Guidelines for building and managing communities
At the Interactive Austin conference yesterday, I sat on a panel with Matt Genovese of door64, Mike Wilson of Small World Labs, and Brad Warren of FG Squared. My introductory comments included these guidelines for developing and managing online community. These are mostly lessons I learned in the early 90s as a host on the seminal online community, the WELL. They’ve held true across the many other online communities I’ve been involved with since then, regardless of platform. (I just thought of one more I might have added: start small and build organically, and be patient – community building takes time.)
- Seed the community at the beginning. This could mean starting as a beta community with a limited set of articulate, committed members.
- Don’t allow anonymity. Do what you can to confirm real identities. Anonymous users have no accountability and can wreck your community.
- Cultivate leadership from within the community. Use passionate, committed community members as hosts and mid-managers. Give them a private place to meet and compare notes.
- Listen to your “citizens” and watch what they do. Look for opportunities to stimulate conversation. Be aware of tensions within the community and prevent them from escalating.
- Manage lightly. Remember that it’s their community, you’re just providing oversight and support.
- Follow a ‘benevolent dictator’ model. Though governance is generally light, you have to be prepared to step in to defuse tensions, and to remove trolls and “energy creatures.”
