Members’ perspectives on community engagement
Creating an online community for your course seems as simple as creating a Slack group and sending a join link to your members. But consider that many of the online groups you have joined have been dormant. Except for new members who introduce themselves on the “Welcome” channel. The goal is to build an engaging online community. Members participate in conversations and exchange ideas regularly. This clearly increases the value of your offering, but also provides members with a positive experience and a critical peer network.
As a dedicated member of the freelance writing community, she knows specific ways that coaches can be involved in her membership. Therefore, this guide will provide you with a list of ways to build a thriving community around your course, from her experiences in the community.
Why it’s important to have an engaged online community
First, let’s consider the purpose of the community. In his course, “How to Building Communities,” content creator Nuseir Yassin defines a community as “a collection of people who come together to give and receive value to each other.” Therefore, the exchange of values between people creates the community what it is. And for this value exchange to occur, you and your members must be actively involved in each other.
Of course, avid online communities have other benefits for both creators and members. For creators, it helps:
Strengthen relationships with members. Provide valuable customer feedback and input. It cultivates brand loyalty. Improves member retention.
For members, it helps:
Provides a sense of social support. Promote networking opportunities. Accelerate learning and skill development. It promotes diversity and inclusion.
I am most grateful for the social support aspect of the community. I love being able to jump on the forums with a freelance group and talk about the annoying feelings you get when doing cold outreach. I know that coaches and other members will reply to my posts with empathy, encouragement and insight. This friendship not only looks forward to logging in to our community platform, but also wants to recommend our community to others.
10 Proven Ways to Build an Engagement Community for Online Courses
Knowing why you should build community engagement around the course is just one step. Now is the part where you build an online community that is actually engaged. The following tips will help you do so:
1) Choose the right platform
There are countless community platforms. Each has its own features, advantages and disadvantages. These should be weighed along with the needs of our businesses and members so that everyone can make the most of their community. When evaluating your community platform, be very careful about:
Community engagement features such as discussion forums and live events. Ease of use for yourself and for the members. Customization and branding options. Monetization. Pricing and overall value.
As a member, I value ease of use the most. For example, before joining my current community, I thought of a different community. This other option used a custom web platform to host the course content and the community itself.
I opposed this community because the platform found it difficult to navigate with Junkies. In contrast, the online community I finally joined used a much more intuitive platform, including a user-friendly interface and a clear content organization.
2) Provide a comprehensive community overview
Community overview should be properly mounted onboarding and introduce new members to the space. Ideally, the overview is a web page or module within the platform, which breaks down and how to navigate a community. You can also share these details in an onboarding email.
In any case, a community overview should provide information on specific forums, content, events, availability, and how to access community guidelines (more details below!). Also include answers to frequently asked questions. For example, how a member can cancel a membership or get technical support.
My coach has all of this in his community overview version. She created a page with more information about the benefits of members and recorded video walkthroughs to guide members through the space.
3) Establish clear community guidelines
Community guidelines establish rules and expectations while members are in the community. While the overview introduces members to the space and helps them navigate, community guidelines provide important DOs and not on behavior, content and communication. They also explain the outcome of the violation. Having clear community guidelines is helpful:
Build a positive brand reputation. Ensure healthy and respectful communication. Advertise related content. Increase community involvement. Improve member retention. Prevents conflict, abuse, bullying and harassment.
When creating community guidelines, the following important sections can be included:
Core Value. User behavior. Content standard. The result of a violation.
My freelance writing coach community guidelines address core values, DM etiquette, participation, behavior during live events, violations, and more.
4) Create a channel for a specific topic
Members are most involved when interacting with content they find interesting. So create channels that focus on topics related to members’ interests and burning questions. You can also create channels based on lessons and community features.
Another advantage of creating niche channels is improved navigation. This makes it easier for members to participate. For example, the freelance writing community has channels such as “opportunities,” “prices and prices,” and “replays and resources.” These channels help you explore the space more efficiently and post questions to related forums.
Here are some channel ideas. Feel free to use it in the community!
Announcement General/Random Wins/Victory supports product or course-specific channels (e.g. channels for members registered in the “Freelance Accelerator” course) 5) Take advantage of the engagement function
The engagement function is designed to promote and promote interaction. They keep the community bustling by allowing members to easily connect with others and engage with content. Some important engagement features include:
Discussion forums, direct messaging, and group chat for structured, casual conversations. Polls and surveys for immediate feedback. Notifications and reminders to ensure follow-throughs. Live events and workshops to promote real-time engagement. Gamification to increase participation. Member directories and profiles that facilitate one-to-one connections.
My coach makes use of most of these features for her community. I’m grateful for all of them, but I think notifications are the most helpful. For example, using my coach’s community platform allows members to receive in-app and/or email notifications below:
Comments on your post. I’ll reply to your comment. Remark. Direct message. Weekly digestion. 6) Create valuable content
Great content attracts attention, triggers conversations, and members are coming back for more. To create engaging content, think about the interests and questions of the members. Then use the template to consistently provide what you’re looking for.
It is also important to incorporate different content types. To your community, this may look like this
Written content
Step-by-step guides, newsletters and community feed posts. Video content
We recorded workshops, Q&AS, and webinars. Audio content
Podcasts and audio messages. image
Infographics, screenshots, photos. evaluation
Quiz and test. Games and Simulation 7) Responsive and Attentive
Being responsive and paying attention to the needs of your members shows you value them. This ultimately increases retention and encourages brand loyalty. There are some best practices to make your members feel seen and supported.
Respond to members in a timely manner
My coach usually returns to me within 48 hours. Conversation with channels and forum members
Our community has around 50 members so my coach can join everyone’s posts. Provide detailed feedback and advice
Every time I post a question or DM to the coach, she responds to details and links to useful resources. Scream the members of the community
My coach regularly highlights members of our community feed. She may publicly praise anyone who started an SEO course or thank another member for inspiring new content. 8) Appoint a powerful moderator
Moderators help promote healthy, vibrant online communities. They do this by implementing community guidelines, encouraging discussions, and implementing onboarding members. When choosing a community moderator, Chantelle Hills, a live streaming and community specialist, recommends choosing someone you trust. She added that she should consider appointing someone from the community itself. Ideally, “helping others.” [and] Ask these individuals first and they will be willing to take on the role. They will already have a deep understanding of your community.
9) Host Events
Events strengthen community ties and relationships by bringing everyone together in real time. And if you make your event public, you can attract additional members to your community. To increase member engagement, consider hosting the following events:
Opening Hours Small Group Discussion Webinar Workshop Coworking Session
My coach holds multiple events each month. For example, in the opening hours, “Marketing Sprint,” members collectively engage in marketing tasks and workshops for their businesses. (Members of our community are actually holding SEO workshops next month!)
10) Ask for member feedback
If the member’s attempt to engage is not working, please contact us directly! Members appreciate your enthusiasm to welcome your involvement and receive valuable insights. You may find that the days and times you host a live event are inconvenient for most members. Alternatively, you can see that the channel is vaguely labeled, so that members have not posted to the channel, and that they do not contain notes about what each one uses. Minimize these obstacles to engagement by gathering feedback through research, polls and customer interviews. Be sure to ask:
The event they want to attend. Priority meeting times. Content they want to see less and less. Features and tools provided by the community. How to organize information. How to improve as a community leader (e.g., more present, faster response, and provide more detailed feedback)
The power of the community is valuable
With hundreds of online platforms and markets boasting thousands of courses, providing an attractive online community is a prominent and effective way to do it. It’s easy to record lectures and upload them to a platform of your choice, but it’s much more difficult to build an active community around the course.
But doing so will create brand loyalty, increase member retention and gain invaluable customer input. When it comes to members like me, we access like-minded peers who empathize with us and encourage us. You can price your courses, but the ongoing support, connections and understanding you get from the community is truly valuable.
