For many of us, the internet is becoming an increasingly important part of our lives. Facebook alone now accounts for at least an astonishing 20% of all pages viewed on the web! Google has thrown its considerable weight behind Google Plus, Twitter has just floated on the stock exchange and the popularity of Pinterest, Instagram, LinkedIn and more mean that social networks are definitely here to stay.

Get the most out of online communities

An important part of these social networks is the idea of the communities within them – Facebook Groups, Google+ Communities, Pinterest Group Boards, LinkedIn groups etc. Communities also exist in many other areas – Forums, message boards and other places where like-minded people gather are all over the web. If you want to get the most out of these communities, get mutual benefit for yourself and other members and build up trust, there are some easy steps that you can take.

1. Understand the rules, etiquette and guidelines of the community that you’re joining
2. Join in with your online community in a beneficial way
3. Share great, valuable, worthy content
4. Treat others with courtesy and respect

Benefits of being a good community member

• You’ll have a better time in the community
• Others will benefit from the things you share
• Builds trust in you, your comments and your approach
• Creates authority which can translate to better perception and search ranking
• Makes things easier for moderators
• Improves the community for everyone

Step 1 – Understand the rules, etiquette and guidelines of the community that you are joining

The first thing that you should do on joining a community of any kind is to understand the rules of that community. This includes what type of things you can post, what behavior is expected of the members, frequently asked questions, what to do in the event of a problem and more. You can achieve this by:

• Understand why you’re joining the community – Is it to get information, ask questions, share expertise or mainly for self-promotion? If it’s mainly for self-promotion, it’s unlikely that you, or the community will get much value out of your participation
• Making sure you join the right community – Because there are so many different ones out there, choose a community that matches your interests and where you will feel at home
• Understand posting and other guidelines – Read through the rules in detail so that you can learn what is, and isn’t, accepted. These will often be sticked in forums or clearly visible in other communities
• Listen to the moderators – Moderators are there to look after the community. Its important to listen to what they say
• Post in the right way – When you need to contribute something, make sure that you put it in the right area of the community, with a descriptive subject matter so that people know what it is

Step 2 – Join in with your online community in a beneficial way

The most important thing to remember is that you need to add value to your online community; you can do this in several ways:

• Let people know who you are – If there’s a chance to fill in a profile page, do so. Let people know about your areas of expertise, information and useful facts in your profile
• Introduce yourself – Post a brief introduction to the community – Who you are, why you joined, your interests and expertise etc
• Interact – Comment on other people’s posts, share your expertise, provide information and help
• Share your expertise – If you have knowledge or skills that are relevant to others, share your knowledge, wisdom and expertise. Doing this can help you quickly build up your authority and trust, meaning that others will be more likely to engage with what you have to say

Step 3 – Share great, valuable, worthy content

Spam is the great problem of the internet age. When time is becoming ever more precious, no-one wants to have to wade through a deluge of spam to get to the point. Don’t contribute to that flood of irrelevant posts, get rich quick schemes and purely self-promotional links. Instead, try to ensure that the content you share has value to the other members of the community:

• Educate, inform, entertain or inspire – Good content should do at least one of these things. If it doesn’t provide useful, actionable information, let people know about something genuinely helpful, help them pass the time by entertaining them or move them in some way, the chances are that its not good content. So you shouldn’t post it!
• Explanation and context – When you share content, especially links, make sure that you provide context (why you are sharing it and how it is helpful), together with an introduction.
• Do not spam / post irrelevant material or naked links – Please, please, please, don’t do this. Nobody wants to read it, no-one is going to click on it. All your spam is doing is making a harder job for the moderators and reducing everyone else’s enjoyment, and you don’t want to be responsible for that, do you?

Step 4 – Treat others with courtesy and respect

An important part of enjoying a community is the sense of common purpose between the members. You are all there to share information on something that you care about. You can help to do this by:

• Treating everyone with consideration and respect – Treat others how you would want to be treated. Remember that behind every screen and keyboard is another person and treat them in that way. Be kind and understanding
• Answering questions – Just like sharing your expertise, answering questions will help you to build your reputation and also assists the other members of your community, as recommended by SEO Calgary expert.

These simple steps will help you have a much better time with online communities, and both you and the people that you interact with will benefit. Remember – Read the guidelines, treat people with respect, post things of value and never spam, and then we can all just get along!