Trends in Online Community Engagement

I read an excellent report titled, “Online Community Marketing, Growth and Engagement,” coordinated and produced by Forum One Networks.  The report presented the findings from a study conducted in May 2008 to research the relationship marketing, community growth and member engagement.

According to blog SocialMediaToday.com, some of the top trends reported by the study’s participants and presented in the report included:

• A majority (38% of 95 respondents) stated that within their companies the of online community staff and associated responsibilities actually fell under the Marketing department.

• Most (27%) of the participants said that 11-20% of their community members logged into the online community each month. The overall average member login rate is 34% and the Median is 25%.

• 27 participants gave detailed feedback about how they successfully attracted new members to their communities using Newsletter and Emails, Events, Search Engine Optimization and Marketing, and other techniques.

What I specifically found interesting was the success of growing community through surveys, sponsored blogs and allowing members to recommend to a friend.  Within a community environment, I would expect to find peer-to-peer recruitment (social influence from recommendations/word of mouth) as one of the strongest community building activities.  I also wasn’t surprised to find search engine optimization high on the list since online communities by their very nature generate excellent long-tail search opprtunties.

At the core of the report, an excellent presentation was given in response to the question, “how do you define Communtiy Member Engagement?”  The responses varied but the main points involved (1) amount of activity, (2) amount of content created and (3) amount of time spent on the site.  The type of community further defined the specific measures.

If you own, operate or intend to strat an online community, I highly recommend getting a copy of the report.  It will help set benchmarks for your metrics and provide some creative insight for new ways to grow your online communities and gain higher engagement.