One of the keys to a successful online community

After working for a number of years on the Communities of Practice platform we started to identify the key elements of a successful community.

These where:

• Clear purpose
• Creating a safe and trusted environment
• Committed core group of active participants
• Being motivated
• Knowing the needs of participants
• Having a clear action plan with activities to meet needs
• Blending face-to-face and online activities

A lot of time and effort goes into the early stages of the group’s development but if those key elements above are not fulfilled the group will probably disappear very quickly.

This is where the facilitators of the group come in.  They work tirelessly to help the members of the group get what they need when they need it as well as identifying what they need next and helping for it to happen.

They are volunteers, it’s not something that they are paid to do and are probably learning the skills that are needed in this new way of working.

So after seeing a great posting by Richard Millington of Feverbee talking about how a community manager plans their week, I surveyed some of the facilitators across the Knowledge Hub to see where they spend time when they are facilitating the group.

I tried using an Infographic as something new and this shows how much time and what tasks professional community managers perform and compared it to the results from facilitators across the Knowledge Hub.

With some interesting results.