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If you're reading this, it means you have thought about building an online community at some point. That's not surprising, considering all the potential benefits to gain from a brand having its own cozy community.

What exactly is a community website, and why do you need one?

Online communities are digital spaces that allow some form of interaction between users. They can either be standalone websites or part of larger platforms (such as Groups on LinkedIn or Facebook). People joining communities tend to have shared interests and engage in conversations relating to the main topic of what the community is about.

As to why you may need to start a community, they have become highly important to the way people use the internet, whether to learn, discover products and services, or just to meet new people. While internet communities are not new, the connectedness of modern society has driven more and more consumers to join them.

An increasing number of brands have jumped onto the opportunity to create communities online. More than 70% of large companies and close to 50% of small businesses have set up one community website or another.

Benefits of Building a Community Website

From a business standpoint, brands can derive a number of distinct benefits from setting up their own community website.

• More control over the narrative surrounding the brand
• Getting out the brand's message directly to the people who are really interested
• Strengthening relationships between the brand and the consumer
• User generated content that is helpful to customers, as well as good for website SEO
• Access to user data (compared to hosting your community on a third-party website)
• Enhancing customer support strategies
• Greater chance of generating referrals and extending customer lifetime value, which can lead to increased ROI
• Positive impact on customer loyalty that can lead to improved revenues and profits.

Types of Online Communities

Before building a community website, you first need to know what kind of community you want. Do you simply want to create a space for your website visitors to share in conversations or do you want a platform that will enable customers to get help with product-related problems they might be having? Will it be accessible to the public or only available privately to specific customers?

There are three main types of community websites:

• Social networking sites
• Discussion forums or chat boards
• Blog communities.

Many online communities are hybrids, combining two or more types to accommodate the various needs of their target audiences.

In order to select the best type of community website, it is important to understand what your readers or customers want from you. Are they looking for ways to connect directly with the brand owners? Are they mostly interested in conversing with their peers? Will they need additional support in order to get the best use of your products? What is the demographic makeup of your target audience?

Whatever your answer to these and related questions, your aim should be to create a welcoming and interactive space. Members should know the purpose of the community and all the ways they can use it to achieve an established outcome. It should also be easy to navigate and understand.

Ways to Build a Community Website

You have probably wondered about how to go about getting started, what tools to use, or maybe what type of community you want to launch. Building a digital community requires much thought and planning if you want to get it right.

As it relates to what tools you can use to create an online community, WordPress has taken away some of the guesswork for its users by making available numerous community plugins. With a plugin, it is possible to build and launch a community website in less than an hour.

Knowing the best WordPress community plugins to choose from will affect how easy or hard it is to build a community website. For example, many users of the PeerBoard WordPress community plugin have reported setting up and launching communities in as little as 20 minutes.

Before diving into the world of plugins, let's look at some of the other ways you can build a community website:

1. Build it From Scratch

This is the old-school way of launching an online community. It involves using appropriate coding languages to layout and design your website. If it is extremely important to build your community by hand and get the exact look and feel you want, this is the way to go.

However, building a community website from scratch is the most time-consuming way to go about it. Website development can take weeks or even months, depending on the level of complexity. Then there is also the task of buying a domain name and paying for website hosting. If you don't have the necessary skills to build a website, you will need to hire a web developer, which can be costly.

2. Blogging and Commenting Features

Some blogs often encourage readers to share their perspectives and give feedback on the posts that are published on the platform. There are also websites that make it possible for users to create and publish their own blog posts. For WordPress users, this type of community can be built by adding certain features to your existing website or using an appropriate plugin. Speaking of plugins…

3. Install a WordPress plugin

You can't directly build a community website using WordPress, but the platform does offer ready-made programs (plugins) which are built specifically for this capability. Plugins are pieces of software created to achieve a particular website or app goal. More than one-third of all website owners use WordPress. The vast majority of communities on the platform are created using one or more of these plugins.

A community plugin is pre-loaded with all the tools and features that are needed to design, configure, and launch a particular type of community website. Often, no technical skills are required to use a plugin. PeerBoard, for instance, is simply plug and play.

Of course, there are some open source options that allow people with the requisite skills to make changes to the underlying code. Also, some community plugins provide minimal features and require other add-ons if you want more functionalities.

Choosing the Right WordPress Community Plugin

Selecting the most suitable WordPress community plugin can be difficult. You can narrow down the list by comparing what you are trying to create vs the features offered in each plugin. Just in case you don't know where to start looking, here are five popular WordPress plugins you can use to build an online community and what they are best for:

• PeerBoard: Suitable for all types of online communities; simply plug and play

• BuddyPress: Suitable for social platforms; additional plugins required if used for forums

• PeepSo: Best for lightweight social networks
• wpForo Forums: Mostly used for building forums; can be used with profile building and membership plugins to create other types of communities

• WP User Frontend: Best used for blog communities and simple social networks

There are literally dozens of WordPress community plugins to choose from, and many seem to work in the same basic ways. So, how do you choose? Here are some things to keep in mind when choosing a WordPress community plugin:

Learning Curve

Using a WordPress plugin should be a simple and straightforward process. After all, the whole idea is to make it easy for people without technical skills to launch and use the software. However, WordPress users have complained about some community plugins having a steep learning curve. That is, setting them up involves a complex process rather than simple steps. In addition, you may need to seek out other extensions or even some amount of code modification when using some plugins. To prevent all that, you should spend time checking out available plugins to see which ones are the easiest to set up and use.

Versatility

An ideal community plugin can be used in various ways. PeerBoard, for example, is a forum building platform that also can be used to create social networks and blogs, as well as the ability to create both public and private spaces and set special access permissions for users. It also allows you to customize your community with branding elements so it seamlessly blends in with your existing brand image. On the other hand, there are those plugins that lack flexibility. They are made for just one purpose, so you will need additional solutions if you want to do further customizations to your community.

Cost

There are quite a number of WordPress community plugins that are free and open source. Many of these free solutions come with plenty of features, but it doesn't always mean they won't cost you in the long run. As mentioned, additional plugins and extensions are required in many cases in order to customize the community you are building. These additions can turn out to be quite costly, even though the main community plugin you are using is supposed to be free.

Software Compatibility

Another factor to consider is whether the plugin you are using to build your community website is compatible with other software you might be using on WordPress. Some plugins are incompatible with certain WordPress themes, for instance. Others will crash or fail to work if installed alongside particular add-ons or extensions. To prevent any negative impact on your WordPress site, be sure to pick a community plugin that can be easily integrated without clashing with your theme or other plugins.

Scaling Possibility

Your community will likely not stay the same, neither will your business needs or those of community members. The community plugin you choose should be able to scale with the growth of your community. For example, maybe your public Q&A forum will require private member rooms in the future. Or maybe your community will require more resources to keep functioning. If the WordPress community plugin you are using is not able to pivot accordingly, the problems that arise may cause you to lose members or even affect the proper functioning of the website.

Mobile Friendliness

It's no secret that most internet users access products and services using their smartphones and tablets. It makes sense that your online community should be mobile-friendly as well. Using a plugin that is not mobile responsive means your community members will experience difficulties accessing it on their mobile devices. This could result in people giving negative feedback about your online community or even cause you to lose members.

How to Build a Community Website with WordPress

So, what's the best way to go about building a community website with WordPress? If you did your homework and chose the best possible plugin, it should be a breeze, regardless of how tech-savvy you are. Since the PeerBoard WordPress plugin is among the most versatile and simplest to use for creating community websites, let's look at how you can use it to build one.

1. Sign into WordPress

Providing you already have a WordPress account, you need to be signed in before you can use any WordPress plugins. In the address bar of your browser, enter the domain URL of your WordPress site, along with /wp-admin (such as yourwebsitename.com/wp-admin) or with /wp-login.php (such as yourwebsitename.com/wp-login.php). On the next page, type in your WordPress username and password.

2. Search for the PeerBoard WordPress community plugin

Once signed into your WordPress dashboard, it is time to look for the PeerBoard plugin. To do this, simply click on "Plugins" at the left side of your screen, then click "Add New." In the search box, type in the name of the plugin and hit "Enter." Click "Install."

3. Plugin activation and setup

Installing the PeerBoard WordPress plugin should take no longer than a few seconds. Since it is compatible with all WordPress themes, you should be able to launch the software and start the process of setting up your community right away.

With the PeerBoard WordPress plugin, you can easily configure its settings in accordance with how you want your community to work. This can involve choosing the user profile settings, adjusting activity settings, adding the various components that you want to be included, and configuring the access features. In many cases, using the PeerBoard WordPress plugin to build your community website is often just a matter of toggling buttons on or off.

Conclusion

Building an online community with WordPress should be a reasonably easy process. After all, there are various plugins that make it possible to create a fully functional community website without the need for any type of coding skills.

However, all WordPress community plugins are different and do not offer the same level of simplicity to use. It is important to do your research so you can pick the right solution to build your community website.

Looking to learn everything there is to know about creating, growing, and monetizing an online community? Join our free newsletter, Online Community Builders: