I was asked to present a 3 hour workshop on Community Building as part of Online Marketing Summit in Minneapolis. There is a certain challenge in creating a deck that will provide for an unknown audience over that length of time!

We kicked off the session by talking about the philosophy behind an online community. The most important aspect is the definition of “community”. A community is much more than just a hosted platform. I outlined my definition of community in my post on the ‘Community Strategist Role’.

The deck below outlines five steps. I included a section on digital marketing and SEO because inbound marketing is imperative to growing a healthy community. Efforts in this manner will also make great strides in building organic SEO.

  1. Listen: Get to know your People
  2. Planning: Create a Strategy & Metrics
  3. Digital Marketing: Content is King & SEO is Queen
  4. Engagement: Create a Party
  5. Reporting: Measuring Success

What are your essential steps to building an online community?

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