What is community engagement and how to encourage it

[A Zayed]

You've no doubt heard of the term' engagement' many times when designing and managing your community, but what does it mean? Every community is different, but they all share the three main types of engagement. Active engagement is centred around creating, including posting, replying, voting, and reacting. Passive engagement is based around consuming, such as reading, logging in and following content areas that interest them. Relational engagement is based around networking, such as following members, private messaging and joining clubs. Every community is unique, so it's essential to start by defining what meaningful engagement means to your community. If you're a support community, then key metrics would be the time taken to answer topics and the percentage that are marked as solved. Brand communities would want to track metrics such as author diversity, positive reactions and feedback interactions. Educational communities would focus on monitoring the quality of replies and the percentage of courses completed. Let's examine some broad strategies you can adapt to suit your community. Community designWhat can people see before they are logged in? Can they see some teaser content and that the site is active and full of life, or do they see empty blocks and 'Please sign in' messages? Ensure your community is set up to provide sufficient content for guest visitors to encourage them to read more. Ensure your home page shows signs of life. Our Page Editor enables you to drag and drop blocks on the home page to display member leaderboards, trending content, and more. Signs of life are key to encouraging membership. Engagement can't happen if those visiting can't see what your community's purpose is and how it can solve their problem. Be transparent and open-endedFinding the balance with moderation is key to a healthy community. Members should feel safe speaking up. Allow debate, moderate fairly but robustly, and avoid rules that focus on penalties. When people understand that their voice matters, they are more likely to show up. Setting healthy boundaries and making them known helps keep bad actors away and the community positive. Interact personally and make it easy to respond. Ending a post or blog with a question or clear call to action works just like it does on YouTube—ask for thoughts, feedback, or shared experiences. The easier it is to jump in, the more likely people will. Lead conversations with tools like Live Topics to host real-time chats and Q&As. These turn into permanent discussion threads and help build momentum through live interaction. Making it easier to contribute to your community can help engage those reluctant to start their own conversations. Creating group topics can help. Some examples of that may be: Weekly themed threads (e.g., "Showcase Sunday") AMAs with staff or key members Quick polls to prompt votes or discussion Questions-and-chat.mp4.b6a143e2047671456d5009d0a86d0697.mp4 Reward and recognize contributorsPeople stay engaged when their efforts are seen. Use built-in tools like: Reputation points Automated achievements with badges and ranks Personal recognition to award custom badges and points Automatic group promotions that unlock perks when milestones are hit Community Experts feature highlights members who consistently help others, making it easy to surface trusted voices and reward helpful behavior. You can also use the Featured Content option to showcase standout posts, questions, or stories from anywhere in the community. It's a great way to recognize quality content and share it with the entire community. Reward.mp4 Try it for yourselfWhen people feel welcomed, heard, and appreciated, they engage more. Keep it simple. Guide first actions, make it easy to respond, recognize outstanding contributions, and repeat what works. That's how communities grow. Spend five minutes a day to welcome someone new, highlight a great post, or start a conversation. The more you show up, the more your community will too.

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