How do you define community ownership for your platform?

Communities should be own by communities. Even though it is product related community, the members must feel they are empowered to lead the community. They need to have a sense of ownership. Companies behind the communities can invest on software, marketing and any other materials needed. But having a clear leadership from current members (or even advocates) is key to maintain the community vibes.

I love what Rafael said! "Communities should be owned by communities" Yes, you will have founders, moderators, etc., but if the members of the community do not feel empowered in everything going on in the community, then they will lose interest and disengage.

I define community ownership as the empowerment and active participation of community members in shaping the platform’s direction, ensuring that their voices are heard and their needs are met. This involves creating a sense of shared responsibility and collective stewardship over the platform’s content, rules, and overall governance.

Members as the Core! Members are the ones who direct the community experience (organized by the leaders and managers). For members to feel ownership, they need to be aware of what's happening within the community's culture, movements, and planning so they can actively participate in the chosen paths. This goes beyond conducting surveys with the community; it’s about being with them and listening to how the community can be better for them. Community management should provide maximum support so that members feel at home, knowing where to find and how to get involved with processes, events, and initiatives. When this sense of organization is lacking, much is lost in relationships and the building of collective initiatives.

If we take a platform such as Microsoft Viva Engage it comes with two distinct owners - Firstly, the Viva Engage Community manager (platform governor, monitor and trainer). In addition to the overall community manager, each individual community have assigned community admins (at least 2) who own and manage the content, engagement and monitoring of their community of interest.

At any initial stage of a community, starting leaders tend to be the owners. It usually happens with SaaS communities, where the Marketing teams ignite the community programs. It is recommended to have a clear strategy to leave that ledership to members once your community is up and running. Controlling every area of the community will make members to stay away, and then the feeling of knowledge sharing will disappear, creating a one-direction only scenario. And this is not what you want. Stay alert and provide support. Allow space for members to create and recognize individuals that serve as role models (make them your advocates).

Couldn't agree more with Rafael on the point where the role of the leader as owner shifts overtime. We have noticed this as well as we build our community and help others build their own that the shift to the community being member owned happens. I would say, this is a necessary step for people to see the benefit of the community that they are part of, it being one way will lead to people leaving.

The main challenge is balancing the role of leadership and moderation versus stepping back and giving control to the members. Yes, you want to ensure that the channels are moderated, members are following codes of conduct, support is provided where needed, etc., but you need to make sure that members feel as though they have a voice in what happens in the community as well. Too much moderation and ownership, and members will feel as though the community is too controlling. Too little moderation and the vision and true value of the community will be lost.

Real communities are people-powered. I agree with everyone's thoughts on this. There are challenges in each phase. For example, once you have gone through the initial phase of crafting the community's purpose, the first activity should ignite the interest of those early allies. The main challenge at this first phase is to get that activity right. That shared activity should keep people coming back.

A challenge that can be found within communities are members who may push the limits on your guidelines and agreements for the platform. Users who knowingly break rules need to be talked to right away, before it gets out of hand. This can be done simply by sending a warning over email, or setting up a quick phone call to explain their behavior has been flagged, and if they continue to break rules, they will be removed.

Most of the community ownership and various roles will come naturally with growth. When you start, it will most likely just be a couple of main leaders and nothing more. As time goes on and the membership grows, you will need to strategically implement channel moderators, potentially community ambassadors, admin, etc. For us, we implemented an ambassador program for our top members to support discussion, help around the community, etc. We later introduced some of these ambassadors as channel moderators, where they encouraged conversations and watched over a channel. It was crucial that these people were trusted members of the community that we believed truly align with the mission and values we have :)

How to align the vision for your community with the ownership? ?? We are talking about a group of people that will be created due to come common interest, which can be your product or service. At an initial stage, defining clearly what you want to achieve with the community seems to be the natural step. But what happens when community evolves and grows? How do you keep members aligned with that vision? Monitoring and evaluating your community progress is key here. When some deviation happens (ie., the community starts to foster a competitor in your market), identify why it happens and talk to the community leaders. If they are true advocates they will be happy to share the reasons and work with you to realign with vision again.

Most of the ownership, subject matter experts, and other roles will come from within the community. The members who keep showing up, helping others, and contributing to the community are the ones that you should empower. That being said, the internal team plays a big role in a product or support community. Where answering questions promptly and educating customers is paramount. As always, start slow and small. Not too many spaces or owners are needed at first. Community is iteration. So, double down on what's working and stop with what's not. A helpful tool in bigger communities with this exercise is an ownership matrix. Here, for example, you can define moderators and engagers.

I don't think community ownership truly exists until all the benefits of having a stake are shared equally. For example, if the community has an inherent monetary value, true community ownership means everyone in the community has an equal share or an equal claim to that value. Ultimately, this is, for some communties, perhaps an unrealistic ideal but I think it should always be the aim and how community ownership is defined. Strategy for community ownership therefore is about working towards and aiming to fulfill this definition above all else.

It's odd to refer to ownership when talking about community, because in an ideal world you want every member of that community to feel as if they have some level of ownership or investment in it. You want them to help moderate the community because they want to keep it a nice place to be. You want them to spread the information you're sharing because they're keen to see the community expand. Instead of looking at it as ownership look at it as a joint venture for growth with the people who want to be part of it.

A community should be led by the community for the community. ???? This means that there will be members that will raise as leaders (ie., local group leaders for meetups), and they will be the ones helping your organization to lead the community. Involve these individuals in company events, meet with them regularly, monitor the community progress and give them responsibilities to drive a group or a section. When they become advocates of your product, implementing your community vision while leaving ownership to them becomes an easier task.

Data, people and community-driven approaches to gain insight should co-exist to measure impact and identify what works and what doesn't. The main guiding question is-is my community providing value? How and how can this be captured? Normally that value is found in members' stories and voices.

Your culture is the main driver that will tell how people should organize in order to make decisions and get more traction on your objectives. It's not only a matter of communicating, but empowering your values constantly.

Customer communities are becoming a hot topic lately. How to progress and evolve in your community strategy? ?? From a more educational point of view, there are some good books (ie, Customer Communities by Wiley) and plenty of great blogs about it. But I tend to learn also from those that have walked the path.Seek for community leaders (even from a competitor!), talk to them and share experiences. That is the true spirit of communities! ????

It's important to remember is that no matter how good our online engagement platforms are, they're not going to be Facebook or LinkedIn. Members visit community platforms for specific reasons and tasks, they aren't going to visit them everyday and make them a central part of their daily lives. When designing the user experience, we can draw inspiration from public examples, but it's important to set realistic goals and expectations for how and how much our members will use the platform. Immersing ourselves in that process can help us craft platforms that meet users needs but also empower them to shape their community and the member experience.

Leaving your community in the hands of members to run it is a complicated task to do. But it is the right path to follow! ??? Start small but with a clear vision of why you are creating such community. Find individuals as community grows to give them responsibilities step by step. Build then a true advocate program identifying roles and recognizing the impact in the community. If you follow the steps with a good monitoring and evaluation, your community will flourish and thrive!