A community manager only has a limited number of tools to influence what happens in the community. These tools are primarily:
- Content Creation. You can send messages to the community en masse in the form of news content, e-mails etc. You can highlight trends or opportunities within the community and shine the spotlight on members whose actions merit reward.
- Admin rights. You can remove people and posts that are not suited to the platform. You can also grant rights and access to members of the community. Admins also have the power to change the structure of the site to highlight areas they wish members to participate in.
- Access to the brand. You have the power to gain exclusive news, outcomes and potentially free products from the organization. You are their link to the company. You can convey their view, get exclusives and perhaps even some free products.
This means you have a limited ability to influence what members do in your community. Telling members to do something rarely works. This means you have two choices to influencing what members do.
- Become a highly respected member of the community platform. This would involve being highly active, gaining credibility amongst members and being well liked by members. This means to literally become an influential member of the community in their own right.
- Build relationships with influential members of the community. The second approach is to build relationships with the influential members of the community. You may then work with these members to make things happen within the community. This is a consultation process in which the you receive feedback on plans and build a base of support for what you wish to achieve.
To gain influence as a personal participant, you have to select a path that gives you influence. Cialdini cites six paths to influence, but only three of these are available to community managers. These are:
- Likability – requires two consistent attributes; positivity and friendliness. Every contribution you post should be optimistic in nature, inject positive emotional language, and above all be friendly.
- Reciprocity – This is essentially the social law that one action will be met with a similar action. Positive reciprocity builds trust between members. If you personally reach out to members, identify problems they’re facing (both related to the community or not), and help these members solve their problems, they’re likely to repay the favor. This is the most reliable method of gaining influence.
- Expertise – Members listen to experts on their topic. If you add unique insight and value to every contribution you’re likely to be perceived as the expert. More members will be happy to listen to you. This is difficult to do consistently – but worth doing.
The rules highlighted above showcase how you personally can participate to gain influence within a community. This influence gives you the power to make positive things happen. If you want members to discuss a particular topic, you need to gain influence within the community.
