Real World
15. How To Revive Your Local Community
16. How To Create Exclusive Online Communities
17. 6 Social Psychology Hacks For Online Community Managers
18. 5 Features Of Really Strong Online Communities You Can Embrace
19. Searching For Online Communities
20. The One Book Every Community Manager Should Read
21. Rules For Growing A Group Of Insiders In Your Community
22. Community Awards 2010
23. Beyond Your Website
24. What’s Wrong With Community Management?
25. Turning Employees Into Stars: A Tip For Internal Buy-In
26. Integrating The Community With Major Events
27. Making Tough Community Decisions
28. Tactics -vs- Processes

Reports & eBooks

1. 2012 State Of Community Management
2. 2012 State Of Branded Communities
3. Howard Reingold – The Virtual Community
4. The ROI of online customer service communities
5. The Forrester Wave Report
6. eModeration White Paper – Communities of Purpose
7. Deloitte – 2009 Tribalization of Business Study
8. Lithium – Community Health Index
9. Radian6 – Building & Sustaining Brand Communities
10. Jono Bacon – The Art of The Community
11. Forrester – The ROI Online Support Communities

Websites & Assocations

1. e-Mint
2. The Community Manager
3. The Community Roundtable
4. Facebook Community Manager Group
5. Community Builders
6. The Community Management Group

Blogs

1. Alison Michalk
2. Amy Sample Ward
3. Angela Connor
4. Blaise Grimes-Viort
5. Community Roundtable
6. Connie Benson
7. Dave Cayem
8. Debra Askanase
9. eModeration
10. Eric Foster
11. Holly Seddon
12. Jake Mckee
13. Jeremiah Owyang
14. Jono Bacon
15. Judi Huck
16. Juergen Derlath
17. Kirsten Wagenaar
18. Lauren Klein
19. Mario Ogneva
20. Martin Reed
21. Matt Rhodes
22. Michael Norton
23. Patrick O’Keefe
24. Phil Wride
25. Rachael Happe
26. Sue on the web
27. Ted & Rosie O’Neil
28. UX Booth
29. Vanessa Dimauro
30. Vanessa Paech

 

Academic articles

1. McMillan and Chavis (1985) Sense of Community
2. Robin Hamman (1997)- Introduction to Virtual Communities Research and Cybersociology Magazine Issue Two
3. Moore and Serva (2007) Understanding Member Motivation for Contributing to Different Types of Virtual Communities: A Proposed Framework,
4. Williams and Cothrel (2004), Four smart ways to run online communities (Sloan Management Review, 2000)
5. Bughin & Zeisser, (2001) The Marketing Scale Effectiveness of Virtual Communities
6. Iriberri and Leroy (2009) A Life-Cycle Perspective on Online Community Success
7. Ridings and Gefen (2004) Virtual Community Attraction: Why People Hang Out Online, JCMC 10 (1), Article 4
8. Ardichvili, Page and Wentling (2003) Motivation and barriers to participation in Virtual knowledge-sharing communities of practice, Journal of Knowledge Management, 2003; 7,1
9. 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.
10. 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
11. Sangwan , S (2005) Virtual community success: A uses and gratifications perspective
12. Andrews, D.C (2002) Audience-specific online community design, Communications of the ACM, Vol 45, N. 4
13. Barab, S.A, MaKinster, J.G, Scheckler, R. (xxxx) Designing System Dualities: Characterizing An Online Professional Development Community
14. Baym, N.K. (2007) The new shape of online community: The example of Swedish independent music fandom, First Monday, Volume 12, Number 8 – 6
15. Stanoevska-Slabeva, K. (2002) Towards a Community-Orientated Design of Internet Platforms
16. Arnold, Y. Leimeister, J.L, Krcmar, H. (2003) CoPEP: A Development Process Model for Community Platforms for Cancer Patients, Community platform engineering process
17. 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.

 

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