If your idea of an online community is still one massive Facebook Group feed with everything chucked into it, things have moved on. 😬Modern community platforms can give your members a proper home.Conversations, events, videos, resources, member directories, private messages and more can all sit together.But importantly, they can be organised in a way that doesn’t overwhelm people.Here’s what that actually looks like.<h2 id="1247321d-7fb1-45c4-93df-9bb914f08484" data-toc-id="1247321d-7fb1-45c4-93df-9bb914f08484" style="text-align: left; font-size: 24px; line-height: 1.2;">🎥 Watch the Video</h2><div data-youtube-video="" style="display: flex; justify-content: flex-start;"><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/a9Um0Bu_YB8" start="0" width="640" height="480" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="true" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" style="max-width: 100%; text-align: left;"></iframe></div><h2 id="42816d10-f091-4588-a902-040453b593f5" data-toc-id="42816d10-f091-4588-a902-040453b593f5" style="text-align: left; font-size: 24px; line-height: 1.2;">🏠 Start With a Familiar Community Feed</h2>At the centre of a modern community, you’ll probably still find something reassuringly familiar.A feed.Members can create posts, like things and leave comments.You can sort posts and see what’s been happening recently.So far, so Facebook.But you can do much more with the actual content.A single post could include:🟢 Text🟢 Images🟢 Video🟢 Audio🟢 GIFs and emojis🟢 Polls🟢 Downloadable files🟢 Embedded contentAnd you can control who is allowed to post depending on how you want your community to work.That gives you far more flexibility than simply chucking everything into a social media feed and hoping people find it.<h2 id="01a80b52-948f-4ede-86a6-3ac7c39a3f6f" data-toc-id="01a80b52-948f-4ede-86a6-3ac7c39a3f6f" style="text-align: left; font-size: 24px; line-height: 1.2;">📅 Bring More of the Experience Into One Place</h2>The feed is only one part of it.You can also have dedicated areas for things like videos and events.Upcoming events can be displayed prominently so members can easily see what’s happening next.You can create a member directory so people can discover who else is part of the community.You can even introduce leaderboards and recognise people for participating.The point isn’t to cram in as many features as possible.It’s about creating an environment that makes it easier for people to find what they need and get involved.<h2 id="0ef08f9f-7dae-4d1d-a3d1-fa31af6ca188" data-toc-id="0ef08f9f-7dae-4d1d-a3d1-fa31af6ca188" style="text-align: left; font-size: 24px; line-height: 1.2;">😵‍💫 One Giant Feed Can Quickly Become Overwhelming</h2>This is where I think dedicated community platforms really start to show their value.Think about a Facebook Group.Or a LinkedIn Group.Or even a massive WhatsApp Group.Everything is happening in one place.That might be fine when you’ve got 20 people and a couple of posts each week.But what happens when your community grows?Or when somebody joins six months after you started?They arrive to find months of conversations, resources, questions, announcements and random stuff all mixed together.Where the hell do they start?And that matters because overwhelm can give people a reason to disengage from a community.<h2 id="bd56f76a-3e31-438b-9c2f-4b18438fbe91" data-toc-id="bd56f76a-3e31-438b-9c2f-4b18438fbe91" style="text-align: left; font-size: 24px; line-height: 1.2;">🗂️ Channels Give Everything a Home</h2>A modern community platform can solve this with channels.If you’ve used Slack or Discord, you’ll already understand the idea.Instead of one enormous conversation, you break things into logical areas.You might have channels for:General DiscussionIntroductionsHelp &amp; SupportTutorialsVideosAnnouncementsOr something completely different.The structure should reflect your community and what your members actually need.That makes it much easier for somebody to find the conversations they care about without wading through everything else.<h2 id="b430d73a-6016-42b6-a09e-17460f1861ca" data-toc-id="b430d73a-6016-42b6-a09e-17460f1861ca" style="text-align: left; font-size: 24px; line-height: 1.2;">🔔 Give People Control Over Notifications</h2>There’s another important part of this.Notifications.Because nothing makes somebody reach for the Leave Community button faster than being bombarded with 427 notifications about conversations they don’t care about. 😂With channels, members can have much more control.They can choose which areas they want notifications from.Depending on your setup, those notifications could arrive through the community app, email or browser notifications.That means members can decide how involved they want to be rather than you deciding for them.<h2 id="3cc578ed-e21b-44a4-8dab-a33797c5afd6" data-toc-id="3cc578ed-e21b-44a4-8dab-a33797c5afd6" style="text-align: left; font-size: 24px; line-height: 1.2;">🔗 Your Community Can Connect With Everything Else</h2>Your community doesn’t need to become an island either.You can add links to the other places members might need to visit.Your website.A booking page.A donation page.Resources.Other services.Whatever makes sense for what you’re building.The community can become a central home while still connecting people with the other digital tools and services you use.<h2 id="ce43448f-cd8f-438d-8fb5-edb2c0a5f858" data-toc-id="ce43448f-cd8f-438d-8fb5-edb2c0a5f858" style="text-align: left; font-size: 24px; line-height: 1.2;">💬 Help Members Connect With Each Other</h2>This is one of the bits that really matters.A community shouldn’t only be a place where you broadcast information at people.Members should be able to connect too.Depending on how you configure things, people can see who’s online and contact each other directly.They can send private messages.They can join conversations.They can collaborate.And suddenly the value isn’t only coming from you.It’s coming from the people you’ve brought together.<h2 id="cd9ee9f6-155a-4b64-884e-f358bd7bdfc9" data-toc-id="cd9ee9f6-155a-4b64-884e-f358bd7bdfc9" style="text-align: left; font-size: 24px; line-height: 1.2;">The Best Community Platform Isn’t the One With the Most Features</h2>It’s easy to look at all of this and start creating a massive shopping list."Ooooh, I want leaderboards!""We definitely need an app!""Look! It does GIFs!" 😂But features aren't where you should start.Start with your people.What do they need?What conversations do you want to encourage?What information needs to be easy to find?How will new members know where to start?How do you prevent things becoming overwhelming as you grow?Then configure the technology around that experience.Because a modern community platform can give you a hell of a lot of options.You don’t necessarily need to use all of them.<h2 id="e03c1659-81aa-452a-84e8-ece7cf38aea3" data-toc-id="e03c1659-81aa-452a-84e8-ece7cf38aea3" style="text-align: left; font-size: 24px; line-height: 1.2;">👋 Need Help With Your Digital Stuff?</h2>Whether you’re building an online community, sorting out your website, improving your digital skills or trying to make the technology behind your organisation easier to manage, Help With Digital is there to make things simpler.Practical help.Straightforward explanations.And technology that supports what you’re actually trying to achieve rather than making everything more complicated.Head over to:<a target="_blank" href="https://www.helpwithdigital.com">https://www.helpwithdigital.com</a>

What does a modern online community actually look like? Take a tour of feeds, channels, events, member directories, messaging and more.


What Does a Modern Online Community Actually Look Like?

🏠 Start With a Familiar Community Feed

📅 Bring More of the Experience Into One Place

😵‍💫 One Giant Feed Can Quickly Become Overwhelming

🔔 Give People Control Over Notifications

🔗 Your Community Can Connect With Everything Else

💬 Help Members Connect With Each Other

The Best Community Platform Isn’t the One With the Most Features

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What Does a Modern Online Community Actually Look Like?

What Does a Modern Online Community Actually Look Like?

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