Creating and Managing an Online Community

Online communities are a strategic virtual space to establish connections and share interests. How can you create an online community?

[caption id="attachment_5843" align="aligncenter" width="1200"] Online communities are a strategic virtual space to establish connections, share experiences and interests, but you need to know how to manage them. So, how do you create and manage an online community?[/caption]

Online communities are a strategic virtual space to establish connections, share experiences and interests, but you need to know how to manage them. So, how do you create and manage an online community?

Online communities, just like real-world communities, are a gathering of people with shared passions and interests: in this case, the interaction among members takes place in a virtual space through the use of digital tools that allow them to connect, establish relationships, exchange opinions, ideas and advice, share projects and experiences, and feel a common sense of belonging. Online communities have therefore changed the meaning of belonging, freeing it from a physical dimension tied to a territory and geographical proximity.

In an online community, there are no boundaries or spatial limits, only the sharing of the same system of values, interests, and needs. Communication, dialogue, and sharing are the three pillars that hold up online communities, and these are the foundations on which you need to start to create your own community.

Why do people choose to be part of an online community?

First of all, it's essential to understand the general motivations that drive users to become part of a community, which are usually:

• access to information;
• affinity;
• relationships and inclusion;
• help and tangible benefits.

Today, there are many online communities able to share values, interests, and needs; often these form spontaneously or are created by a company/brand that sees the opportunity to build its brand by bringing together all those users who share the same values, interests, and passions. The main point is to be able to discuss and start conversations on relevant topics that meet the communication, information, and relationship needs of your community.

How to manage a community in the best way to stand out from the competition?

The answer is simple: the best way is to focus on strengthening the bonds, both between users and the brand and between the users themselves. The concept of community has changed over time, following digital developments and social changes, but it has never lost its connotation as a place of reference to find solutions, advice, ideas, help, or simply to satisfy one’s need for relationship and connection.

In one of the first studies on online communities, we read that "people in virtual communities use words on screens to joke and argue, engage in intellectual conversations, trade, exchange knowledge, ideas, gossip, quarrel, share emotional support, make plans, fall in love, find friends and lose them, play, flirt, create some real art and much idle talk. People in virtual communities do almost everything they do in real life, forgetting their bodies [...]" (Howard Rheingold, 1993).

Online communities have made connections between people faster and more immediate, facilitating relationships. However, we cannot completely overlook the crucial importance that physical presence plays in establishing a lasting and solid social relationship. Therefore, limiting the relational function of communities to just a virtual dimension would be reductive. For this reason, digital systems must be understood as tools to enhance the relational interactions that also take place physically.

Reconciling Virtual and Real

To strengthen their bonds, members of an online community need both digital contact and to transfer and share their values physically. This is because humans, as social beings, need physical presence to validate their interests and for face-to-face comparison — for example, through in-person events or meetings — to feel part of a real and tangible world.

Therefore, opportunities for in-person meetings for users who are members of an online community become crucial to reinforce the sense of belonging; people become real, connections become closer, idea exchanges are more immediate, there is more tolerance for other people’s ideas, participation becomes more active, and consequently, online engagement also increases.

Based on these principles, we created BeetCommunity, a digital and physical space at the same time, for anyone who wants to feel part of a shared environment.

BeetCommunity: a meeting place for different professionals aimed at sharing skills, products, or services synergistically.

Our community is designed to be an interdisciplinary network of professionals that uses all the latest developments in online communication to stay updated on the main technological and market trends, to develop new ideas and innovative projects. Our network is made up of people with common interests who use our physical spaces (Coliving and Coworking) and virtual spaces (the BeetCommunity platform and the Facebook group) as a means of communication and interconnection to:

1. share new ideas and practical suggestions for project development;
2. create innovation through brainstorming and shared decision-making;
3. actively participate in co-funded project development;
4. transfer solutions that come from other users' experiences;
5. encourage collaboration through open group discussions;
6. learn from other community members;
7. participate in events proposed by members and Beetroot (our consulting company);
8. take advantage of the community’s physical coworking space for in-person collaboration.

Our goal is to create value through free sharing. In fact, our online platform is designed to promote a new model of work and life based on co-creation and networking. Joining our online community is very simple and completely free — all you need to do is sign up by leaving your contact information (name, surname, and email) and write a few words explaining why you want to join. You might be wondering why we ask this question? Well, because it helps us understand your expectations right away and lets us try to meet them and guide you from the very first moment.

Once you’re registered, you can start exploring the platform and take advantage of all the tools available. You can share something about yourself and build your profile based on your skills so that everyone can see who you are and what you do and maybe even involve you in an exciting project. You can take inspiration from other users’ posts, share your opinion, give advice, or tell your own experience; you can join an open working group, create your own public or private working group, add a new topic, or follow what’s happening in the existing ones.

In short, there are plenty of possibilities, and it’s up to you to decide how to use them. Join our network!