15 Community engagement strategies (that really work!)

What is a community engagement strategy?

The principles of community engagement strategies

• Action and impact
• Transparency and trust
• Learning and openness
• Collaboration and a common goal
• Demographic diversity and inclusion
• Adequate inclusive planning and preparation
• Persistent engagement and a participatory culture.

The benefits of community engagement (Why community engagement matters?)

• Increase organisational members' confidence;
• Empower and integrate members from diverse backgrounds;
• Improve the chances that projects/programs will be commonly validated;
• Create more efficient solutions by leveraging local knowledge from a diverse group of people.
• Build local and, why not, international community member networks.
• Provide multiple opportunities for issues to be discussed before they become too large or out of control.
• Provide members with the opportunity to hone their problem-solving skills, decision-making abilities, and communications skills.

15 successful community engagement strategies

• Increasing community engagement with each effort;
• Inspiring community members to believe in a shared vision;
• Establishing community trust by demonstrating how your organisation can help.

The following community engagement strategies are in line with these objectives:

• Start each interaction with a friendly greeting. It only takes a few words of encouragement and guidance to make them feel at home and let them know they are in the right place, with the right people. For example, a SaaS platform could send a personalized message welcoming a new customer, highlighting key features of the community like discussion forums or user webinars, making them feel immediately included.
• Be receptive. It's all about communication, and your team looks up to you to set the tone. Customers feel more engaged when they know their contributions are acknowledged and valued. Always respond promptly and thoughtfully, and don’t hesitate to ask follow-up questions or invite other members to chime in.
• Engage your community members by giving them the confidence and tools they need to express themselves. Warm welcomes can help members form early connections, but it doesn't have to stop there. Experimenting with social media is an interesting way of providing the members of your community with the tools they lack to express themselves. An online customer community might host a monthly "Product Tips" contest, encouraging users to share creative ways they use the product, with the best tips featured in a community newsletter.

The online community engagement strategies below are designed with the members of your community in mind:

• Migrate from public social media to your own private online community. While Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are great places to start, you can build more rewarding and deeper connections on your own purpose-built platform. In a customer community, members are likely to share more in-depth feedback and insights about the product, which benefits both users and the company.
• Provide members with a reason to spend time on their profile. Serving as their passport, it will make it easier for members to engage with each other.
• Develop stronger bonds with sub-groups. If you notice patterns in what your members do and say, you can adjust your community engagement strategy accordingly. A software company could create separate discussion groups for beginners and advanced users of its product. This enables more tailored advice and collaboration, improving customer satisfaction and product use.
• It's a fine line between pressure and encouragement, but you need to make sure people take part to fully benefit from your community. This is another great strategy for community engagement. A customer community might highlight top contributors in a weekly newsletter or offer exclusive early access to new features as a reward for consistent engagement.
• Include eye candy wherever possible. The value of a picture on the internet isn't just that it can tell a thousand words; it also captures attention better than anything else. Simply attaching an appropriate image or GIF can do wonders;
• Make being an engaged member of your community meaningful and enjoyable. Avoid making your spaces feel like a boring advertisement. Instead, prioritize unique, engaging, and exclusive content and conversations. A SaaS company could organize monthly live Q&A sessions with product developers or customer success managers, providing an interactive space where customers can ask questions and offer feedback directly.

Here's how to engage members of your community:

• Request feedback. Actively seeking customer feedback not only gives valuable insights but also makes community members feel their opinions matter. Ask for input on new features, product improvements, or overall customer experience
• Fill-in-the-blank questions. You can use this format to ask members of your community about their opinions and other topics. A customer community might post, "The one feature I couldn’t live without is _____!" to spark conversation and get members talking about their favorite product features.
• This or that posts. They can be similar to fill-in-the-blank questions. In this case, you would ask your members to see if they prefer option A or B. Both of these community engagement strategies can be great engagement drivers in and of themselves, as people debate why one option is better than the other;
• Gamify community engagement. Gamification is the process of transforming dull content into something more playful, interactive, and stimulating by appealing to the emotions and psychology of your community members;
• Run competitions. It works well to boost collaborations and you could propose a weekly price or award badges;
• Maintain trust and order by moderating the community firmly but fairly. Winning the interest of your community entails more than just inviting them to participate. You must also set expectations for how they should behave if a discussion becomes too heated, as well as where to draw the line in terms of appropriate content.