What methods do you use to help foster a sense of belonging within your community?

[Destiny]

Owning your community and leading that community gives a great feeling but it can be so easy to forget the important things such as finding ways or even having methods to help foster a sense of belonging so that your community members feel welcomed and like they are appreciated and wanted around your community. 

When it comes to fostering a sense of belonging within your community, what methods do you as a leader use? 

[Nomad]

I have a niche forum and I and trying to build it into a resource site on the niche. Therefore, my focus is one creating content that the users might find useful, informative, and educational. Even though I also own a general discussion forum, I like forums that offer value content where people can get help

[Destiny]

12 hours ago, Nomad said:

I have a niche forum and I and trying to build it into a resource site on the niche. Therefore, my focus is one creating content that the users might find useful, informative, and educational. Even though I also own a general discussion forum, I like forums that offer value content where people can get help

I find that a lot of people are always searching for help in some way shape or form and having a community based on a specific niche can often be a plus for your community. 

 

[Toni]

14 hours ago, Nomad said:

I have a niche forum and I and trying to build it into a resource site on the niche. Therefore, my focus is one creating content that the users might find useful, informative, and educational. Even though I also own a general discussion forum, I like forums that offer value content where people can get help

This is an amazing way to help foster a sense of belonging and one I feel more community leaders should do. 

People feel like they belong if they are finding the information and content they need and feel comfortable to be able to engage too. 

[JoelR]

On 4/21/2024 at 12:49 PM, Destiny said:

When it comes to fostering a sense of belonging within your community, what methods do you as a leader use? 

The classic and most well-known elements to build a sense of community have 4 elements: membership, influence, fulfillment of needs, and shared emotional connection.  

[Nomad]

On 4/23/2024 at 12:37 AM, Toni said:

This is an amazing way to help foster a sense of belonging and one I feel more community leaders should do. 

People feel like they belong if they are finding the information and content they need and feel comfortable to be able to engage too. 

The key to improve engagement is to bring people who are truly interested in your niche. I instead of broader niche, you need to focus on micro niche. For instance, if you are running a gaming community, instead of general gaming, you need to focus on niches, For instance, RPG or racing, or FPS. As @JoelR has mentioned, this will improve shared emotions and fulfillment of needs

[Maria]

People have choices, they will use the community as long as they like, and if they don't like it, they will just leave it and go else where. Sometimes, people also leave the community without any particular reasons. Even though they like it, they will just leave it. Perhaps they are bored with using the same community. Frankly speaking, these days it is really difficult to build sense of belonging among users.