Devon Web Soapbox

Putting community features into your site is a great way to transform visitors into regulars and, in turn, into customers. Here's a look at a few different community elements to consider.

A sense of community can be a powerful stickiness builder and an effective marketing advantage. You are basically marketing your company ethos and a lifestyle choice. Community features, by their very nature are the best way to put this across.

A sticky site attracts people to your site, holds them and keeps them coming back for more. The more often people come to your site and the longer they stay, the more chance there is they will spend money. It does not matter if it is adults or kids that are on the site. It is important to give users a strong sense of belonging and ownership that keeps them coming back.

A sticky website encourages repeat visits from the user - typically with the long-term aim of developing a community of similar minded people. The stickiest sites also succeed in engaging their audience. One proven tool for engagement is interactivity such as Games or Competitions.

Community is just as important as content when planning an e-commerce site. If done properly, community features on your site will increase the number of page-views per visit, giving you opportunities to offer merchandise to your shoppers. Community features can be used to encourage customers to return to your site. Establishing a learning community can help shoppers develop expertise through the interaction with other shoppers who visit your site. Asking questions, discussing problems, raising issues, and the general camaraderie that develops in an interactive community breeds a kind of loyalty that's beneficial to the success of your web store. And loyalty breeds repeat visits.

Another benefit of an interactive community is that it can add content to your site. Discussion boards and forums, chat rooms, and discussion lists can provide content because they generate information by their very nature. You can take a short quote from one of your forums or discussion lists and post it each day on your site as fresh content, to generate interest in your product or offer. This type of content can act as a traffic magnet, bringing continuous visitors to your site.

It is well established that websites that build a stronger sense of ownership and belonging are the ones that have more chance of succeeding.
There are many different community elements that you can choose from, each with their own benefits and downfalls. Here's a look at some of these elements in more detail.

Blogs

Probably the most obvious community feature would be adding a blog. However, we have been known to criticise the misuse of blogs, particularly to improve search engine positions. The points to remember therefore are:

1. It has to be interesting and relevant to your audience.

2. Keep it updated. No one will be interested in your blog if the only entry is from 2002.

3. The ability to comment. Allowing readers to comment gives an essential sense of belonging, or even, ownership to the reader that will bring them back. It also turns your business from a faceless corporation into a company that cares what its customers think.

4. Blogs can be turned to many uses from actually finding out what your clients think, to disseminating news or making customer feel they are in touch with those at the top of the company.

5. The important thing to remember is that a blog is about community. It is there for the benefit of your users. Not for a rant by the company owner (unless this is amusing or a marketing ploy).

Forums

Once established, a forum may be able to run itself without too much input from you. An established and popular forum also has the benefit of content being added to your site without you having to supply it. But you will need to put in the hours to get it started. This will mean creating many of the original posts and responding to posts. Eventually it may be possible to get frequent users to take over administration duties. But remember, no one will use it if there no sense of community. If there are few members and only one thread no one will stay. Forums can quickly die a death and an unused forum could even damage the image of your company.

Interactivity - such as Games or Competitions

A fun and addictive game or competition could get visitors coming back to your site: especially if you publish a top scorers chart or offer a prize. Amusing games can make fantastic viral marketing campaigns that can bring thousands of extra visitors to your site. Spending money on game development, or other community features shows your customers that you are not just after their money. This is a way of separating out your site from the big, unfriendly corporations.

Polls and Voting

Having a regular poll is a useful way of carrying out a customer survey. And showing the current results offers another chance to let your customers know that their opinions are important.

Personalisation

Personalisation is an established way to create a sense of belonging to a website. This begins at the sign-on when registered viewers are welcomed by name. At a deeper level, you can target previous customers individually for example, by providing loyalty cards and matching solutions based on their tastes.

Other ideas for community features include:

Newsletters
Product Reviews
Advice Columns
User added content
Chat Rooms
Discussion Groups
Online Events