Five Different Types of Online Communities

I’m really looking forward to helping your community grow and thrive.

Let’s talk about the five different kinds of communities that come together online.

Action communities campaign for social change. Their unity comes from a shared value. The challenge for the community leader is to maintain interest even when that change is slow to come. Small victories help, coupled with advice to help community members spread awareness in their own lives.

Local communities focus on a small area. They provide a way for neighbors to exchange news and information. While these communities often have local leaders, they also have plenty of grassroots support and no shortage of interaction. Keep an eye out for marketing that can spoil the experience and control it by restricting ads to one day a week or by sloughing commercial messages into a separate part of the community.

Professional communities let people doing similar work share advice and experience. Make sure that your content and the information available in the community is welcoming to new members but also advanced enough to interest experienced professionals.

Communities based on circumstance gather together people who share a particular situation, such as motherhood or drug addiction. Members of these communities are often looking for information. Be prepared to do plenty of curation, motivate experienced members to contribute and publish lots of your own content.

And interest communities are focused on a particular passion, hobby or brand. These can be the most fun so you’ll need to make the sure the content is entertaining and invites engagement. Videos are particularly effective. Publish your own and encourage others to upload theirs.

Know which kind of community you’re building. Understand what members of that community are looking for. Be the example that other members will follow.

That’s all for now! In the next message, I’ll be talking about those first VIP seeds.

Brought to you by Merav Knafo

Former CEO of PeepSo.com