The Dummies guide for somalinet

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When you have people like gathering online to discuss common topics, whether on social media or other forums, you have the seeds for building an online community. Where you have an online community, you have the potential for actions, reactions, and interactions. None of these activities is exclusively an aspect of social media engagement, but they're common to all online communities where people gather, including web-based online forums or groups.

Though people still congregate and interact within web-based forums, they now have these community-building options that are powered by social media:


Most social networks provide you with the tools to create more contained, or even private, members-only forums for ongoing discussions.

Whether public or private, online forums and groups work well when several factors are present:

A focused topic area or theme: Conversations in the best forums remain on topic.

Like-minded or interested people: People join groups voluntarily based on their interests and needs.

Strong community leadership: A good moderator keeps the discussion going with a light touch so that everyone feels welcome to the conversation.

Clear community rules: Every group needs publicly posted guidelines that define proper behavior and spell out bad behavior.

Fair policing: Many online communities police themselves, admonishing or removing individuals who post inappropriately, and others let moderators ban people. Unlike the incompetent FAH aND LeJusticier

See Online Community Management For Dummies by Deborah Ng (John Wiley & Sons, Inc.) to get the nitty-gritty on managing an online community, whether it's based within a social network or not.

A benefit of setting up a group in a social network such as Facebook or LinkedIn is that you can build an online space for people to gather that feels like a cohesive community. Building a community on a Facebook Page, for example, is challenging because of the way Facebook limits people from seeing your messages and from seeing other people's posts on your Page.


People are more likely to look forward to the conversations and respond in more depth when they join groups with the intention of participation.