How to start a thriving online community? These community managers shared all their best tips!

Starting your own branded online community isn’t exactly a walk in the part, but these experienced community managers will guide you with all their proven tips and best practices!

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Online communities are the hot topic, especially in the event industry, with more and more businesses now realizing the massive potential of owning their own branded online community.

Online communities are a proven way to create a non-stop connection with your audience, and if done right, your online community will yield up to 6,130% ROI. Plus, the return on investment can increase over time up to 7,071% for advanced online communities.

And besides incredible ROI, what are the other key benefits of owning a branded online community?

In a nutshell:

Increased revenues & customer loyalty
Thought leadership
Brand ambassadors
Immediate feedback and insights on your customers’ needs
More efficient and timely customer support
Year-round engagement for your audience (especially for event organizers)
Massive advantage over competitors

That being said, starting, building, and managing a successful online community isn’t easy, and the task requires a solid action plan and a deep understanding of your member base.

Our goal was to identify exactly what lies at the base of a successful and self-sustaining online community. And what better way than interviewing experienced community managers who’ve done that and succeeded?

During the past months, we had the honor of interviewing eight seasoned community experts who shared all their proven tactics and best practices on how to start, build, and successfully manage your online community.

Now, you can find all their insights in one single practical digital guide. Download your free copy at the link below!

Thanks to these experts’ contribution, in this article, we will answer the 5 most asked questions on how to start a thriving online community.

The questions are:

Let’s dive in!

1. How do I start my online community?

Online communities are groups of people who connect and interact with each other around a common interest or purpose in a designated virtual space.

The definition is straightforward, but starting a new online community from zero isn’t as easy a task as it might seem, quite the contrary in fact, and experienced community managers agree.

Emmanuel Nyame is Community Manager at United Nations Foundation and has a 12-year long experience in managing different types of communities.

“Starting a community from scratch is quite difficult if you don’t have the people,” says Emmanuel.

“And once you have the people, it’s not enough to understand the overall group consensus. You need to understand what each member desires as an individual.”

"You need to understand what each member desires as an individual." - Emmanuel Nyame

So, start by identifying not only who’s your target audience but also what thread connects those people. What brings them all together in your space?

It could be an industry, a passion, a business goal, you name it.

“For me, the most successful communities have been created when there is a lack of a ‘home’ for a niche profession,” says RD Whitney, Founder of Community Leaders Institute.

“If you can provide that place, and build trust, this can be a recipe for a successful community.”

After you've established what interest or purpose keeps your members together, it's time to answer another crucial question: what will your online community achieve for your business?

“Before starting an online community, I identify the audience, connect with stakeholders and define the purpose and goal,” says Steven Demoya, Community Manager at Wix.com.

“Additionally, I make sure the community's purpose aligns with the company's vision.”

“The most successful communities have been created when there is a lack of a ‘home’ for a niche profession.” - RD Whitney

Kelly Schott, Manager of Community Programs at Pragmatic Institute agrees. “I firmly believe that a community needs a purpose to be successful and that purpose needs to be understood by the members as well as the organization (or group or person) starting that community.”

Last but not least, there’s another important aspect you should never neglect: make your online community a safe place for each and every single one of your members.

In the words of Hannah Johnson, Community Manager at Rolling Stone Culture Council: “An ideal community is a safe space for people to connect over something they all care about."

2. How do I measure my online community growth?

The groundwork to start your branded online community is done. You’ve identified your target audience, you have a thorough understanding of what keeps them together, and you have a great action plan in place to deliver engaging content that is also aligned with your business goals.

However, there’s one more essential metric you need to define: how will you measure your success and growth?

“I look for metrics that match our overall goals, and make sure to measure the qualitative as well as the quantitative,” says Kelly Schott.

David DeWald, Community Manager at Ciena, has managed multiple communities for nearly 25 years, from open gaming communities to invite-only B2B communities.

“You should be wary of using community growth over time as a health metric,” David says.

RD Whitney reveals that, while the growth of your community can’t be measured accurately with one single metric, a general good indicator of healthy growth is when people keep coming back.

“My personal metric for activity across all my communities is whether or not people are showing up.