How often do you challenge the status quo?
We should often challenge our processes, our projects, look back and re-evaluate the things we are doing to run our communities.
Obviously, being a community manager is not easy, considering the 543 other things we have to do. But even then, what if I tell you, out of those 543 things, there might be 200 things that could either be done by volunteers or outsourced or automated? How to find those 200 things? Enter COMMUNITY AUDITS.
According To Community management Guru, Richard Millington, in this interview, he states that we should carry out audits anywhere between 6 months to 1 year to audit our communities.
Now comes the question of what areas of your community could be audited? According to me, here are some of the areas I could pinpoint. Now there’s always room for improvement, I may even have a different opinion in the next six months, who knows ;)
Community landing page:
We often set and forget the landing page, but in reality, design landscape changes very fast. Think about the persona who are coming on to the landing page – and re-enact the flow of the pages. Ask yourself –
Check the heat map to see how your audience is perceiving the landing page.
- Is the flow useful?
- is it helping the persona get to the information fast enough?
Community initiatives or programs undertaken:
You put your heart and mind on to start an initiative, it’s your baby. But do you know if it’s really helping the community members?
If not, try and optimize the initiative.
It’s okay if there’s not much happening in the data section of the initiative, if continuing this initiative feels right – then go for qualitative data gathering instead of quantitative.
Community documentations audit:
Check the –
· FAQs,
· Webinars,
· Platform demos
· Documents
.. that you created for your community members to help them use the features of the community well.
Ask yourself - does it still work for your members? If not, then you know what you have to do.
Onboarding audit:
Check if the onboarding flow is still relevant or not for your community.
Ask - Does it make sense to create different types of onboarding flow different user persona?
This could either be done through simple automations like creating different landing page for user persona to click or use a personalization tool like Webengage website personalization for a more sophisticated solution for your community members.
Dead links audits:
In this AMA with Jenny Weigle, she pointed out a simple yet often missed out thing in the community, and that’s dead links.
She says - “You’d be surprised at how many communities have dead links, or prominent links that take people off the community entirely. You want to avoid that, if you can.”
I agree, it’s difficult to check ALL the links in the community. But a simple way to start this is – look at the pages that get the highest traffic first – if they are audited first, you can set your own timeline to check the rest of the pages according to your priority.
Categories, Topics, Spaces or Channels audits:
Setting categories or topics is one of the most important and difficult decision we take. It’s always better to involve your community members in this process. After all they are the ones who’ll use the categories
Check for the topics are outdated, you may be having topic on a product that would have gotten end of life. There maybe an acquisition that happened and you need to set new topic for them. There’s always new advancements that needs a space to talk about.
Talk to your community members to know more about them, and create (or delete) the topics accordingly.
User group/ chapter programs audits:
If user groups and chapter is something that you thrive on, then remember, no two user group is the same.
Check –
- How’s the user group performing? Do they have any concerns?
- Is the documentation up to date for the program?
- Are the volunteers having any concerns/ challenges?
Community guidelines checks:
Community guidelines, Code of conduct, Rule of Engagement, call whatever – they are helpful when things go wrong. The online world is not free from spammers, you never know.
But then again, refresh and re-look at the guidelines that set the rules once in a while. Involve the communications and PR team if you’re on fence about the terminologies used in your guideline.
Facebook’s community guideline is a well-crafted current document for starters.
Side note: If Mark Zuckerberg can violate rules, then anybody can. It’s good to have rules – and refresh them once in a while.
Automations check:
Automations in community would be set for these two major ways:
- Communication email notifications
When a member is tagged, when a member is replying to a question, when a member is posting an idea.
- Gamifications email or in platform notifications –
Gamifications like badges and rewards for accomplishing a mission in the community are the ways these communications are triggered.
- Onboarding communications –
The emails or communication that a member receives when they join a community, or the onboarding walk through or checklist, are automated as well.
Keep a check on the rules based automations to make sure they are current and are fulfilling or supplementing the member journey. When done right, these automations play a huge role in retaining the members and scale community manager’s efforts.
While auditing, keep a note of the processes that could be automated. Think of the action that could trigger a reaction, something that is repetitive and doesn’t require a human to oversee. Test the workflow first and then evaluate.
To conclude, this list is an exhaustive list of ways you can audit the community. I tried to make it as general as possible, you are free to tailor it according to your use.
Auditing a community could yield surprising results, but you’ll feel good that you looked back to challenge the status quo and move ahead.
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