Open or Closed?
A community can be open or closed. An open community, in which all content pages and functionality are available to anyone, allows the content to be found on the Web – driving up your organic search results – and encouraging clients and even non-clients to interact and engage.
A closed community, or one that requires registration and access via a username and password, has its benefits, too. You can decide exactly whom should receive access, and the members in the community can get a sense of exclusivity. Spam is reduced, and more private communications are enabled.
As a hybrid approach, you can create a closed community that requires social login, ‘Sign in with Facebook’ or ‘Sign in with Twitter,’ as a way to encourage people to join. Another possibility in the hybrid approach might be that your content is completely open on the Web, but if anyone wishes to comment or contribute content, it must first be approved.
Do-It-Yourself
Software exists to manage companies’ growing communities. JXB1 has in-house programming capabilities but also maintains relationships with several community management platform providers. We can manage your community for you, make suggestions for a suitable technology solution, utilize any existing resources you already have, and even train your staff on daily community management.
Let’s talk about your online community today.