Do’s and Don’ts of Community Management: Learning from the Best and Worst

Introduction

Understanding the do’s and don’ts of community management is crucial, and learning from both successful and unsuccessful examples provides valuable insights. Let’s explore some key takeaways.

Successful Community Examples

• Visa’s Developer Community: Visa created a community connecting external developers with their internal team, leading to significant engagement and loyalty among developers. This shows the importance of fostering collaboration and sharing information freely.
• Telstra’s Peer-to-Peer Support Community: Telstra built a community where customers can connect with each other and the brand, offering digital customer care. This exemplifies the power of enabling customers to support each other.
• HP’s Support Community: HP’s community allows customers to find quick answers to common concerns, freeing up agents to engage more deeply with customers. This highlights the importance of a searchable repository for common inquiries.
• Virgin Mobile Australia’s Online Community: They managed a high volume of social interactions and significantly improved their Net Promoter Score (NPS) by creating a space for peer-to-peer support.

What Makes These Communities Successful?

• Engagement and Relevance: Successful communities actively engage their members and provide relevant user-generated content.
• Integration and Personalization: They integrate well with existing systems and offer personalized experiences.
• Performance Measurement: Effective communities track user behavior and measure performance to continuously improve.

Unsuccessful Community Traits

While specific examples of unsuccessful communities are not highlighted here, common pitfalls include:

• Lack of Engagement: Failing to actively engage with community members can lead to a decline in participation.
• Poor Moderation: Ineffective moderation can result in conflicts and a negative atmosphere.
• Inconsistency: Inconsistent communication and content can erode trust and interest.

Conclusion

Learning from these examples, stakeholders should focus on building communities that encourage interaction, provide value, and foster a sense of belonging. Avoid the pitfalls of neglect and inconsistency to create a thriving, engaged community.