As a business, you need a community – that we’ve covered, and it’s becoming more apparent than ever. The problem is, how do you keep your community engaged? It’s not enough to create or share content to be commented on, and trying to lure users to a space outside of social media can be hard. If all the things they’re interested in exist inside their own social networks, what will make them want to join your community? Luckily, there are tools that exist solely for this purpose – making it easier for you to build your community and easier for users who want to engage.
1. Single-Click Social Login
Most users don’t want to make yet another account on yet another site – it’s hard enough to remember the half dozen or so passwords we have, let alone the credentials for the 26 online accounts we already own. The fact is, users now vastly prefer Social Login. Social Login allows you to use one account (be it Facebook, Google+, Twitter or any number of other sites) to log in to anywhere it’s enabled. It’s faster and easier.
2. Multimedia Commenting
Commenting’s a no-brainer. Everyone loves to have their opinion heard and that exchange is as valuable to you as it is to your users. The abilities of your commenting system to allow multimedia content only makes it better – allowing users to add images and videos to their comments enhances the conversation and provides a better variety of content for them.
3. Content Discovery Widgets
Using what we call content discovery widgets keeps your site and content exposed and easy to access. We’ve all spent hours on sites like BuzzFeed and Cracked, and why? Not just because their content is fun and interesting, but because we’re constantly being suggested other articles to read. Widgets like Top Discussions shows the user where the most conversation is happening and invites them to read and participate. Widgets like Recent Articles shows them the newest content and makes it easy for them to binge read. All of these things encourage users to spend a lot of time on your site, which is a great tactic to help your monetization strategy and build your community.
4. Reward Mechanisms
Another way to keep your users engaged is using a reward system – a system that shows them that you value their contribution to the community. It’s often called gamification, a practice that makes it more fun to contribute by awarding badges, ranks and titles.
You can customize your badging to fit your own brand, as well as award them for whatever you want. Award them for 100 comments, reward them for sharing content, anything you decide. This creates an incentive for adding to the community that only helps to propel interaction.
5. Analytics Dashboard
Analytics will tell you what’s receiving a high engagement rate, as in what users seem to like the most, and that gives you a great idea of how to proceed with your content strategy. If you find that your audience is most attuned to your articles about movies, hockey, international politics etc., then you can decide what to focus on to help increase their engagement rate. Knowing a user’s interests, location, age or more all help you understand who they are and how to speak to them. Your community can grow much faster with that kind of knowledge behind it, because, as you know, data is an amazing thing.
Want to know more tips on engaging your users? Download our white paper today.
