Resources
Resources
Welcome to your essential resource for mastering digital communities. We provide expert tips and strategies for successful online community management, covering everything from focused microsites to large network communities. Explore our posts to learn how to build, manage, and grow vibrant online spaces and effectively engage your members.
While online groups are powerful tools for collaboration, a "one-size-fits-all" approach doesn't capture their full potential. This blog explores five distinct models for success, revealing how public sector organisations use platforms like Knowledge Hub for more than just general discussion.
Discover how dedicated groups can be structured to support formal training programmes, manage complex multi-agency projects, create secure document stores, and facilitate agile working groups, allowing you to build an online space with a clear purpose that delivers real value to members and stakeholders.
Discover how dedicated groups can be structured to support formal training programmes, manage complex multi-agency projects, create secure document stores, and facilitate agile working groups, allowing you to build an online space with a clear purpose that delivers real value to members and stakeholders.
A successful online community of practice requires a strategic plan, and this comprehensive blog post serves as your complete guide to building one.
It walks you through every stage, from answering the 7 essential questions about your purpose and members to defining the pivotal role of the community manager and creating a robust content plan. You'll also learn how to avoid common pitfalls like poor facilitation and unrealistic expectations, and can use our detailed checklist to select the perfect technology platform to support your community's needs.
It walks you through every stage, from answering the 7 essential questions about your purpose and members to defining the pivotal role of the community manager and creating a robust content plan. You'll also learn how to avoid common pitfalls like poor facilitation and unrealistic expectations, and can use our detailed checklist to select the perfect technology platform to support your community's needs.
A pop-up online community is a powerful, temporary space designed to achieve a specific goal within a defined timeframe, making it a perfect, cost-effective solution for gathering quick feedback, supporting an event, or facilitating project collaboration.
This guide explores the entire lifecycle of a successful pop-up, from initial design based on duration and size, to planning your deliverables and the crucial final step: how to gracefully close the community while celebrating its successes and acknowledging member contributions.
This guide explores the entire lifecycle of a successful pop-up, from initial design based on duration and size, to planning your deliverables and the crucial final step: how to gracefully close the community while celebrating its successes and acknowledging member contributions.
A thriving online community is the result of a carefully planned process, not just a good idea. This essential guide walks you through the foundational questions you must answer before you launch, helping you to refine your purpose, identify tangible benefits for members, and realistically assess your available time and resources.
Learn how to define your scope, prepare engaging "magnet content," secure management support, and ensure you have enough potential members to create a group that gets off to a flying start and succeeds long-term.
Learn how to define your scope, prepare engaging "magnet content," secure management support, and ensure you have enough potential members to create a group that gets off to a flying start and succeeds long-term.
Building a Community of Practice (CoP) across multiple public sector organisations presents unique challenges, but Knowledge Hub is a platform designed specifically to support this vital cross-sector work.
This blog post explores the five key benefits of using the platform, detailing how it provides easy access to a full suite of collaborative tools to increase member engagement, foster powerful knowledge sharing, and create valuable networking opportunities—all in a way that is both cost-effective and time-efficient for your organisation.
This blog post explores the five key benefits of using the platform, detailing how it provides easy access to a full suite of collaborative tools to increase member engagement, foster powerful knowledge sharing, and create valuable networking opportunities—all in a way that is both cost-effective and time-efficient for your organisation.
Are you making the most of your online group? This practical guide provides a tour of the full suite of powerful collaboration tools on Knowledge Hub designed to help you move beyond the basics.
Discover how to use features like Polls for quick decision-making, the Library for real-time document collaboration, and the Wiki for building a shared knowledge base. Learn tips for leveraging Announcements, Events, Ideas, and more to boost participation, helping your members to connect, share, and work together more effectively.
Discover how to use features like Polls for quick decision-making, the Library for real-time document collaboration, and the Wiki for building a shared knowledge base. Learn tips for leveraging Announcements, Events, Ideas, and more to boost participation, helping your members to connect, share, and work together more effectively.
While traditional training methods can be expensive and inflexible, an online platform like Knowledge Hub offers a modern, effective way to deliver or support your programmes.
This guide explores the five key benefits of using the platform, showing how it provides a flexible, cost-effective solution that allows participants to learn at their own pace. Discover how its collaborative tools can increase engagement, provide valuable access to peer-to-peer expertise, and create a channel for gathering continuous feedback to improve your course over time.
This guide explores the five key benefits of using the platform, showing how it provides a flexible, cost-effective solution that allows participants to learn at their own pace. Discover how its collaborative tools can increase engagement, provide valuable access to peer-to-peer expertise, and create a channel for gathering continuous feedback to improve your course over time.
If you're looking to grow your online group and increase membership, your most powerful promotional tool is what your community is doing right now.
This blog post explores why focusing on the present is the key to building momentum, demonstrating immediate value, and attracting new members more effectively than talking about future plans. Discover practical tips on how to leverage your ongoing discussions, projects, and events into engaging promotional content using social media, existing networks, and content creation, showing potential members exactly what makes your community worth joining today.
This blog post explores why focusing on the present is the key to building momentum, demonstrating immediate value, and attracting new members more effectively than talking about future plans. Discover practical tips on how to leverage your ongoing discussions, projects, and events into engaging promotional content using social media, existing networks, and content creation, showing potential members exactly what makes your community worth joining today.
Managing and sharing documents across multiple public sector organisations can be challenging, but using a Knowledge Hub group as a central document store provides a secure, efficient, and accessible solution.
This guide explores the five key benefits of this approach, detailing how the platform provides easy access to files from anywhere, allows for better organisation through folders and tags, and facilitates real-time collaboration. Learn how you can take advantage of robust security with flexible permissions, all within a cost-effective framework that is free for public sector bodies.
This guide explores the five key benefits of this approach, detailing how the platform provides easy access to files from anywhere, allows for better organisation through folders and tags, and facilitates real-time collaboration. Learn how you can take advantage of robust security with flexible permissions, all within a cost-effective framework that is free for public sector bodies.
Managing a working or steering group across multiple public sector organisations presents unique challenges, but a dedicated online group provides a powerful solution to keep your team connected, aligned, and productive.
This blog post explores the five key benefits of using a platform like Knowledge Hub, detailing how a shared online space enhances real-time collaboration, streamlines knowledge sharing, and improves project management by giving everyone clear visibility of milestones and key documents. Learn how this approach fosters better teamwork and cohesion, ultimately leading to more effective decision-making and successful outcomes.
This blog post explores the five key benefits of using a platform like Knowledge Hub, detailing how a shared online space enhances real-time collaboration, streamlines knowledge sharing, and improves project management by giving everyone clear visibility of milestones and key documents. Learn how this approach fosters better teamwork and cohesion, ultimately leading to more effective decision-making and successful outcomes.
Engaging all members in an online group can be a challenge, but single-choice polls offer a simple, low-barrier solution for everyone to participate with a single click.
This blog post explains why polls are a "quick win" for boosting participation and provides ten ready-to-use examples you can implement today. Learn how to easily gather valuable feedback on everything from content preferences and meeting times to member motivations and satisfaction, allowing you to use these insights to make data-informed decisions that steer your community in the right direction.
This blog post explains why polls are a "quick win" for boosting participation and provides ten ready-to-use examples you can implement today. Learn how to easily gather valuable feedback on everything from content preferences and meeting times to member motivations and satisfaction, allowing you to use these insights to make data-informed decisions that steer your community in the right direction.
Managing a project that brings together teams from different public sector organisations can be complex, but a dedicated online space provides a powerful solution to keep everyone connected and collaborating effectively.
This guide explores the five key benefits of using a platform like Knowledge Hub to support your project, detailing how a centralised group can streamline communication, improve real-time collaboration on documents, and ensure seamless knowledge sharing. Discover how this approach can increase accountability with clear timelines and milestones, all while reducing the costs and time associated with unnecessary travel and meetings.
This guide explores the five key benefits of using a platform like Knowledge Hub to support your project, detailing how a centralised group can streamline communication, improve real-time collaboration on documents, and ensure seamless knowledge sharing. Discover how this approach can increase accountability with clear timelines and milestones, all while reducing the costs and time associated with unnecessary travel and meetings.
With over 2,000 groups on Knowledge Hub, finding the right space to connect with peers and collaborate can be transformative for your professional development, and this guide shows you exactly where to start.
Learn the step-by-step process to effectively search and filter for groups that match your interests, what to look for when deciding which ones to join, and the crucial first actions to take after becoming a member to ensure you get the most out of your experience.
Learn the step-by-step process to effectively search and filter for groups that match your interests, what to look for when deciding which ones to join, and the crucial first actions to take after becoming a member to ensure you get the most out of your experience.
While building a thriving online community takes consistent effort, sparking conversations can be achieved with simple, effective tactics. This guide explores five easy-to-implement ideas to get your members talking and boost engagement.
Learn how to strategically use @mentions to draw people into discussions, host informal virtual events like "community coffee breaks" to build relationships, and facilitate "Ask Me Anything" (AMA) sessions in your discussion forum to foster a more vibrant and collaborative community.
Learn how to strategically use @mentions to draw people into discussions, host informal virtual events like "community coffee breaks" to build relationships, and facilitate "Ask Me Anything" (AMA) sessions in your discussion forum to foster a more vibrant and collaborative community.
Position your online community as a thought leader with strategic content curation—finding the best information on your topic and adding your own insightful commentary.
This guide explores how to develop a clever curation strategy that cuts through the noise, providing five practical ways to find valuable content, from setting up alerts to crowdsourcing ideas. Learn how to nurture key relationships with experts and involve your members in the process to build a reputation for trusted insight and become the go-to source in your field.
This guide explores how to develop a clever curation strategy that cuts through the noise, providing five practical ways to find valuable content, from setting up alerts to crowdsourcing ideas. Learn how to nurture key relationships with experts and involve your members in the process to build a reputation for trusted insight and become the go-to source in your field.
As a community manager, crafting a newsletter that cuts through the noise and gets read can be a significant challenge. This guide provides seven simple, proven strategies to help you write messages that your members will actually want to open.
Learn the art of writing attention-grabbing subject lines, the importance of a consistent schedule, and how to use storytelling and genuine value to connect with your audience. Discover how to demonstrate your community's impact and turn your regular updates into a must-read that boosts member engagement.
Learn the art of writing attention-grabbing subject lines, the importance of a consistent schedule, and how to use storytelling and genuine value to connect with your audience. Discover how to demonstrate your community's impact and turn your regular updates into a must-read that boosts member engagement.
While it can be tempting to launch a new online group on your own, a solo approach can quickly lead to burnout.
This blog post explains why starting with a team of at least three facilitators is crucial for success, detailing the key benefits of this approach, including the ability to share the workload, bring diverse voices to your community, and ensure a consistent, timely response for your members. Discover the common pitfalls of going it alone and get practical tips on how to make a multi-facilitator team work effectively together to build a thriving community.
This blog post explains why starting with a team of at least three facilitators is crucial for success, detailing the key benefits of this approach, including the ability to share the workload, bring diverse voices to your community, and ensure a consistent, timely response for your members. Discover the common pitfalls of going it alone and get practical tips on how to make a multi-facilitator team work effectively together to build a thriving community.
Position your online community as a thought leader with strategic content curation—finding the best information on your topic and adding your own insightful commentary.
This guide explores how to develop a clever curation strategy that cuts through the noise, providing five practical ways to find valuable content, from setting up alerts to crowdsourcing ideas. Learn how to nurture key relationships with experts and involve your members in the process to build a reputation for trusted insight and become the go-to source in your field.
To create a content plan that keeps your community engaged, use the "Wants and Offers" exercise to directly align your strategy with your members' needs and expertise.
This guide provides a step-by-step process for gathering valuable input, identifying what your members want to learn and what they can offer each other in terms of experience and resources. By matching these wants and offers, you can generate quick wins and build a sustainable action plan that ensures your content is always relevant, valuable, and keeps your community coming back for more.
This guide provides a step-by-step process for gathering valuable input, identifying what your members want to learn and what they can offer each other in terms of experience and resources. By matching these wants and offers, you can generate quick wins and build a sustainable action plan that ensures your content is always relevant, valuable, and keeps your community coming back for more.
To help answer the critical question of how to measure the success and impact of an online community, Historic England and Placecube have collaborated to create the "Online Community of Practice Review Toolkit."
This post unveils the story behind the toolkit's creation, detailing how it was developed and tested with three diverse pilot communities from the heritage sector. Discover the key findings from these real-world reviews and get an overview of the comprehensive, step-by-step process and templates included in the toolkit to help you understand your community's performance, gather valuable member feedback, and plan for future success.
This post unveils the story behind the toolkit's creation, detailing how it was developed and tested with three diverse pilot communities from the heritage sector. Discover the key findings from these real-world reviews and get an overview of the comprehensive, step-by-step process and templates included in the toolkit to help you understand your community's performance, gather valuable member feedback, and plan for future success.
Many online communities experience a significant drop in engagement after their initial launch—a challenging phase known as the "Trough of Sorrow."
This guide provides a clear roadmap to take your group from this slump to success by exploring why communities often struggle and identifying the common pitfalls to avoid. Learn actionable strategies for recovery, from simple revitalization tactics to conducting a thorough community review, to help you diagnose the issues and get your community back on track for long-term, vibrant activity.
This guide provides a clear roadmap to take your group from this slump to success by exploring why communities often struggle and identifying the common pitfalls to avoid. Learn actionable strategies for recovery, from simple revitalization tactics to conducting a thorough community review, to help you diagnose the issues and get your community back on track for long-term, vibrant activity.
If you've just launched a new online community and are wondering what comes next, this guide provides three simple, essential first steps to build a solid foundation for long-term engagement.
Learn why it's crucial to start by observing other successful communities, how to properly introduce yourself to set the right tone for your members, and the best way to begin building your resource library strategically over time, rather than all at once.
Learn why it's crucial to start by observing other successful communities, how to properly introduce yourself to set the right tone for your members, and the best way to begin building your resource library strategically over time, rather than all at once.
If you've just launched a new online community and are wondering what comes next, this guide provides three simple, essential first steps to build a solid foundation for long-term engagement.
Learn why it's crucial to start by observing other successful communities, how to properly introduce yourself to set the right tone for your members, and the best way to begin building your resource library strategically over time, rather than all at once.
Learn why it's crucial to start by observing other successful communities, how to properly introduce yourself to set the right tone for your members, and the best way to begin building your resource library strategically over time, rather than all at once.
As a community manager, consistently delivering high-quality content is a monumental task, but collaborating with Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) can transform your strategy and establish your community as a thought leader.
This guide explores why SMEs are essential for ensuring your content is accurate, credible, and perfectly aligned with your members' needs. Learn how their involvement enhances content quality and get practical tips on how to identify, engage, and work with these experts to create compelling articles, discussions, and events that will set your community apart.
This guide explores why SMEs are essential for ensuring your content is accurate, credible, and perfectly aligned with your members' needs. Learn how their involvement enhances content quality and get practical tips on how to identify, engage, and work with these experts to create compelling articles, discussions, and events that will set your community apart.
Finding new ways to connect with your audience is crucial. A Knowledge Hub microsite presents a powerful and cost-effective solution: a mini, specialised website designed to spotlight a specific campaign, project, or topic for a targeted audience.
Unlike a traditional website, a microsite offers focused messaging and interactive features to boost engagement and increase online visibility, all within a secure, easy-to-manage platform. To discover how this tool differs from other online platforms and explore six key benefits that could transform your online presence, read our full blog post.
Unlike a traditional website, a microsite offers focused messaging and interactive features to boost engagement and increase online visibility, all within a secure, easy-to-manage platform. To discover how this tool differs from other online platforms and explore six key benefits that could transform your online presence, read our full blog post.
For public sector organisations looking to enhance their online presence and connect effectively with specific audiences, a microsite can be a game-changing tool. These focused, mini-websites offer a powerful and cost-effective way to launch new services, promote important events, and deliver tailored messaging directly to the people you need to reach.
If you're looking for a strategy to cut through the noise and achieve your communication goals without the expense and complexity of a full website overhaul, this approach is for you.
If you're looking for a strategy to cut through the noise and achieve your communication goals without the expense and complexity of a full website overhaul, this approach is for you.
Before diving into design, ensure your new microsite is set up for success by laying the proper groundwork with a clear and well-defined concept.
This guide breaks down the essential planning process into four manageable steps, showing you how to choose a focused topic, create a detailed profile of your target audience, and set specific S.M.A.R.T. goals. Explore different types of existing microsites to find inspiration and clarify your vision, ensuring you build a solid foundation before you start development.
This guide breaks down the essential planning process into four manageable steps, showing you how to choose a focused topic, create a detailed profile of your target audience, and set specific S.M.A.R.T. goals. Explore different types of existing microsites to find inspiration and clarify your vision, ensuring you build a solid foundation before you start development.
This blog post provides a practical guide to the entire creation process. We walk you through the essential information needed for the initial technical set-up, from logos and colour palettes to page structures.
Discover key considerations for designing your microsite's navigation, functionality, and branding, and get tips on how to plan and create compelling content with your team. This is your complete roadmap from concept to launch.
Launching your Knowledge Hub microsite is just the beginning, as a solid, ongoing management strategy is essential for achieving long-term success.
This guide shares the best practices for managing your microsite effectively, covering how to choose the right interactive elements, develop a sustainable content strategy, and optimise your site for search engines (SEO) to increase visibility. You will also learn how to measure success by tracking key metrics and how to promote your microsite to ensure it always reaches the right audience.
This guide shares the best practices for managing your microsite effectively, covering how to choose the right interactive elements, develop a sustainable content strategy, and optimise your site for search engines (SEO) to increase visibility. You will also learn how to measure success by tracking key metrics and how to promote your microsite to ensure it always reaches the right audience.
To ensure your microsite delivers the best possible results, you need to implement proactive strategies that drive traffic and engage your audience long after the initial launch.
This guide shares five essential tips, showing you how to create a valuable content plan, leverage social media, and partner with influencers to expand your reach. You will also learn the technical essentials, including how to optimise your site for mobile users and use analytics to track performance and make data-driven improvements for guaranteed success.
This guide shares five essential tips, showing you how to create a valuable content plan, leverage social media, and partner with influencers to expand your reach. You will also learn the technical essentials, including how to optimise your site for mobile users and use analytics to track performance and make data-driven improvements for guaranteed success.