4 Tips to Building Virtual Communities

Remote agents may work by themselves in their homes, but that doesn’t mean they have to work alone.  Agent engagement and well-being have always been important to enterprise leaders, even more so as we all grapple with the impact of a global pandemic. Liveops Nation, a social network dedicated exclusively to Liveops Agents, has been a tool to provide support and unity among the agent network. Here are a few tips to keep in mind if you’re building a virtual community within your business.

1. The first step to creating a successful virtual community for your company is to first identify feasibility amongst your audience. This means identifying the gaps in their experience with your organization today and asking for suggestions on how you could solve those gaps. During conversations with your audience, ask their thoughts on different features, programming, or content a virtual community would offer to get their unbiased level of inclination. Start with 1:1 interviews and validate what you’re hearing via a larger scale survey.
2. Once you know your audience is likely to lean into the concept of a virtual community, set up 1:1 conversations with various members of your company’s leadership team. Since unanimous buy-in is important, everyone must understand and recognize the tangible benefits a virtual community will make for the organization. These goals must complement the goals of your audience, not conflict.
3.  If you decide to pull the trigger, start small – one forum, one blog, etc. A smaller number of places to interact concentrates your audience’s engagement until your adoption rate grows. Plan content and engagement opportunities that will close the experience gaps you learned during the research phase. Launch with an aggressive content plan that will ensure constant engagement for at least the first 30 days of your virtual community. Get feedback as you go and adjust accordingly. Reach out to people 1:1 to invite them to be part of a conversation or event. Eventually, those numbers will add up!
4.  Ensure you have the resources. When people fail at virtual communities, a large part of that is usually a lack of resource dedication. Running a successful community absolutely requires a full-time role. At Liveops, we have one full-time and one part-time resource running our online community and events program. Additionally, there are dozens of other staff members who play a role in actively engaging with our agents and creating new content. Their involvement may be as little as 5 minutes a day, but those contributions really add up. Like most things, you get back what you put into it.

Learn more about how to avoid remote agent burnout in this webinar with Five9.