5 Questions to Ask When Selecting a Community Platform

As associations start to deeply strategize about the future of online engagement for their members, many are looking to online communities to help bridge that gap. Selecting the right community platform can be overwhelming. There are lots of options out there and it’s essential that you understand the questions you need to ask in order to determine what’s going to serve your community’s purpose for your association now and in the future.The thing is, there’s no magic platform that will help you do it all out of the box, no matter what they tell you. That means you have to determine what’s most important. During demos, push past the flashy forums to understand how your community team is going to moderate on the back end. Press vendors to tell you how content intake will work for your contributors. The platform that you need to run your community will depend on what you’re trying to accomplish and how you see your community scaling in the future. In order to get to the root of that, here are 5 questions to consider asking before you choose.Does this support the experience my community members want?I don’t think that I’m the only who believes that your community member’s input regarding their needs for continued engagement in your online community is important. If someone thinks otherwise, let’s talk about it because if community input is not an integral part of how you build then why are you even building community? And I’m not talking about just your superusers, but those who may have mentioned in a comment on content “it would be really great if we could mention someone and they get notified.” But it doesn’t just come down to functionality. How do your members want to be recognized? Is badging enough or do they want labels? How do they want to share content? These are all things that are a part of how they experience your community and should be part of your consideration when choosing a community platform.Does this platform support the work I/my team has to do?Not only is the community experience important, but so are any trade-offs you or your team have to make in order to run the community. Are the analytics that you will see at least parallel to what you have now, if not better? Is it harder or easier to control spammers? Can you automate some of your moderation tasks or does it require all manual work? If the administrative features needed to run the online community aren’t, at least, on par with what you are currently working with, make sure you’re asking why or how they plan to account for those needs going forward. If they’re not, move on.How does this platform help achieve the community strategy?Your community strategy is a major input into choosing the right community platform because it not only encompasses what the community experience will be for members, but it also speaks to how you will support your association’s needs, as well. This could be anything from supporting product teams to implementing capabilities that help chapters connect to their members better. That said, when you’re thinking about a new platform for your community, consider whether or not it will help you meet the outcomes in your strategy. For the love of all that is good in the world, do not change your strategy to align with the technology because you really like it. That may sound like a silly word of caution, but it may be tempting to do and can pull you away from why your community exists and the support that it provides the rest of the association. If it’s not a fit, keep searching for something that is.What integrations does this platform support?Communities are rich with data about member behaviors and tendencies and it’s incredibly important for that data to be visible across your association’s digital architecture. That means that in order for your association to get good data around what your community members are doing and consuming, it should connect into your CRM, your data management systems, and any other tools that will help provide a robust picture of who your community members are and how to better serve them. It also helps your association make good business decisions around products to create, features to release, and content to provide because it can easily see what people are receptive to. This insight is incredibly valuable and, oftentimes, missed when those integrations aren’t there.Will this platform still be a fit in 5 years?It’s really easy to fall victim to the shiniest object, right? There are well known players in the community platform arena, and it can be really tempting to just pick the one that everyone says they love or that most people in your industry tend to lean towards. Suffice it to say, that is not how you want to select your platform. When you think about the value that it offers now, also think about whether or not it will scale with the growth of your community. Will this community platform be able to change as the needs of your community members/association changes or will you be stuck with it and have to “MacGyver” solutions until you can select something new? As you’re having demos with the platform vendors, understand what’s on their roadmap. Are there features people have been asking for that they just haven’t gotten to yet? If they haven’t, understand when they will or if they ever intend to. There’s nothing worse than investing in a platform that turns out to be the wrong fit, long term, for your community.In conclusion, there are lots of other very important questions that you should be asking when evaluating which community platform is right for you. Feverbee and CMX have put together some amazing resources to help you make the right decisions for your community. But nothing comes close to you doing your own research. Understand what your needs are, ask detailed questions during demos, and make your decision based on your community’s current and future needs, not just cool features.What other questions would you add to this list? What helped you find the right platform for your community? Would love to hear your thoughts!