A couple of months ago, I took the plunge and started 2 online communities on Facebook. One is for my travel podcast, The World Wanderers, where people can get information about travel, living abroad, and working abroad. The other is for M.B.Om, where we talk about all things yoga business.

Although running an online community on Facebook is relatively new to me, here are 7 quick tips that I’ve learned that will allow you to be successful in growing your online community, keeping engagement up, and having members who are contributing and enjoying themselves.

1. Have prompting questions

I’ve seen some groups that post promoting questions everyday, and I’ve seen some that do 3-5 times a week, while I’ve seen others that don’t post any promoting questions. To start, I’ve decided to post different promoting questions once a week. Everyone is busy and most people are a part of a number of different online groups, so I personally think that everyday is too much. I will probably move up to 2-3 times per week, but for now, 1 suites me. The key here is to gage how interactive your audience is. If they are super engaged, then adding more prompting questions may be effective. If they are not as engaged, then having less prompting questions could be effective.

2. Give your members something that is special to them!

People like to feel special and like they are a part of something unique (that’s the whole point of having an online community right?!). In order to do this effectively, I recommend having an offering(s) specifically for your members, such as live calls, online workshops, or resources. This can turn into paid offerings down the road too!

3. Introductions

Encourage new people to introduce themselves so they feel welcome and they feel like it’s a safe place for them share and post. This can be as simple as tagging people with a fun image once a week and inviting them to introduce themselves, share a bit about themselves, and their business.

4. Gage who is in your group and what they want to learn

This is very important! This is such a great opportunity to find out who is interested in what you’re offering, what they want to learn, share or talk about, and then offer them opportunities to learn more about whatever that topic is. As community leaders, we can only guess at what our community members really need or want, so find out who they are and what they are truly seeking. You can do this through a questionnaire that they fill out to enter the group, by posting regular polls, or by posting prompting questions asking people questions about themselves and what they are interested in.

5. Set guidelines for the group, but don’t be too strict

It’s very important to set guidelines for your group so it doesn’t become like the local grocery store’s community board (we all know how cluttered and awful that is!). For me, it’s important to set some guidelines for people to follow such as not posting spam, but also giving people the freedom to ask questions, get feedback on projects, and feel like it’s a safe staff to share what they do. Honestly, you have to strike a balance here, and this is something that I am still doing in my online communities.

6. Invite people in your community and encourage them to invite their friends

Word of mouth is one of the best forms of marketing! Invite the people that you know that are interested in the topic of your community and encourage them through posts or private messages to invite their friends. You can also share your group in other places online, such as on your personal Facebook, in your newsletter, or in the case of a yoga group, in your classes with your students.

7. Quality over quantity

Don’t worry about the numbers, focus on bringing quality people into the group and getting engagement up. It’s always better to have 25 people who are super engaged than 400 who never engage and who aren’t truly interested in what you have to offer. I know it’s hard not to compare the size of your online community with other online communities that may have more people, but I truly believe that if you put in the time and work with something that you are passionate about, the people will come.

Have a question about creating an online community? Connect with me here! And don’t forget to join The Yoga Business Badasses online community here. 😉