The Community Roundtable

Empowering global community leaders with research-backed resources, training, and tools.

Eight Ways to Improve Your Online Community Programs

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Like a garden, an online community program needs to be cared for at every stage in its lifecycle.

We’ve compiled eight timely recommendations for online community builders, organized around the eight competencies of the Community Maturity Model™. (Spoiler alert – there are 16 more recommendations in the 2024 State of Community management report!)

Strategy Recommendation

The Strategy competency of the Community Maturity Model™ serves as a framework to
measure how well a business’s strategic objectives align with its community program. By evaluating this connection, organizations can ensure their community initiatives are seamlessly embedded into their broader strategy, driving meaningful impact for both the community efforts and the business operations they support.

Mind the gap(s). Check your strategy for gaps and align with business outcomes. Community strategies should include budget requirements, ROI projections, and diagrammed workflows and behaviors. Align your community program with your organization’s larger goals and strategic initiatives. These elements will help the community secure more resources like headcount, and funding.

Leadership Recommendation

The Leadership competency of the Community Maturity Model™ encompasses active executive involvement in community initiatives, the emergence of new community leaders, and a comprehensive understanding of the wider organizational ecosystem.

Leadership development programs— often referred to as advocacy, MVP, champion, or super user initiatives— are crucial for cultivating thriving communities. These programs enhance engagement, facilitate value measurement, and strengthen executive participation.

The time to get started is right now. If you’re part of the “no community leadership program exists” cohort, just get started. Start small with a limited group of internal stakeholders or vocal customers and build from there. The program you start with doesn’t have to look anything like what you eventually want for your program – but if you have a community, you already have community leaders waiting to be noticed.

Culture Recommendations

The Community Maturity Model’s™ Culture competency encompasses the diverse habits, motivators (both intrinsic and extrinsic), social norms, communication styles, decision-making processes, development methods, and learning approaches within an organization or community. By identifying and addressing cultural challenges while being open to change, organizations can effectively mitigate risks and successfully implement their community programs.

Lean into your culture. Not every organization’s culture is tailor made for community approaches, but most will support your work if you tie it to business outcomes. Find the pockets of enthusiasts and help them scale their work with community and you’ll be on your way to long term success.

Community Management Recommendations

The Community Maturity Model’s™ Community Management competency is a comprehensive discipline essential for the productivity and success of communities. Despite their diverse backgrounds, individual methods, and unique organizations, community managers have a shared objective: to create vibrant and engaged communities where members can learn from one another and collaborate on ideas, challenges, and issues. As specialists in their field, community managers have the skills and expertise needed to build and sustain these communities, fostering a culture of growth and innovation.

Define clear roles. Establishing well-defined roles and responsibilities for community team members ensures clarity, accountability, and a more strategic approach. Work with HR to formalize these roles and align them with organizational structures.

Content and Programs Recommendation

The Community Maturity Model’s™ Content & Programs competency focuses on two fundamental pillars of a successful community program: content and programs. These elements are crucial for attracting and retaining members. High-quality content is vital for generating interest and engagement, while programs help build connections and strengthen relationships among members. Together, they form the driving force that keeps a community vibrant and thriving.

Prioritize Onboarding Excellence. Ensure a seamless and engaging onboarding experience for new members. Provide clear guidance, resources, and opportunities for connection to foster early engagement and retention.

Policies and Governance Recommendation

The Community Maturity Model’s™ Policies and Governance competency examines the key elements that support the stability and long-term success of a community. While content and programs are critical to the success of a community, policies and governance serve as the framework that ensures operations remain within ethical and legal boundaries.

Embrace Decentralized Enablement. If a centralized COE model isn’t feasible or suitable for your organization, focus on equipping teams across different departments with the resources and knowledge to support community-related initiatives.

Tools Recommendation

The Community Maturity Model’s™ Tools competency focuses on the technology required to build engaged online communities. It also considers how the technical architecture is designed and how/if it’s integrated into other enterprise systems. These tools offer considerable efficiencies and leverage, but also require significant investments, including as an initial investment and ongoing maintenance and/or enhancements. For a more comprehensive overview of our approach to community tools, please refer to the Community Technology Framework™.

Focus on Optimization. Rather than seeking a new platform, prioritize optimizing your existing platform to meet your community’s specific needs. Conduct a thorough assessment of your community’s goals, user feedback, and platform capabilities to identify areas for improvement.

Metrics and Measurement Recommendation

The Community Maturity Model’s™ Metrics & Measurement competency helps organizations understand the purpose and outcomes of their community strategies. Community teams collect, analyze, and report data enabling a clear view of development. As the program matures, metrics shift from activity-based to performance- and behavior- based, offering deeper insights into the community’s impact on business processes. Organizations can then assess their initiatives more effectively, driving informed decisions and enhanced results.

Expand Reporting Scope. Distribute community reports to a wider range of stakeholders to increase organizational awareness and demonstrate the value of community initiatives. Tailor reports to specific audience’s needs to ensure relevance and impact.

Get 16 more ideas you can implement now in your online community program in the 2024 State of Community management report

Improve Your Online Community

Elevating Content & Programs for Community Growth

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In the landscape of community management, two fundamental pillars stand tall: content and programs. The Community Maturity Model™ emphasizes that these elements are crucial for attracting and retaining members within a vibrant and thriving community. High-quality content generates interest and engagement, while tailored programs foster connections and strengthen relationships among members. Together, they are a critical component of long-term community success.

Why Are Content & Programs Important?

Our research indicates that community teams typically allocate around 10% of their budget to creating, curating, and running content and programs (SOCM 2023). We have long advocated for investing more heavily in this area, urging professionals to develop formal plans that align with their community strategies and integrate with broader organizational roadmaps.

The results speak for themselves. Communities that implemented the most formal content and program plans have seen significant growth—nearly doubling in size over the past four years (27% vs. 14% in 2021). Currently, 54% of this year’s best-in-class cohort reports having robust formal content and program plans, compared to just 27% of the previous cohort.

Proven Engagement Strategies

Virtual discussions remain the bread and butter of online communities, with 82% of the overall sample and 84% of best-in-class cohorts reporting their implementation. In addition to virtual discussions, several essential elements contribute to community engagement:

  • New Member Onboarding: Ensuring a positive onboarding experience can significantly affect member retention.
  • Newsletters: Regular updates keep members informed and engaged.
  • Member Spotlights: Highlighting individual members fosters a sense of belonging and recognition.
  • Virtual Presentations: These provide valuable insights and learning opportunities for community members. While conferences and events rank just outside the top five, they remain vital components of any comprehensive community program plan.

Recommendations for Community Success

To bolster the effectiveness of your community strategy, consider these key recommendations:

  1. Prioritize Onboarding Excellence – Focus on providing a seamless and engaging onboarding experience for new members. Clear guidance, accessible resources, and opportunities for early connections will foster engagement and retention from the outset.
  2. Diversify Program Offerings: Implement a range of program formats such as virtual workshops, Ask Me Anything (AMA) sessions, and in-person events. This approach caters to diverse learning preferences and enhances member engagement through varied experiences.
  3. Embrace External Expertise: Leverage insights from subject matter experts, industry leaders, and partners to enrich your content and program offerings. Engaging peers within your organization can also foster collaborative programs, ultimately scaling your team’s impact.

The Path Forward

The key to a successful community lies in nurturing the synergy between content and programs. By investing strategically in these areas and implementing thoughtful recommendations, community managers can create environments where members feel valued, connected, and engaged. As we advance, a proactive approach to aligning content and programs with community goals will be essential for long-term growth and success.

Learn more about using content and programs to build a thriving online community in the 2024 State of Community Management.

No Question Left Behind: Transforming Community Engagement Through Effective Communication

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Member engagement is crucial for any online community. At Constant Contact, they’ve implemented an innovative initiative called “No Question Left Behind,” which focuses on enhancing the user experience by ensuring that every question from their community members is answered promptly and accurately. Launched in 2023, this program not only aims to improve engagement but also to streamline the way they manage unanswered inquiries.

The primary goal of the “No Question Left Behind” initiative is to ensure that community members feel heard and valued. By requiring that all questions receive a meaningful first response within 24 hours, the community team fosters a culture of promptness and responsiveness. This initiative is also geared towards encouraging members to search for answers before posting, ultimately benefiting not just individual users but the community as a whole.

Key Program Features

These five key program features helped the Constant Contact community team meet their goals.

Timely First Response: Each question posted receives a meaningful reply within 24 hours. The goal is to not just acknowledge the question, but to engage deeply and provide useful insights. For instance, a response that encourages further dialogue and provides troubleshooting steps is a mark of a truly effective community.

Encouragement to Mark Answers: Community managers proactively encourage users to mark their inquiries as “answered” if they are satisfied with the response. This can be done through follow-up messages and in the response posts themselves, promoting a sense of closure and completion for users.

Automated Reminders: If a question remains unmarked as answered after a week, the team sends a gentle reminder email. This reiterates the importance of marking questions for the benefit of future users who may have similar queries.

Community Manager Intervention: After two weeks, community managers are empowered to manually mark questions as answered if they feel the responses were adequate. This intervention ensures that no question lingers indefinitely without resolution.

Responsive to Feedback: The final step involves listening closely to user feedback. If a member feels their question remains unanswered, our managers are ready to dive back in and provide further assistance, addressing any lingering concerns.

Impressive Outcomes

Since its rollout, the “No Question Left Behind” initiative has yielded remarkable results. The team has seen the number of successfully answered questions skyrocket from 900 in October 2023 to over 3900 by August 2024. Additionally, the Constant Contact community has enjoyed a 67% year-over-year increase in page views, demonstrating enhanced user engagement with their content.

Advice for Implementing a Similar Program

For those looking to establish a similar initiative, Chris Stallone, Manager, Community and Social Care at Constant Contact advises focusing on user education about the importance of searching before asking a question. The Constant Contact community’s platform includes feature that automatically suggests relevant posts when users start typing their inquiries promotes exploration and reduces redundancy. Additionally, displaying the top five most relevant posts helps users find useful information quickly

Explore more ways to improve your community program in the State of Community Management 2024 report.

More Community Case Studies

Nurturing a Thriving Community: Insights from UiPath

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Andreea Tomescu is the Senior Community Manager at UiPath. She shares insights into the dynamic UiPath Community, a thriving ecosystem that embodies the transformative power of automation and artificial intelligence. With over three million members worldwide, this community serves as a space for exploration, learning, collaboration, and success.

Goals of the UiPath Community

At UiPath, the importance of fostering an environment that prioritizes continuous learning and innovation is top of mind for the Community Team.

To this end, their online community is built on several key goals:

Nurturing a Thriving Community
  • Education and Skill Development: Through the UiPath Academy, forums, events, newsletters, blogs, and YouTube channels, ample resources are provided for individuals looking to enhance their skills in automation and AI.
  • Community Building and Engagement: The team actively engages members through community events, forums, and Champion programs, ensuring that everyone feels included and valued.
  • Product Development and Improvement: Feedback from the community is vital. Forums and Champion programs help gather insights that guide product enhancements and improvements.
  • Thought Leadership and Industry Influence: Through events, including the annual State of the Automation Professional report and various Champion programs, UiPath establishes its position as a leader in the automation space.

Celebrating the Outcomes

Over the past seven years, the growth of the UiPath Academy has been astounding, with user numbers skyrocketing from 260,000 to an impressive 1.7 million. The forum has also seen significant engagement, expected to reach 170,000 users in 2024—a tenfold increase!

In 2024 alone, UiPath engaged 376 Community Champions and organized 552 community events across 67 cities, generating over 178,000 RSVPs. The forum recorded 25,000 discussions, and 45 crowdsourced blog articles were published by community members. Additionally, the newsletter boasts nearly 30,000 subscribers, with an average open rate of 23% and a click rate of 16%.

Nurturing a Thriving Community

Advice for Building a Community

Creating a successful community program can be likened to nurturing a garden. It requires time, patience, and consistent care. Here are some key strategies to foster a thriving community:

  • Cultivate a Welcoming Atmosphere: Ensuring that every member feels valued and included is essential for community growth.
  • Encourage Active Participation: Motivating members to share their experiences, ask questions, and engage in discussions is crucial. A vibrant community flourishes when everyone is empowered to contribute.
  • Facilitate Knowledge Sharing: Creating opportunities for members to learn from one another and share best practices can be accomplished through workshops, meetups, or virtual gatherings.
  • Recognize and Reward Contributions: Showing appreciation for active contributors through public acknowledgment, awards, or exclusive benefits fosters loyalty and encourages ongoing engagement.
  • Maintain Consistency: Organizing regular events and ensuring consistent communication keeps members connected and engaged.

As UiPath continues to grow and evolve, its commitment to fostering an inclusive, engaging, and supportive community remains unwavering. By focusing on collective goals of education, engagement, and collaboration, the community empowers its members to thrive in the world of automation and AI.

Explore more community management insights and get new ideas from the State of Community Management report.

Nurturing a Thriving Community

Enhancing Community Engagement with Amelie: An Innovative AI Mascot Initiative at Microsoft

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Alexandra Savelieva, a Principal Applied AI Engineer at Microsoft, has been instrumental in spearheading a vibrant initiative aimed at fostering engagement within the Microsoft AI/ML Connected Community, which boasts over 21,000 members.

This innovative program, centered around the community mascot Amelie, also affectionately known as AIMLEE, seeks to create a memorable identity that resonates with community members.

The Vision Behind Amelie

The idea for the Amelie community mascot came from a suggestion by Alex Blanton, one of the founders and current co-leads of the community. With the community experiencing an increased cadence of events, it became clear that relying on a professional artist for custom imagery would be both challenging and costly. This realization ignited Alexandra’s passion for visual art and experimentation, ultimately leading to the creation of Amelie, a vibrant Robot-Octopus mascot.

The primary goal of introducing Amelie was to enhance engagement and foster a sense of belonging among members of the AI/ML Connected Community. By leveraging generative AI, Alexandra and her team could create custom images and themes for Amelie, making the mascot dynamic and interactive. This initiative not only aimed to boost participation but also showcased the innovative capabilities of AI in community building.

Positive Outcomes

Since Amelie’s introduction, the Microsoft AI/ML community has witnessed a significant upsurge in engagement and interaction. Members have responded enthusiastically to the mascot’s presence, with custom images generated through generative AI adding excitement and a personalized touch to community interactions. Amelie embodies the spirit of the community—smart, curious, and cheerful—urging members to embrace the rapid advancements in AI with excitement and a spirit of learning. Her octopus shape symbolizes the adaptability of generative AI, as slight inconsistencies in her appearances mirror the technology’s evolution across different contexts.

Moreover, Amelie’s distinctly feminine personality serves as a subtle reminder of the significant contributions women have made to the field of data science. The initiative has resulted in a tangible increase in participation during community events and discussions, creating a stronger sense of identity within the group. Amelie has taken center stage at prominent events like the Global Hackathon, MLADS, and various community calls, reinforcing her role as a key figure in fostering community unity. As Amelie approaches her first birthday this September, the success of the initiative exemplifies the power of AI-driven creativity in enriching community experiences and deepening connections among members.

Advice for Future Initiatives

For those looking to implement a similar mascot program, Alexandra offers valuable advice: focus on creating a mascot that reflects the community’s values and interests. Involving community members in the design process ensures that the mascot feels authentic and relatable. Utilizing generative AI tools, such as ChatGPT, can add an engaging and personalized dimension to the mascot, enhancing interaction with community members. Creating a sense of ownership and connection among members is crucial for success, so active involvement throughout the journey is essential. Additionally, embracing experimentation and iteration in the design process can offer impactful learning experiences, as

Alexandra found while honing her skills in prompt engineering, which enhances her work as a Principal Applied AI Engineer in Azure Data. Moreover, initiatives need not be confined to digital realms; there has been notable interest in physical artifacts featuring Amelie’s imagery, including custom stickers and Amelie-embroidered T-shirts designed with the help of the Microsoft Garage team.

Amelie’s introduction to Microsoft has transformed engagement within the Microsoft AI/ML Connected Community, demonstrating the potential of creative, AI-driven solutions in enhancing community identity and interaction. As Amelie continues to play a pivotal role in the community, her presence highlights the importance of fostering connections that celebrate innovation, collaboration, and shared values among members.

Read more about AI and Community in the State of Community Management 2024 report.

More Community Case Studies/

Building Connections Through Community: Esri’s Storytelling Initiative

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In an era where digital connections are more important than ever, Esri stands out as a best-in-class example of innovative community engagement.

As the global leader in geographic information system (GIS) software, Esri has long been committed to harnessing the power of geographic science and technology to create a sustainable world. With a rich history dating back to 1969, Esri continues to demonstrate how geographic approaches can provide insightful solutions to complex problems. The Esri Community—a platform designed to facilitate knowledge-sharing and foster collaboration, amplifies success stories through their innovative storytelling program.

The Heart of the Esri Community

At the core of Esri’s community storytelling initiative are two multimedia series that showcase the tangible benefits of community participation.

Building Connections Through Community
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1. Esri Community Member Spotlights: Launched in September 2022, this series spotlights customers and partners demonstrating the positive impact of the Esri Community. Featuring monthly stories tailored for both external and internal audiences, this initiative helps to cultivate recognition of the community’s value while fostering deeper connections among members. The stories are not just inspirational; they provide practical use-cases and model behaviors that resonate with a wide range of users.

2. Esri Community: Inside Success: This quarterly series kicked off in early 2023, focusing on Esri staff who successfully integrate the community into their daily work. By providing an internal perspective, these interviews aim to raise awareness among employees about the community’s benefits and encourage greater participation.

Goals of the Community Program

Esri’s primary goal with these series is to enhance education and awareness of the community’s value among current and prospective users. By leveraging real experiences from peers, they seek to create content that is not only engaging but also beneficial. These stories introduce various facets of the Esri experience, ensuring a broader audience can relate to and learn from them.

Positive Outcomes and Success Metrics

The impact of these storytelling initiatives has been significant. Since the launch of the Member Spotlights, there have been over 3,000 page views across nine published stories, reflecting a genuine interest in the community’s activities and insights. Notably, the inspirational narratives featuring teams like The National Interagency Fire Center have been adapted into major publications like ArcNews and ArcWatch, further expanding their reach. The Inside Success series was similarly well-received indicating a thriving internal dialogue around community engagement. The spotlighted members’ enthusiasm often translates into social media promotions, while Esri account managers utilize these stories as relationship-building tools during outreach efforts.

Creative Integration into the Broader Strategy

Esri has taken steps to creatively integrate these storytelling initiatives into its overall community strategy:

  • Year-End Wrap Up Report: Early in 2023, a multimedia report using ArcGIS StoryMaps celebrated the previous year’s accomplishments, including a dedicated section for Community Member Spotlights, which highlighted the metrics and stories that defined 2022.
  • Redesigned Quarterly Highlights Report: The Esri Community team has revamped its reporting structure to emphasize key information in a visually appealing format. This report includes dedicated sections for Member Spotlights and Inside Success features, thus reinforcing the metrics and engagement levels.
  • Forum Re-engagement Strategy: Recognizing the need for consistent activity levels in community forums, Esri initiated an audit process followed by a resource-packed outreach to Place Managers. This strategy emphasizes the benefits of community participation, showcasing successful integrations by Esri staff that foster meaningful customer feedback and collaboration.

Through its innovative storytelling initiatives, Esri not only showcases the incredible value of its community but also embodies its commitment to fostering connections that lead to shared success. By amplifying voices, celebrating achievements, and encouraging collaboration, Esri is laying the foundation for a vibrant and engaged community that truly harnesses the power of “The Science of Where.”

Get advice from the Esri community team in the 2024 State of Community Management Report.

45 Resources to Boost Online Engagement

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The number one challenge community managers as us about is engagement. How do we get more people to visit our community? How do we keep members coming back for the long-term? How can we convert casual viewers (fka lurkers) into contributing members? If you struggle with how to boost online engagement you aren’t alone.

We’ve been compiling engagement resources since 2009, and while a lot has changed in the online community world since then, the fundamentals of engagement haven’t! Below is a list of 45 online community engagement resources from the Engagement Resource Bundle in the The Network.

resources to boost online engagement

The Engagement Resource Bundle aka 45 Ways to Boost Online Engagement

Most Recent Entry:

  • All About the Ritual: Vicky Cumberbatch walks through the vitality of rituals as part of the engagement strategy, why, and how to go about brainstorming them..


Roundtable Reports
Communication:

resources to boost online engagement


General Engagement


Social Media


Specific Communities

  • Employee Adoption And Engagement In External Communities: Participants on this Roundtable Report were interested in discussing 3 main areas related to the topic of employee adoption and engagement: leadership and culture, content and programming, and metrics and governance.
  • Engaging Executives: The Power Of Content: A report of best practices and lessons learned on using content to engage executives from a Roundtable call with guest expert Roanne Neuwirth.
  • SMWG: Community -V- Audience & Engagement Kickstarters: On this Social Marketers Working Group (SMWG) call, members discussed various issues and best practices that are specific to social marketers, particularly community and audience engagement kickstarters.
  • Collaborative Solutions: Tackling The Engagement Challenge In Product Communities: This member-led discussion brought forth member challenges in the area of creating engagement within product communities, as well as various potential solutions to booth online engagement.
  • Internal Cohort Discussion: Engaging Employees: This call saw two case studies provided by Kosheno Moore of Jive and James Martin of Shepley Bulfinch, that explored what methods capture and retain engagement with internal communities. Read through the lessons learned to find methods of cultivating positive culture, how to excite new employees (without being overwhelming) and ways to keep the conversation going.

Discussions

Blogs

Case Studies

Other TheCR Resources

All the resources above (and literally hundreds more) are available for members of our private peer community, The Network. You can learn more about becoming a member here.

Authentic Engagement in Online Communities

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Episode #101 features Penny Schnarrs, Director of Community Relations and Strategy at the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC).

Hosts Jim Storer and Shannon Abram chat with Penny about community building and virtual engagement with a medical organization. She shares strategies for authentic engagement in online communities, and highlights the need for innovation and connection beyond in-person meetings.

Listen to Penny Schnarrs on Authentic Engagement in Online Communities

strategies for authentic engagement

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About Penny Schnarrs

Penny Schnarrs is the Director of Community Relations and Strategy at the American Association of Medical Colleges. She is also part-time faculty at Point Park University, teaching first-year students.

About AAMC

The Association of American Medical Colleges is a not-for-profit association dedicated to transforming health care by supporting the entire spectrum of medical education, medical research, patient care, and community collaborations conducted by our member institutions. We are dedicated to the communities we serve and steadfast in our goal to improve the health of people everywhere.

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Five Tips for Community Managers Getting Started with ChatGPT

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Not every community managers is super tech-savvy – and that’s ok! It feels like there are always new platforms or services to try out – and you can’t really tell which ones it’s worth investing time in (remember Vine? Clubhouse? RIP!)

Generative AI is here to stay, and if you aren’t comfortable using it it’s time to learn. Below we’ve shared five tips for community managers getting started with ChatGPT (or any generative AI technology).

Five Tips for Community Managers Getting Started with ChatGPT

Five Tips for Community Managers Getting Started with ChatGPT

Familiarize Yourself with ChatGPT: Take the time to understand what ChatGPT (or an equivalent generative AI technology like Google’s Bard AI) is and its capabilities. Learn about its natural language processing abilities, its training process, and the types of questions or prompts it can handle.

Identify Your Use Case: Determine the specific purpose for which you want to use ChatGPT. Start with your community use case (customer support? brand awareness? employee collaboration?) and then clarify your objectives and how ChatGPT can assist you in achieving them.

Collect Relevant Training Data: If you have specific domain knowledge or context that you want ChatGPT to understand better, gather relevant training data. This could include historical chat logs, documents, or relevant articles to help improve the model’s performance in your desired area.

Experiment and Iterate: Start by asking the iterative AI of your choice a variety of questions or providing different prompts related to your use case. Experiment with different phrasings, instructions, or settings to see how the model responds. Take note of the strengths and weaknesses of the model’s output and iterate to refine your prompts and maximize the usefulness of the responses.

Provide Feedback and Adjust: As you use ChatGPT, provide feedback to OpenAI or the platform you’re using to help improve the model. Remember – we are at the beginning of this new technology, and it will (and should) evolve. Report any issues, biases, or problematic outputs you encounter. Additionally, adjust your own prompts, instructions, or guidelines based on the feedback you receive from users or community members to ensure responsible and effective usage.

Want to learn more about the impact of AI on online community management? Check out this post Four AI Prompts for Community Managers or search “AI” in the search tool above!

Behavior Modeling: Setting a Good Example in Your Community

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What is behavior modeling and how does this affect sentiment in communities?

First, let’s explore behavior mirroring. Do you ever notice how some of us tend to take on the quirks and mannerisms of others – or mimic each others words? This behavior is known as mirroring in which we subconsciously imitate expressions, speech, or actions of others. It is a thoroughly studied psychological concept, so we know that such behavior often manifests as a way to learn vicariously, build rapport and facilitate interactions in unfamiliar environments. Essentially, we are acting as chameleons – blending into our environment to observe, increase our relatability and keep safe. (Chartrand and Bargh, 1999)

Behavior Modeling: Setting a Good Example in Your Community

Given that this behavior can be found in abundance in all sorts of daily interactions, it comes as no surprise that the “chameleon effect” is observed in online interactions as well. For example, we see mimicking in social networks with the rapid adoption of jargon as participants use hashtags and acronyms. It explains why acronyms such as “bae” (before anyone else), “smh” (shake my head), and #tbt (throwback Thursday) quickly spread and are adopted as common expressions with unprecedented speed online.

Communities also see mirroring, but the effect is more subtle. Have you noticed that once one person starts ranting, it feels like the rest of a group joins in? Or when one person posts a complaint, suddenly a dozen more appear? It is mirroring, and it becomes a feedback loop. The more people exhibit a behavior, the more it is copied.

How can you use behavior mirroring to your advantage? Become a model for the behavior you wish to see.

Encourage community staff and other employees to interact with members in a positive way use the “mirror” to engage in behavior modeling – exhibiting the positive behaviors you wish to see in the community.

Here are three simple behavior modeling techniques:

  1. Post in the tone you want to see from others. This means maintaining a positive and neutral tone whenever possible even when the conversation is frustrating or confusing. Use the type of language you want to see in the community.
  2. Say thanks. If you see a member posting a great question or providing an answer, let them know you appreciate it. Say “thank you” for good contributions to the community.
  3. Freely giving likes to those who deserve it. Thrilled to see a “thank you” or “that helped”? Like it. See a great answer provided by a peer or customer? Like it.

The techniques proved to be good practice for community staff, but more importantly, they set a good example for members. Once you actively engage in behavior modeling techniques, you’ll start to see more and more positive member interactions with community staff, which in turn led to more positive interactions by employees. Instead of a negative feedback loop, we created a positive one.

This advice was published in our community case study Improving Community Sentiment. You can download your own copy here.