To create a successful community, you'll need to first understand why you're building it and who you're building it for - and then express your vision in the design, navigation, technology and policies of your community. Wherever people gather together for a shared purpose, and start talking amongst themselves, a community can begin take root. If handled with integrity, these profiles can help you build trust, foster relationships, and deliver personalized services - while infusing your community with a sense of history and context. As your community grows, it will become increasingly important to provide guidance to newcomers while offering leadership, ownership and commerce opportunities to more experienced members. An effective leadership program requires careful planning and ongoing management, but the results can be well worth the investment.
Every community has it s share of internal squabbling.
If handled well, conflict can be invigorating - but disagreements often spin out of control, and tear a community apart. To avoid this, it s crucial to develop some groundrules for participation, and set up systems that allow you to enforce and evolve your community standards. To develop a loyal following, and foster deeper relationships among your members, you'll want to establish regular online events, and help your members develop and run their own events. All communities use rituals to acknowledge their members, and celebrate important social transitions. By celebrating holiday marking seasonal changes, and integrating personal transitions and rites of passage, you ll be laying the foundation for a true online culture.