One of the goals of this project is to encourage and simplify the process of providing a richer online social experience. With that in mind, methods to build value for the members will be compiled.
Techniques
Slow Drip
Frequently when you go to build a community, you will have a large trove of post material ready to go. Rather than posting all of that at once, schedule posts at regular intervals to avoid overwhelming your users.
State of the Union
Post about the growth of your community and any plans you may have for the future. By involving folks in the process of growth and curation, you both build institutional value in your community and ensure that your community is representative of its members.
Grand (Re)Opening
Post in relevant communities whenever first opening up or making a big change. This can be communities with similar interests to your own or spaces dedicated to community promotion.
Talk to Your Neighbors
Get in touch with communities that are similar in topic. At the very least, you should see about setting up “Related Communities” links.
Establish Credibility
Require or encourage the sharing of accreditations relevant to the topic. This is particularly useful for academic communities (think r/askhistorians).
Book Club
Have your community read through relevant works and discuss their implications. Consider compiling discussion into a wiki for the purpose of further building institutional knowledge.
Feature Request
Very frequently, the best parts of online communities are the result of tacking on unintended functionality to existing software (frequently in unergonomic ways). Chances are, if your community has adapted to jumping through some hoops to participate, folks would be better off removing those hoops altogether and building first class functionality. Take detailed note of where this occurs and consider speaking to your devs about it. Remember, your community is their community.
Institutional Knowledge
Take every opportunity to collect and provide resources to the members of your community. Nearly always, this is where the real value lies. If you’re having trouble attracting members, consider improving your value to them by building institutional knowledge.
Living Document
Combine a resources and discussion into a single entity by providing a place for members to work through and compile the things they consider most important.
Group Chat
Provide a space for more direct communication. There are a wide variety of different styles and uses for a group chat. The structure will depend wildly on use case, but you are almost always better off having a more direct way to talk to each other.
Assemble Your Team
Reach out to a small team of people knowledgeable of your topic and see if they are interested in joining the team for your initiative.
This wiki is a living document. If you are interested in contributing, please comment below or make a post over at !digitalcommunitybuilding@slrpnk.net