How To Overcome Participation Problems On Your Online Community By Using Data

Online communities thrive on participation from their members and they can be difficult to figure out.  You have probably noticed there are times throughout the year where participation is unusually low and it’s not uncommon for online communities to have participation problems.

Most people think they can find the answer in strategies that other organizations have crafted to solve their own online participation issues.  However, that doesn’t always work because every organization is unique.  As a result, the problems they face usually require an equally unique plan of action.

 

Before you can solve your participation problems, you must first identify what is causing the problem.  Start by using membership management software to collect data on behavior and transactions.  You should also include demographic data in your study.  Once you know where your members are from and see a pattern in their decisions, you can start using that information to identify participation problems.

Obviously, some participation problems are general and they don’t have a specific source or inciting factor.  You simply have a situation where a majority of members have yet to complete a significant number of activities in the community.  Other participation issues are individual as members fail to fill out their profiles or take part in surveys.

 

Membership management software will help you identify participation problems but that’s just the first step.  Once you have that data, you can identify the causes of why participation is low and craft various engagement strategies.  For instance, notice which areas have the highest engagement then find out what draws people to those places and replicate it in other sectors that are less active.

If you really want members to complete their profiles, send out frequent reminders or give some kind of incentive for members that do.  When your content isn’t attracting the interest you envisioned, create better content.  Get creative with your solutions as there are no easy answers.  In addition to that, solutions that have delivered great results for other organizations may not work for you so remember that when dealing with participation problems.