How to build an online community? Every marketer at least once thought about it. Communities mask a lot of learning opportunities offered by the best industry experts who are more keen to share knowledge and expertise with like-minded professionals. In the current digital marketing landscape, communities are struggling to bring new users on board and keep them engaged.
To give you some proof, take a look at a graph below that demonstrates monthly traffic (April 2015 till December 2015) to Inbound.org from, once a very popular community platform.

Inbound.org era has come to an end. It was a long and strenuous process. It’s hard to believe that such a powerful community that nurtured so many talented experts no longer exists. I remember the days when being featured in Inbound’s newsletter meant getting anywhere from 1,000 to 2,000 online visitors. So for those of you who is still looking for a new source of traffic to replace Inbound, then give Zeist and Growthhackers a shot, both of these platforms are great.
Some time ago, Alexandra had a great conversation on LinkedIn with 21 acclaimed experts that shared their thoughts on this topic. If you don’t want to end up like Inbound, then this post has some very interesting insights. You’ll find out about the nuances of a well-structured community and how to improve engagement. Many experts were actively using Inbound and contributing to the community. So we asked them about the steps you need to avoid in order to make your community an outstanding one.
In this article:
Concentrate on engagement


David Iwanow

Tap into emotions through meaningful communication

Nichole Elizabeth DeMeré

Matt Antonino
Don’t stop innovating

Alex Tachalova
Invest in your community’s brand advocates



Sam Hurley
A thriving community is likely the result of two core actions: Awesome marketing and members' inclination to spread the word. The latter is particularly powerful — Achieve this across influential users right through to first-time testers, and growth is a given… Empowerment is the key!

Josh Garofalo
Users want to control community’s content on their end


Community isn’t about link repository

Elvis Malkic
- Make your posts motivating
- Don’t just create a link repository for mundane articles.
A community provides opportunities for people to meet and communicate with one another and with the industry experts; to connect with professionals outside the community. Besides, being a part of a community allows you to improve your skills and learn new things.

Robert McGuire


Don’t torment your users with bad design




Decide how your community will benefit its users

Yam Regev
I mean, each community member, whether it is a community of professionals, gets an added value from being an active part of the community itself. Otherwise, they won’t stay there.
It seems that no professional communities can thrive by solely discussing the agenda and actionizing it, while communities of professionals need to feel more self-empowered as they contribute to the community.
The bigger the added value is for a professional member, the more they will give from themselves for the community to thrive. Yam wrote an article about this, read it in its entirety here.

Kathleen Slattery Booth
Social Media is the Place to Start

Ayesha Ambreen

Tereza Litsa
Define Your Goals First



To Wrap Up:
There’s a lot to think about. Yet, we need to draw a conclusion to this subject and see what should have been done differently. Here are some tips that will help you improve your own community:
- Show value of being part of your community
- Encourage your active users
- Create an atmosphere for people to connect with others
- Build meaningful conversations with community members
It’s extremely important to create such community platforms that give participants value, teach them new skills and help them grow professionally. I hope these tips will provide some clarity on why brands need to take their users' voice seriously encourage you to create a perfect community of your own.
Did we forget something? Most likely, there’s a lot more to providing the best user experience for your community. What would you add to our list?
Alex Tachalova