How to Create an Engaged Social Community Site with WordPress
In today‘s digital age, people crave connection and a sense of belonging more than ever. Online communities provide a space for people to connect over shared interests, learn from one another, and build relationships. For brands and businesses, a thriving social community can be an invaluable asset – driving engagement, building loyalty, generating insights, and even serving as an additional marketing channel.
While social media platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn have massive built-in audiences, creating your own branded social community site gives you full ownership and control. It allows you to build a more targeted community focused specifically on your niche. WordPress is an ideal platform for building a custom social community site thanks to its flexibility, extensive plugin ecosystem, and ease of use.
In this guide, we‘ll walk through why you should consider starting a social community, what the key components and features are, and most importantly – how to create an engaging social community site with WordPress step-by-step. We‘ll cover:
- The benefits of building your own social community
- Choosing the right plugins to power your community
- Designing your site for engagement
- Moderating and managing your community effectively
- Growing your member base and keeping your community active
By the end, you‘ll be well on your way to launching a thriving social community that brings your audience together and benefits your brand. Let‘s get started!
Why Build Your Own Social Community Site?
Before we dive into the technical details, let‘s explore some of the key benefits of building your own social community site:
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Deeper engagement with your audience. A community provides a space for your audience to not only engage with your brand, but also with each other. This builds deeper relationships and keeps your brand top-of-mind. Members are more likely to become advocates and loyal, repeat customers.
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Unique insights into your audience. By having a space for your audience to have open discussions and share content, you‘ll gain valuable insights into their interests, needs, challenges and more. This can help inform your content strategy, product development, and overall brand direction.
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Establish authority in your niche. An active community focused on your industry positions your brand as a go-to resource and thought leader. You can highlight your expertise by sharing helpful content and weighing in on relevant topics.
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An owned marketing channel. Unlike social media sites where you‘re beholden to their algorithms, you have full control over your own community. You can promote offers, drive traffic to your website, and ensure your audience sees your content.
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Improve retention and LTV. A sense of community is a powerful motivator. Members who feel emotionally invested in your brand and connected to your community are more likely to stick around long-term as customers or subscribers.
With these compelling benefits in mind, let‘s explore how you can tap into them by building your social community on WordPress.
Setting Up Your Social Community Site on WordPress
The great thing about WordPress is that virtually any type of website is possible thanks to its vast library of plugins. To create a social community site, you‘ll want to choose plugins that allow for user registration, profiles, content sharing, forums/discussions, and more.
Here‘s a step-by-step overview of the setup process:
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Install WordPress and choose a domain name. If you don‘t already have a WordPress site, you‘ll need to purchase a hosting plan, domain name, and install the WordPress software. There are plenty of helpful guides online for this initial setup process.
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Choose a WordPress theme. Your WordPress theme provides the overall look and layout of your site. Choose one that‘s designed for community sites, or find a general theme you like that‘s flexible for customization. Some themes made for communities include PeepSo, BuddyBoss, and Kleo.
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Install key community plugins. The must-have plugins for any social community include:
- A user registration and profile plugin, like BuddyPress or UserPro
- Forum or discussion board plugin, like bbPress, wpForo, or Asgaros Forum
- Social sharing and activity feed plugin, like PeepSo or Buddy Press
- Depending on your specific needs, you may want to add plugins for live chat, course creation, paid memberships, and other community features.
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Configure your chosen plugins. Each plugin you install will have various settings you can configure to your liking, like user roles, profile fields, forum categories, and more. Refer to their documentation and take time to go through all the options.
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Customize your design and layout. Use your theme options, plugin shortcodes, and WordPress customizer to dial in the overall look of your community site. Key pages to create include:
- Homepage that displays recent activity, featured content, and clear calls-to-action to register or sign in
- "About" or welcome page that shares the purpose and guidelines for your community
- User profile directory
- Forums or discussion boards
- Member activity feed
- Create your first content. Seed your community with some initial content to give new members a sense of what it‘s all about. Aim for posts that encourage engagement, like questions, challenges, or prompts for members to weigh in on.
With these foundational pieces in place, your new community site will start to take shape. But the work doesn‘t end here – building an engaged, active community takes some ongoing effort.
Strategies for Building an Engaged Community
Getting people to join your community is one thing – getting them to actively participate is another. It‘s normal for the majority of members to "lurk" or passively consume content, while a small percentage are actively posting and interacting. To maximize engagement from your member base:
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Welcome new members. Whether via email, a welcome video, or an automated onboarding campaign, ensure each new community member feels valued and excited to participate. Share helpful resources and point them toward their first actions, like completing their profile or posting an introduction.
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Appoint moderators. Moderators help keep discussions civil and on-topic. Recruit volunteer moderators from among your most engaged members and empower them to help lead the community.
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Post engaging prompts and challenges. You don‘t have to wait for members to start conversations – take the lead by posting regular prompts that get people sharing. This could be weekly themed threads, photo challenges, Q&A sessions, and more.
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Encourage user-generated content. Let your members take some ownership by encouraging them to post their own content and lead discussions. Consider implementing a member blog where approved users can publish articles.
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Gamify participation. Implement a points or reputation system to reward members for valuable contributions. You can assign points for posts, comments, receiving likes, logging in regularly, etc.
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Highlight member stories and successes. Shine a spotlight on members who are doing cool things, on or off the community. Showcasing success stories makes people feel appreciated and inspires more participation.
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Host virtual events. Hosting live video workshops, AMA sessions, mastermind groups, or casual hangouts helps members forge real relationships. It also mixes up your typical content format and keeps things interesting.
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Monitor analytics to learn and improve. WordPress community plugins provide analytics on membership growth, engagement rates, popular content and more. Track these metrics to see what‘s working and where you can improve your community management strategy.
Like a garden, an online community requires consistent nurturing and care to thrive. But when managed well, it can yield an incredibly valuable resource for your brand and members alike.
Examples of Successful WordPress Communities
Need some inspiration for what‘s possible with a WordPress social community? Here are some great examples of brands putting these strategies into practice:
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My Fitness Pal: This popular nutrition tracking app has a massive online community where people come together to share motivation, challenges, successes, and encouragement in their health and fitness journeys.
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Tiny Buddha: A community blog that shares bite-sized wisdom, stories and tips for living a happy and purposeful life. Readers are encouraged to submit guest posts and weigh in on thoughtful discussions.
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Code Newbie: A supportive online community for people learning to code, with a popular Twitter chat, podcast, and active forum for swapping resources and getting unstuck.
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The Daily Egg by Crazy Egg: The hugely popular analytics platform has a companion community site called The Daily Egg, where members share conversion optimization tips through blog posts, forums, and user-submitted case studies.
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Adventure Riders: A place for motorcycle enthusiasts to connect, share advice and stories, and even meet up for in-person adventures.
Each of these communities has a few key things in common – a clear unifying purpose, multiple opportunities for members to participate, and consistent engagement from moderators and community leaders.
Start Building Your Thriving Social Community Today!
We covered a lot of ground in this guide, so here‘s a quick recap of the key steps to launch your own WordPress social community site:
- Get clear on the purpose of your community
- Install WordPress and choose a domain name
- Select a community-friendly theme
- Install and configure essential plugins
- Customize your site‘s design and launch it
- Seed your initial content and conversations
- Deploy proven engagement strategies
- Learn and adjust based on community feedback and analytics
Building a true community takes time and perseverance, but the rewards for doing so are well worth it. Not only will you cultivate an incredible resource for your members, you‘ll gain lasting brand advocates, invaluable audience insights, and an unparalleled level of engagement.
Ready to start building the social community of your dreams? The first step is believing it‘s possible. With WordPress and a solid game plan, you‘re already well on your way. Here‘s to your new community‘s success!
