Posts about Engagement

Did you know, according to the Pew Research Center, 73 percent of American adults consider themselves lifelong learners?

Education is a huge benefit associations can provide for their members, and online education is a great way of providing it. And today, with learning management system (LMS) options that seamlessly integrate with your online community, it’s possible to create a centralized member experience that includes education and certifications of all types.

You have all the pieces in place in to go mobile – a responsive website, mobile-friendly design elements, even an online community app that lets users receive push notifications and access your community from any device. It's a great plan, especially since studies show that by using apps push notifications in your app, you could increase engagement by 2,770 percent. 

There’s just one problem: people aren’t using your app. They’re not even downloading it.

Want some easy to create and implement ideas that will enhance, protect and engage your community?

We’ve been in this industry for more than a decade, so we put together a list of what we consider are seven of the most underutilized online community features and processes. By making the most of these, you can save time and cut down pressure on your staff.

Subject matter experts (SMEs) have the potential to be the most versatile and impactful members of your community. But are you enabling them to make an impact and, more importantly, do you know what obstacles they are facing within the community and your organization?

How does your community stack up against all the rest? Are your ‘best practices’ really the best?

Many people in the community industry look forward to the findings in The Community Roundtable’s annual State of Community Management (SOCM) report, which helps guide their community efforts, ensures they keep up on the latest trends and keeps them competitive in the marketplace. This year, The Community Roundtable uncovered incredible insights by surveying more than 300 communities of all types, sizes and ages.

Nonprofits are well-known for their dedication to making a positive impact in their field. The largest and most successful have been around for a long time, like the National Audubon Society, or have a mission and brand that is large and easily recognized, like Ronald McDonald House Charities.

These now-influential nonprofits wouldn’t have made it far without the help of their loyal supporters. Nonprofit supporters are the foundation of change-driven organizations, often contributing volunteer and advocacy hours as well as funding for essential projects.

Some companies naturally attract millennials. They’re the cool ones with foosball tables in their break rooms. But for the rest of the businesses out there, convincing Gen Y that your organization is a great place to work isn’t so easy. If you can’t afford (or don’t want) distracting foosball tables, how do you appeal to young professionals?

The easy answer? Lean on research, including studies and surveys, that flat-out asks millennials what they want.

We recently caught up with Alexandra Dao, Senior Manager, Research and Customer Insights for Vimeo. Alexandra spoke about how she works with current Vimeo users to do usability testing on new products. Although she doesn’t have a community manager title any more, Alexandra’s career began in community management - and she’s taken those lessons with her.

Imagine if Google’s Sundar Pichai wrote a guest blog post on your community about the future of cloud computing. Do you think your customers would be excited?

Community professionals often struggle to finds ways of getting one piece of content - a tweet, a video, a blog post, or a discussion thread - to capture your members’ attention, pushing them to engage more. It’s an obstacle many community professionals struggle with - especially since the internet is more vast than ever, making it harder to grab anyone’s attention.

You slave over your community. The alerts never stop chiming on your phone, your email is the first thing you check every morning, and you know your all-star members better than you know your best friend.

You are a master of online engagement.

So when your quarterly meeting with the executive team rolls around, you’re ready. You hit your presentation out of the park… until the CFO asks how online community engagement is impacting sales goals. Do all those forum posts translate to more revenue? Can you show them those numbers?