What does a community host dream about?
He/she dreams of building an outstanding community where everything is possible and every minute process involved in a community is a cinch for its members. Their dream is admirable and worth appreciating. With this dream in mind, all community hosts go hunting for tools that can help the community.
This is where the community steps inside a spider cobweb. They get their hands on tools with many features but fall short to think if it caters to their community needs. There are umpty features; members don’t know what to do with it or right away start using every single feature of it. Community managers themselves get confused sometimes, and the goal is not reached despite all these features in hand. What happens next is history.
The best way to slip out of this cobweb is just three simple steps away, are you intrigued thinking what it could possibly be? Chuck the thought and just read below cause we have done the thinking for you.
Step 1: Identifying the core activities of your community.
Each community has and aims for a core action to take place in their community. This might vary for each community, and it can be,
- To meet people - networking
- To build a Support system
- To have a solid resource library
- To chat with people - Chatting
- Content repository
It can be anything for which people come to the community. A community host has to take time to closely look at the purpose of the community and identify the core action. This can be the heart of a community.
Step 2: Find a tool that satisfies the need of the primary action alone in the best and easiest way possible.
Now that you know what you need, all you’ve got to do is get to the place where you can get it. Yes! There are so many tools in the market, and everything seems to attract us. But choosing what we need is the smart thing to do for you and your community. Even if there are 50 tools, narrow down ten tools, analyze them and find which tool does the job at the most ease. This can be time-consuming, but it’s worth it. This will set the heart of your community beating.
Step 3: See how this tool can get its wings from other features and integration.
Any tool you choose will have other features that can come in handy to fulfill different needs in your community. If there are a few more secondary needs of your community that this tool cannot provide, check out your primary tool’s integration options and see what tools you can integrate and make the most benefit. Now that your community’s heart is pumped up, it needs friends, and getting friends for it will make things feasible for you.
This cycle keeps repeating till you find ways for all the needs of your community. These needs might grow along when the community starts to grow. But no worries because still the process has only three simple steps, and you will already be a pro at it by that time.
Special case: A community chooses a primary tool but does not have options you are looking for to integrate. In that case, you have no other go but to choose the next best primary tool that caters to your community’s primary action. With this cycle in tune, it’s pretty impossible for a community host to fail or stay in the cobweb. “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication”- Leonardo Da Vinci. There is magic in simple things; master it to be the best showman, and using these steps could make you the best showman very soon.