There are many aspects as to what defines or makes a successful online community. We see the matter fairly simply at ShoalHarbor.
Success is determined by:
• Growing a sense of real community within the online community.
• Encouraging dialog and engagement within the online community.
• Creating and growing the online community into a vessel that may serve the need of the community as well as the brand, company or individual.
We have a few bases to cover so please bear with me in this post, and lets work together all the way through, and then to Part 2.
Key Items For Online Community Success:
• Good quality original content.
• Being an authority on a subject.
• Expressing an opinion or point of view.
• Being passionate about your online community.
• Doing basic SEO, and optimizing the site for your online community.
• Giving visitors a great user experience, with all the bells and whistles, on a neat well defined online community or social media site.
The items above are all valid and true, especially for big and well established brands with existing market momentum!
Bigger brands with momentum may find online engagement occurs as a normal part of the existing relationship with the customer.
However, the reality may be slightly different for new brands starting in social media, an online community, or private individuals starting to blog.
I put it to you that you may create a world class site, with all bases covered, with the key points above, with all the bells and whistles! You expect action and engagement!
Hopa!
You launch your online community site or blog with pride!
After all, its well designed,and you have all the bases covered!
You sit back and wait for it all to happen! Hopa!
And guess what, your blog, online community, or social media channel sits there like a lame duck!
You note that nothing happens! Nothing at all! Huh?
But wait, you did the job properly after all? You did?
So you head straight to your Google Analytics account. Yes I'm sure you created one and installed the code?
In the Google Analytics account you see a simple picture, and the picture tells a story...
Your Online Community Is Either:
• Receiving lots of traffic.
• Or it's not receiving much traffic at all.
If your online community is not receiving much traffic then you know that this is a definite issue, and it needs to be addressed.
ShoalHarbor will dedicate a series of posts to generating targeted traffic at a later stage.
The point of this post is to discuss the fact that you have no real engagement, yet your Google Analytics shows that you are attracting a reasonable amount of online community traffic.
The Solution May Be As Follows:
• Are you posting regularly?
• How much focused optimized content have you accumulated?
• Take a look at the Search Terms in your Google Analytics. What search terms are people using to find your site? Would they be interested in your offering? Have you done your SEO correctly?
• If not, consider taking a look at your SEO strategy, and adapt it accordingly.
You may feel free to take note of the following online community tip..
As a rule of thumb you should do keyword research and style your online community around one or two Keywords maximum.
You should then do further research and then expand this keyword list with a few more keywords at a later stage once your online community is showing a measure of success.
Let's continue with this online community post, on the assumption that:
• Your online community has adequate content.
• Your online community is receiving good traffic.
• Your online community is receiving traffic that is attracted to your offering.
• Your online community is not having favorable engagement.
I had this very situation a few years back! I had constructed a stunning site that was put together correctly.
The site was easy on the eye, with great content. It looked yummy!
Yet this site just sat in cyberspace like a lame duck!
I did the math, looked at the pictures in Google Analytics, and saw that I was receiving focused traffic.
However the engagement, commenting, and gelling into an online community just did not happen!
Read Part 2 to Discover the Breakthrough
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