“If we build it they will come!” How often do we hear this refrain as community leaders and assume that our members will feverishly start posting to our forum? All too often and, in my opinion, this is a highly unrealistic expectation. While creating a community environment- digital or otherwise- for people is the first step, building a thriving community takes conscious effort and consideration from the host organization to be successful. Especially if you are launching a net-new community.
User Behavior
From what we know of user behavior, at any given time your community members are going to be consumers/lurkers/learners-
