Blaise Grimes-Viort

No, I’m not advocating drug use. When your community isn’t performing as you expect or is slowly falling into inactivity, it can be a dispiriting and depressing experience, especially when there aren’t any obvious signs of why it is failing.

The answer to your community’s problems lies within the building block for a beautiful garden; grass. How a gardener assesses and reacts to the condition of his lawn can guide you as an Online Community Manager.

Get on your knees

The first step is to check on the state of your community. Just like the gardener, metaphorically get down on your knees, without worrying about the looks you might get from your neighbour looking over the fence. Look very closely at your grass, or in other words the strands of activity growing from your community. You will easily see some parts of it curling up and browning on the edges through inactivity or poor relationships between users. This process lets you identify the sections of your community you need to prune or cut back to allow for renewed growth.

Prune dying areas

Like the gardener moving his lawn, don’t be scared to cull un-performing areas, whether it is an underused forum or redundant tools. Communities, like grass , grow from the roots; as long as you ensure your core community of participants is well tended, you will see regrowth in new areas you haven’t considered to provide yet. You can find out what these might be by asking your community what they need or would like, or analyse your metrics to identify areas of potential experimentation.

Fertilise and water

Make sure to fertilise your new additions through some robust hosting and enlisting the support of your users. Then continue to nurture all parts of your online community in the same way that gardeners water grass; using a sprinkler ensures a higher likelihood of equal growth across the entire lawn. Some of your experiments may surprise you with unexpected success but you will also continue to promote healthiness in the rest of your virtual garden.

Remember, grass always grows from the roots deep in the earth. Regardless of how regularly you cut it, it will always regrow as long as you take care of its foundations.

Can you think of any other similarities between Gardening and Online Community Management?

[photo by meddygarnet]