Start with the basics
The right dynamics in the community are important and can only be influenced to a limited extent. Therefore, make sure that important basic guidelines are met in advance. If community members do not get interested within the first 5 minutes of landing on your platform, they will drop out and there is little chance that they will return later.
Therefore, map out who the (potential) community members are, what binds them, what interests they share and what motivates them . By anticipating this, you can lower the threshold for participation, open up the discussion and create space to reveal deeper insights. Do not be afraid to limit recruitment to 100/200 members: higher numbers rarely result in stronger substantive dialogue. Keep in mind that involvement is often stronger, the more the participants have in common.
Analysis is not simply coding or copying and pasting pieces of text. It is important that the community manager understands the dynamics and knows what is meant between the lines. Why does someone describe something in a certain way, what does he or she want to say with it and in what position does he or she place the other person? So don't just read what someone says, but especially look at how it is said and why. That is where you will find the golden nuggets of qualitative analysis.
Suppose someone says “Of course not all vegetarians are fussy eaters: for example, I cook very simply”. What information can you get from this, apart from the fact that this person cooks simply? Firstly, it seems that this person believes that vegetarians have an image as fussy eaters and he seems to want to contradict this. Does the person experience unwanted signals from his environment? He does not see himself as a fussy eater and substantiates this with an argument: does this person want to distinguish himself from the group to which he belongs and why? Watch this video by Florian Schneider, who explains this so-called discourse analysis simply and clearly.
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Make the difference
It is almost never the case that a single community member presents your organization romania mobile phone number list with a ready-made top idea. This requires a few translation steps and the community manager also plays a crucial role in this. By using information that is already available (technical knowledge, market knowledge, ideas, limitations, etc.), the dialogue with community members can be taken a step further. Recognizing new possibilities is an important task for the community manager. In order to really make a difference, it is important to actively involve the rest of the organization. Show what valuable information comes from the community and make this information actionable.
The above are just a few of the points of attention that you as a community manager will have to take into account. Do you have any additions or other tips? Then be sure to leave them below.
Photo intro courtesy of Fotolia