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How can you use community guidelines to support your work?

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Community guidelines For years, community thought leaders in TheCR Network have highlighted the importance of community guidelines and policies that promote healthy community behaviors. Make your community guidelines and policies a trellis, rather than a box, and create a frame for your community to flourish.

That is still true in 2017.

Our best-in-class communities are more likely to have policies and guidelines that define encouraged behaviors, and even the overall sample is becoming more likely to create positive guidelines and policies.

But there’s a second dimension to the trellis. In order for it to effectively support community behaviors, it needs to be built on a strong footing. In the case of communities, that footing comes in the form of policies, community guidelines, and procedures that ensure community professionals know how to handle the situations that are likely to arise in the life of the community, and do so fairly, quickly and consistently.

Community guidelines

That consistent and fair approach comes from properly training community managers, moderators and others with leadership roles in the community, and from developing playbook and procedures that give them a menu of best practices for helping and supporting members. In the State of Community Management 2017 survey, best-in-class communities were far more likely to provide professional development for community managers, give training for moderators and advocates, and develop playbooks for the operation of the community.

Together, these elements give best-in-class communities a strong base for a trellis that can support a strong community.

Three ways to maintain a positive tone in your online community

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positive tone

For anyone who manages or moderates an online community, you know that sustaining a positive tone can sometimes be a challenge. Members view it as a safe place to provide feedback, vent their frustrations, and have their voice be heard. It’s not always pretty.

In a past life, I managed a large external support community. Given the nature of the subject matter and the rapid growth from a couple thousand to well over 100,000 members three years later, the tone early on wasn’t exactly a positive one. However, thanks to some savvy community peers and a long-term strategy, we were able to turn it around.

I’ve outlined three lessons I learned in the process that will help you keep your community helpful and not hostile.

1. Establish clear guidelines for participation.

This doesn’t just mean create a list of things users aren’t permitted to do. While you will want to include a list of prohibited behavior, more importantly, focus on sharing with users the behavior and participation they can do to contribute, add value and benefit. No one enjoys being told what not to do. Instead, show your membership how they can contribute and engage productively. Post a question. Answer a question. Give kudos and acknowledge good contributions from others. (Here’s another post with an example of good guidelines for participation.)

2. Demonstrate the tone you want members to mimic.

I’ve seen all too many examples of online communities where the members go rogue. The engagement, content and tone are nothing like what the brand originally intended. Often times this happens because the forum or group doesn’t have a community moderator. I would never recommend starting an online community, forum or group without moderation. Users tend to mimic the tone they experience so if you’re starting a new community be sure to “seed” the community with appropriately toned content prior to launch. If you’re coming into an established community that needs help with tone, in addition to reviewing and cleaning up toxic content be sure to create positive content and feature this content when possible. Be sure to acknowledge and recognize members who contribute the types of responses that mimic the tone you are trying to establish.

3. Firmly and consistently enforce the participation guidelines.

I mentioned earlier the need to establish clear guidelines for participation at the start. Equally important is fair and consistent enforcement of the guidelines. If you have a member going off the rails and you don’t guide them back in, then not only might that member continue to veer off the desired path but that behavior is being witnessed by other members who may see the conduct as acceptable. Community members tend to mimic the behavior they see. The sooner you rein in the offender the less chance you’ll have of others following suit.

Diligently following these three recommendations will help you create and maintain the welcoming, supportive environment online communities strive for. Remember to define appropriate participation, mimic the desired behavior and be consistent with enforcement of the guidelines.

 

Mastering Moderation

Don’t be afraid to define community guidelines

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By Ted McEnroe, Director of Research and Training

Rules. My 6-year-old hates them – but really she doesn’t. The same holds true for many communities.

trellisCommunities – and 6-year-olds – tend to function best when there is some defined sense of appropriate behaviors. But there’s a catch. Policies and guidelines shouldn’t just explain what you shouldn’t do – they should highlight what you should. Once again this year, our best-in-class communities drive this home. The best communities are more than twice as likely as the average to have policies and guidelines in place that don’t just define what shouldn’t be done, but guide members to the behaviors that benefit the community.

Before you say, “Duh!” – recognize that it’s a delicate balance. People don’t love being told what to do, or what not to do. But we need both. A community that works to have no rules or guidelines for expected behaviors can descend into the chaos of many media comments sections. But communities that are too restrictive can crush the constructive disagreements that are the heart of innovation and dialogue. The same holds true on the positive side – if a community doesn’t shape desired behaviors, it’s hard for members to figure out what to do. But being heavy-handed in saying what should be done can be as conversation-crippling as being heavy-handed about what shouldn’t happen.

SOCM2016_Fact_#10_DefineBehaviors

So what’s a community manager to do? Here are a few ideas:

  1. Recognize the power of policies and guidelines as a positive force. If your policies and governance structure are solely designed to catch unwanted behaviors, you’re building a box, not a trellis for growth.
  2. Go back to your community values. What are the behaviors that lead to that value? Those are the ones you want to highlight in your policies and guidelines.
  3. Get community input. Community buy-in is critical for successful implementation of polices and guidelines. Getting members involved both improves the likelihood you’ll find the right language, and that when the hard decisions come you’ll have community support.
  4. Be transparent – about the process and the things that aren’t negotiable. Every organization has policies that protect key information and people – especially when it comes to legal requirements, confidentiality, and personal information. Be clear about those non-negotiables, and be upfront about other areas of disagreement. And as a crisis unfolds, share what you can with members. If you’ve effectively developed policies and guidelines, you’ll likely find more support than you might expect.

What are your best practices for community policies and guidelines? Share them in the comments.

We can’t wait to hear what you think – tag your thoughts with #SOCM2016 to join the conversation!

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