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How to Start Running an Online Community

So, why haven’t you launched an online community yet? Maybe you aren’t sure how to get started. Or maybe your staff feels too strapped for time to manage one more thing.

No matter what’s been holding you back, there’s good news. Launching an online community is easier than you think.

1. Select your online community technology

You can’t launch an online community without the platform to enable it. Look for technology that supports a modern experience, with key tools to help you keep members engaged. Some features to look for:

A social networking feed so that members can view and comment on relevant content, discover learning and career opportunities, and access member benefits within a single feed
Suggested connections so that you can promote connections and networking opportunities based on common member attributes
and interests
Quick announcement area to highlight important information, such as when your annual conference registration opens
Automated member renewal notices to reduce the number of
lapsed memberships
Dashboards and analytics so that you can keep an eye on member activities to better understandmember interests and provide greater member value
AI Moderation to help you review and flag questionable content in
your community

Here are six steps to help you get your online community off the ground:

2. Focus on a goal

An online community can have multiple goals; however, a single goal should be the priority. The primary goal should be something that directly achieves value for the organization. For example, “increasing engagement” or “getting more web traffic” are not directly connected to value. Instead, consider what happens if members are more engaged or you get more web traffic.

This might mean better retention rates or greater membership growth. The primary goal of the community is the outcome of member behavior, not the behavior itself.

3. Offer valuable content

One reason people join an organization is to stay in-the-know about what’s going on in their industry. Make sure your online community offers members access to information, such as details about professional development, the latest reports on industry best practices, and new insights from industry thought leaders.

Giving your members access to content they can’t easily get anywhere else makes them feel part of a group and benefits them professionally for years to come. Plus, housing key content in your online community is an effective way to create dialog around your content, get feedback, and improve member engagement in an organic way.

4. Promote the online community

Let your members know that your online member community is coming soon and promote the value the community will offer. Ask some of your staff, board members, and most involved members to start conversations in the community to get it going before the “official” launch date. When it’s ready to launch, send an email to members letting them know it’s available and how to access it. Continue to remind members of the online community through your new member onboarding process, member newsletter, and other communications.

Also, keep in mind that access to your online community is a major selling point for joining your organization. Be sure to promote it in your member recruitment and onboarding activities. You’ll attract new members to your organization and get more members involved.

5. Make branding a breeze

It’s important to customize the look and feel of your community to align with your association’s brand. With just a few clicks in the right online community, you can easily create a branding setup to apply to the entire community, including logos, colors, fonts, and images.

6. Automate key processes

Reduce staff work with an online community that integrates with
your AMS. Employees can easily automate vital processes within
your committees, events, and volunteer opportunities,
streamlining committee membership, event registration, and
volunteer applications.

The AI Moderation Shift

When associations imagine launching an official community, they might feel overwhelmed by potential moderation responsibilities. For example, what happens when someone posts something inappropriate? Or
when a post thread goes sideways? What do you do if a member
files a complaint?

Usually whoever is responsible for the community already has three other job titles and is now playing content monitor on top of everything else.

This is a legitimate concern. And it's the specific problem that AI-assisted moderation is built to solve in your association’s community. Hers’s how:

AI Assistants review every piece of content before a human moderator sees it
AI catches clear violations and identifies cases for human review
Ultimately AI reduces moderator workload, without eliminating your team from the process and keeping humans in control of every consequential decision

AI Assistants are agentic workers that empower associations of all sizes to handle content volume within their communities. AI-assisted moderation makes it possible to run your community without a dedicated community manager.

Momentive Community's AI Assistant, powered by MomentiveIQ, reviews every piece of content before a human moderator sees it. It catches clear violations immediately and surfaces edge cases for human review.

Tips to Gain Valuable
Member Insights

Did you know your online community can give helpful insights about your members to improve your marketing campaigns? With a powerful online community, you can make your non-member marketing and membership engagement efforts more efficient. For example, you can set up dashboards to provide insights into how both members and
non-members are using the community.

In one quick glance, you can track metrics such as:

1. Online community growth

Number of active online community members
Number of online community logins
Number of members who have recently joined your community

These metrics tell you how many of your members have joined your online community and how many are using it.

If the numbers are trending downward, you might want to:

Promote the advantages of the online community, prompting more members to participate. You might even consider getting testimonials from your most engaged community members to encourage others to join in.
Send notifications to online community members that include a digest of new posts, comments on discussions, or suggested
new topics.
Deliver personalized content to your members through feeds that serve content based on members’ interests and activities.

2. Member engagement

Number of discussion posts and responses
Number of page views
Number of file uploads
Most active members

These metrics can give you great insights into member engagement levels. To improve member engagement, you can do things like:

Create groups for people with similar interests or attributes to network and discuss topics.
Make participation easier by enabling your members to access your online community through a customized mobile app.
Reward your most active members for their participation by displaying a badge on their profiles.

3. Member value

Most active groups
Most popular discussions
Most frequently viewed pages

These metrics allow you to “hear” what members are saying about their interests. You can use these insights to adjust benefits and services, or even create new ones. This approach shows your members you’re listening by providing more of the content and resources they want.

4. Non-member recruitment

Using the right online community can also grant insight into how to recruit non-members to your association. Consider allowing non-members to join your online community to gain valuable insights into how to convert non-members into members.

Track the following factors to gather valuable information about member recruitment:

Number of non-member logins
Number of active non-members
Popular posts, groups, or discussions with non-members

Active community members renew at higher rates. When you can see that relationship in your own data — engagement activity on one side, renewal status on the other — you will have a clear case for continuing to invest in the community, and a clear signal for where to focus your outreach when renewal season arrives.