Online Community Tips

Generating ongoing member engagement for your association is about more than just giving your members a good experience. With increased engagement, you can boost renewal rates and attract new members. Since members primarily join associations to connect with others in their industry, engaged members are likely getting more of the value they are seeking from their membership. Happier members means a more financially stable association — in short, everyone wins.

When online communities are at their best, content is valuable, members are consistently engaged and everyone involved feels supported and fulfilled by the connection.

When online communities are at their best, content is valuable, members are consistently engaged and everyone involved feels supported and fulfilled by the connection.

The transition into the digital space has created both an opportunity and a challenge for members and associations. With in-person or other physical elements traditionally providing value to their membership packages, defining member benefits in the digital sphere isn’t always a natural step.

Since first appearing on the scene in the 1800’s, associations have been in a constant state of evolution. While first a means of networking at meetings, conferences and advocacy, the digital world provides an additional way for members to make connections.

There are both success and failure stories from membership organizations that have launched online communities over the past several years. If you’re still trying to figure out this puzzle for your organization and are concerned about how to do so, here are two critical items to keep in mind: community manager and content, because Community Manager + Curated Content = Engagement

Karen is CEO of a startup SaaS company called Breezio that specializes in building online communities.

We recently asked Karen for her insight on how cloud computing encourages collaboration and how a strong and secure IT infrastructure is necessary for success. Here’s what she had to say:

Every Fall our skies are filled with the honking sounds of thousands of migrating Geese traveling away from the frigid Canadian winter on their epic journey to the warm Southern United States. As soon as they take off they form the iconic flying ‘V’ formation and one goose begins to lead the flock on a strategic mission to their final destination. Studied extensively by scientists and equally referenced by motivational speakers, geese have a number of lessons that can also help us lead our online communities.

Beginner’s Mind

What do all beginners have in common aside from the theme that they are novices? As intuitive as it may seem, beginners are often owners of beginner’s mind, a concept in Zen Buddhism called shoshin. Shoshin refers to an attitude of eagerness and openness towards and with no preconceptions of what is being studied. As such, beginners have a freedom and an ease to ask questions, decode what is unknown to them while evolving their clear slate of mind to absorb that which is new. Experts or even intermediate learners often lack this attitude imprisoned by what they think they know or what they think they should already know and, as a result, fail to ask the right questions--the ones that would stimulate deeper understanding or a new way of approaching the concept. Their rate of growth the moment they lose shoshin diminishes drastically, almost exponentially. But are these students also the best teachers?

"The opposite of autonomy is control. And since they sit at different poles of the behavioral compass, they point us toward different destinations. Control leads to compliance, autonomy leads to engagement.” –Daniel Pink in Drive