Makeover: Give Your Community a Facelift!

Keeping a community engaged is a challenge. There are many different factors that can happen to put a sizzle on community participation. If you are tracking metrics on a regular basis, you will see trends and patterns so you can troubleshoot what is causing dips in engagement and how you can create tactics to improve them. This article explores what some of those factors are and how you can combat them.

But what if you are inheriting a community space or even sub-communities that need to be revitalized? Or maybe you think it’s better to start over? Here are a few tips on doing a community makeover. 

Evaluate Community Strategy 

Before you start making changes you need to evaluate why the community went dark? Key questions to ask include: 

1. Were members ever engaged? 

2. What is the unique value proposition of the community? Is the community fulfilling that unique value proposition? 

3. Are there UX/Navigation issues that are limiting community engagement? 

4. Do you have a group of ambassadors? Are you utilizing them to their full potential? 

5. Are you getting staff and organizational support? 

6. What has the content strategy been? 

7. How is content performing? Is it inline with the unique value proposition? 

This is just a start to evaluate the current community strategy and give you ideas about how that community strategy will need to change if you want to re-engage members. A huge part of this process should be interviews with you members. I’m not talking about the active ones. I’m talking about the least engaged members. Ask them how the community can help them! Another big element is staff engagement. If the community is not being successful, chances are staff, executives, and the organization are not involved or supporting the community. If the community does not receive support from these groups, the community will not be successful and there is no reason to reinvigorate the community. Speak with your stakeholders. Why aren’t they supporting the community? How can the community help them accomplish their goals? Get their buy-in. If organizational buy-in isn’t there, don’t try to reinvent the community. The community will never succeed. 

Community Audit

Community audits should be done periodically with successful communities and you will need to do the same if you are trying to relaunch a community. Get under the hood, how are things configured on your community platform? What resources do you have? What pages and links need to be updated? We had a few different documents that needed to be updated when we did our relaunch. Here is a list of potential documents that should be revisited. 

1. Code of Conduct 

2. Training resources 

3. FAQs

4. Governing documents and procedures 

I believe it’s best practice to always be aware of updates that need to be made to these resources, but it’s important to make sure you have a fresh start when you are revitalizing the community. 

Community Leaders

If you want the community to be successful, you need champions to help lead the charge. Acknowledge those already participating in the community and empower them to create an ambassador program and re-engage membership. They see the value in the community because they have been participating. They are full of ideas on how to improve the community. Give them the tools and resources they need to support the community. You can tap into their networks to bring in new members. These members often just want to be acknowledged and plugged into a common goal and then they will be the most indispensable resource in your tool belt. 

Rebranding 

You will need to improve the look and feel of the community. Even if it’s just cosmetic, it signals to existing members that the platform has changed, and it gives them a reason to come back. But don’t just let the changes be cosmetic. Take advantage of this opportunity to look into the navigation and UX. What are user pain points? What can be improved? Dig into the community and try to fix as many pain points as possible! 

Build New Programs 

Give members a new reason to come back. You can improve the community and get “back to the basics” but chances are most past participants of your community have already tried it and will not give it another chance unless you give them a new reason to re-engage. Think of some new and improved content and programs that align with your community and organizational strategy. These programs will give members a new reason to give your community a second chance! 

In Closing 

Re-engaging a community can be very difficult. Once a community has sizzled, it is hard to convince members to come back and re-engage. You have the resources you need! You know what doesn’t work! Do your research, use this data to create a unique community experience members can’t find anywhere else. You need to “WOW” the community! But you have the data you need to do it! Good luck!