"To build community: find your people, study your people, take notes, talk to your people, take notes, repeat quite a few times. The show then becomes much easier to answer." - Rosie Sherry

What is an ideal online community persona?

An ideal online community persona is a fictional representation of the typical member of an online community. It is created by gathering information about the community's target audience and characteristics, including demographics, interests, behaviors, needs, and pain points. The persona should be detailed enough to feel like a real person and serve as a reference for community managers to better understand their audience and tailor their engagement strategies accordingly. An ideal online community persona helps community managers create relevant content, choose the right tone and voice, and foster meaningful interactions that resonate with the community.

Why are community personas essential for every community manager’s marketing strategy?

Community personas are essential for every community manager's marketing strategy because they help identify the target audience of the community and guide the development of content and engagement strategies. By creating a detailed persona, community managers can better understand the needs, interests, and behaviors of their members, allowing them to tailor their content and engagement efforts to better serve the community.

A well-developed community persona can provide insights into key demographics such as age, gender, location, education, and profession. It can also help identify their goals, motivations, and pain points, allowing community managers to create relevant and engaging content that resonates with their members.

With this information, community managers can develop targeted engagement strategies that encourage members to participate, contribute, and build relationships within the community. This, in turn, can lead to increased engagement, retention, and growth of the community.

Key benefits of Community persona

‍A community persona is a group of users that displays a set of similar characteristics. Defining personas who use our communities helps us to understand how different groups interact, communicate and influence each other.

Creating community personas is a valuable practice for a number of reasons, particularly in the context of building and engaging with an online community. Here are some of the key benefits:

1.Understanding your audience: When you create community personas, you are essentially creating fictional representations of your target audience. This helps you to understand who your community members are, what they care about, and what motivates them. By developing a deep understanding of your audience, you can tailor your content and engagement strategies to better meet their needs.

2.Personalizing your approach: When you understand your audience, you can create a more personalized approach to engaging with them. For example, if you know that a particular segment of your community is interested in sustainability, you can create content that speaks directly to that interest. This can help to increase engagement and build loyalty within your community.

3.Anticipating needs and preferences: By creating community personas, you can anticipate the needs and preferences of your audience. This allows you to proactively address their concerns and provide them with the information and resources that they need. For example, if you know that a particular segment of your community is interested in learning more about a particular topic, you can create content or host events that focus on that topic.

4.Creating empathy and connection: When you create community personas, you are essentially creating stories about the people who make up your community. This can create empathy and connection between your community members, as they start to see themselves as part of a larger whole. By fostering a sense of belonging within your community, you can build a stronger and more engaged group of people.

5.Improving decision-making: By understanding your audience, you can make more informed decisions about how to engage with them. For example, if you know that a particular segment of your community is most active on social media, you can focus your engagement efforts on that platform. This can help to increase the effectiveness of your engagement strategies and lead to better outcomes for your community.

Sum up

Overall, creating community personas is a valuable practice for anyone who is building and engaging with an online community. By understanding your audience, personalizing your approach, anticipating needs and preferences, creating empathy and connection, and improving decision-making, you can create a more engaged and loyal community that is invested in your mission and goals.

Have you ever thought about how to create community personas that are truly effective? Whether you're experiencing low engagement in an already launched community, or are preparing to launch a new one, establishing and refining community personas is a crucial task that can prove challenging and hard to achieve. If you're struggling to create effective community personas for your online community, NbliK is here to help. We have the expertise to assist you in building an engaging and thriving online community by developing and implementing effective community personas.

"A person becomes a member of a community when four things happen: The community aligns with their identity, They trust that the community will bring them value, They know how to participate, there is a reward (intrinsic or extrinsic) for their participation” - CMX