Communities have gone mainstream

In case you’ve been asleep for the past few years, online communities are booming. And not surprisingly they are the theme of this year’s Ten Best Web Support Sites report published by the Association of Support Professionals.  (Disclosure: I have served as a judge for the awards for many years).

Here are some recommendations from the winners, and a few of my own to round off the list:

Put the communities front and center. Communities are often treated like pariahs, exiled to some dark corner of the website (and they often look very different from the rest of the site). Make room for them right on the landing page, in a way that emphasizes how useful they are. Show recent discussions as well as an easy way to pose a question.

Offer an integrated search experience. You don’t want your poor users to have to create separate searches for the knowledge base and for the communities.

Blog. And not only about product issues or even product how-to’s. Cover general best practices that users of your products may care about, such as financial planning information if you sell a financial solution.

Include tutorials. And not only about product issues or even product how-tos. Cover general best practices that users of your products may care about, such as financial planning information if you sell a financial solution.

Develop an MVP program. Most users are lurkers (who will read posts and occasionally ask questions, but will not contribute answers). Reward the contributors with points, badges, and levels that highlight their effort.

Monitor, lightly. Clearly you want to get rid of unacceptable language and such, but vibrant communities cannot be censored as police states.

Find an authentic voice. Whether in blogs or in forum answers, you want to find a casual, friendly, helpful tone, with a bit of attitude. No corporate speak!

What are your experiences with communities?