At Super Forum 2016, Higher Logic’s team of six community managers did just that in a two-part session, “Let’s Open a Can of Worms.” They dove right into the weeds of many topics that community builders deal with every day (keep an eye out for the audio recordings - coming soon!).
Here’s a summary of our three favorite topics the community team and audience tackled together:
Should you allow advertising in the community?
Once your community is established, advertisements and sponsored content can be a great way to offset costs.
Pro Tips:
- Advertising doesn’t always have to be commercial or from a third party. You can advertise your own items, like new content, an event or a webinar. You also don’t put a million ads everywhere - be tasteful. One client suggested placing ads in a banner slideshow mixed in with non-advertising slides.
How do you deal with a troll?
At some point, everybody deals with a troll. As community builders, it can break your heart to exclude anyone from the conversation, but if someone is poisoning the community, you do have to either heavily moderate them or just outright ban them for the sake of the community’s health and future.
Pro tips:
- Create a very strong code of conduct with a three strikes you’re out policy. At the end of the day, you need to be able to protect , so make sure your rules and policies will back you up.
Should you allow anonymous posting?
Like advertising, anonymous posting can be very beneficial when it’s used correctly and in the right communities. Anonymous posting gives members a voice they didn’t have before and the ability to talk about important issues they couldn’t broach before.
Pro tips:
- If you do have a contentious issue or thread, don’t turn on anonymous posting - things might get messy quickly.