Activity is the fuel that powers the engine of your community. And interestingly enough, building activity is a lot like building a fire.

For instance, when you start a fire you start with your wood placed close together, concentrated in a stack or pyramid. This makes sure that the fuel is arranged neatly around the initial flame. You supply the first spark, often from a couple of different angles in case one or more goes out, and you use plenty of tinder, lighter fluid or other quick combustibles to make sure the fire takes hold.

Your content structure is your log pyramid. You keep it tight together, concentrating your activity where it can best take hold. Then you seed the site with initial content and known users to spark the discussion, often from a couple of different angles in case the some of them fizzle out. And finally, you pour on the gas through promotion to make sure there's enough activity to sustain the blaze until the larger conversation takes hold.

Of course, this is just a metaphor. Your community is made of people, not stacks of wood. But a successful community manager learns how to coax embers in the hearts of their members, nurturing the first wisps of smoke into a roaring blaze that spreads to others.

Is your community smoldering or sputtering? How are your fire-starting skills?

photo by herval

As any good trial lawyer will tell you, you should never ask a question in front of a jury unless you already know what the answer will be. There's a similar rule to follow for ideation sites and other requests for community feedback: if you ask for members to submit ideas, make sure you have a plan for how to address them when they do.

Idea exchanges and other feedback mechanisms let you establish a direct connection with customers and get insights into their opinions, while also demonstrating  that their voice matters. But that only works if you actually show them you are listening.

To make sure you start off on the right foot, you should plan to address four key elements when launching an idea exchange:

Expectations: You need to communicate the purpose and scope of your idea exchange to make sure everyone knows what its for. If you are only able to act on suggestions for specific products or issues, make sure members know this in advance. If you are using criteria other than just the votes to decide which ideas to implement, tell your members this up front.

Moderation: Ensure that content in suggestions are appropriate and thank members for well-crafted submissions, while avoiding forward-looking statements. If you have an existing community already (and you are following moderation best practices) chances are you are already covered here, but it never hurts to review those policies when you are adding anything new.

Response: Acknowledge the suggestions, evaluate and comment on them, and assign statuses on a regular basis. This also includes communicating back to the community when an idea is adopted. You can think of Ideas like the inverse of a blog in this respect; in a blog you write the content that others comment on, but in an idea exchange your members expect you to respond to them.

Action: Have a plan for what to do with the results. This should be according to the expectations you set before, fulfilling your purpose and redeeming the implicit promise you make by asking for member feedback to begin with.

You don't need to implement every idea to make people feel like they have a voice. And you don't need extensive business process management tools to make it all happen. Just be clear about your intentions and follow through on your members' ideas visibly and appropriately.

Know your answer before you ask.

photo by hashmil