Note: This content appears in a slightly different form in our ebook: CMGT 101: 17 Community Leaders Share Their Secrets for Success. CMGT 101 is packed with engagement ideas, governance tips, career advice, and more from community leaders working at innovative organizations like CA Technologies, Aetna, Electronic Arts, SAP, Pearson, Akamai, and Atlassian. Download the ebook here for free.
Aaliyah Miller is a Senior Communications Consultant at Aetna. She shared best practices for creating meaningful and effective engagement in an online community program.
Why do community managers need to focus on creating effective engagement for their audience interactions?
Effective engagement drives and sustains communities. The data and metrics around shares, reach and engagement helps me to better understand key audiences, define success and set up my benchmarks for measuring success.
Do be passionate.
Passion for your work makes sharing the story and addressing questions that much easier. If you aren’t quite there yet it’s ok to fake it til you make it – you’d be surprised how quickly you can become invested in helping others achieve their goals using the community.
Do say “Thank you.”
Where would communities be without our members who act as “community superstars?” In my view, it’s critical to acknowledge and thank our champions and the random individuals who join and engage in community.
Do use data to tell your story.
Data is a powerful tool that has helped me make a case for change, reinforce my strategic approach and share community success stories with stakeholders and key audiences. With the right data and analysis, the content becomes more relevant and helps answer the “Why should this matter for me?” question.
Don’t be complacent.
As a community manager, it’s easy to look at success in one area and ride the wave. But we must remember that success in one area may not translate to success in other areas. It’s important to always be learning, staying informed of trends and best practices as well as be willing to try new and old ideas to help solve problems within the community.
