10 Rules For Online Community Success

The poet T.S. Eliot once wrote “If I had more time I would have written a shorter letter.”  Truer words were never spoken as it more difficult to efficiently convey an idea or message than to wax poetic.

As social is an emerging trend, many have put down their soapboxes to talk about online communities. Consequently, there is some good (and lots of just OK) advice “out there” on building online customer communities — yielding a great deal of information to sort through and parse.  While theory is interesting, there is a practical side to us all – especially when endeavoring to act.  And, human nature craves rules; rules to be examined, adapted and applied.  Having built award-winning online communities for 20 years, I am boiling my journey down to a simple set of 10 implementable actions for online community best practice in hopes that it accelerates your community successes.

1) No gaming, no scheming, no fake people: authenticity is the first step to trust… 

2)  No one-night stands:  cultivate relationships… 

3)  Observe, enculturate then act: learn the rules of engagement before engaging… 

4)   Be responsive and brave:  you/your company started the relationship, accountability now exists … 

5)   Be trustworthy and aware:  know what is being discussed and leverage the information for customer benefit…. 

6)  No tools for the sake of tools:  design and launch with purpose and intention… 

7)  No digital  litter:  if it ain’t working, take it down! 

8)   Value thought leadership over marketing:  lead with content not sales… 

9)    Return what you learn:  give assets back to the community in the form of summaries and responses… 

10)  Match plans with metrics:  you are what you measure so choose your performance measures wisely.