Looking to build an online community?

An online community creates a customer network where you can own the experience and the data, giving your customers a better way to engage with you and with each other. This provides trusted, engaging content for any customer issue at any time, at scale, and at a lower cost.

Finding community technology that’s right for your business and audience is key, as it must integrate seamlessly with enterprise systems, website, and mobile apps, while also giving you the flexibility needed to design a digital experience that represents the brand. To accomplish this when choosing and buying an online community technology, there are a number of details to consider.

Our Online Community RFP Checklist breaks down these details to consider, looking at them by:

  • Capability - Does the technology offer the core capabilities your business needs, such as mobile customization or real-time analytics?
  • Administration and configuration - You’ll need to harness flexible, fully configurable moderation tools and feature settings.
  • User experience - Does the tool you’re considering create a seamless experience for both community users and moderators/admins?
  • Analytics and reporting - The ability to measure community success in a way that translates to organization business objectives is key.
  • Customization and configuration - It’s important that your online community tool allows you to design a community experience that’s unique to your brand.
  • Content management - There will likely be multiple members of your team contributing to your online community, so you’ll need to be able to manage a high volume of content with effective team collaboration across multiple roles, departments, and types of media.
  • Gamification - These features can help to motivate participation and deepen engagement through game dynamics.
  • Integration capabilities - Integration will help you scale the needs of your business while utilizing existing technology investments.

Why finding the right online community technology is so crucial

An online community transforms your website into a social destination where you host the conversation – and reap the rewards of a deeper relationship with your customers. Download this checklist to help you evaluate the critical capabilities in an online community.