What constitutes safety in online spaces and how do you create them?

You may have heard that it's important to create safe online spaces so that members of your community feel comfortable sharing their ideas with each other.

In this video, I share the three levels of safety you must think about when building your online community along with 7 ways to create virtual safe spaces in your online community.

Read on for a summary of all seven tips.

Does your community platform seem trustworthy?

TIP #1 The first step to creating a safe online space for your community is to make sure your technology, the platform on which your community has been based, is trustworthy. Answer these key questions:

1. Does your online community have a security certificate?

2. Does the signup page provide a smooth experience?

3. Is the design of the space welcoming, consistent and easy to navigate?

4. Does the platform showcase an inviting, contemporary design that has been invested in and tested?

The number one reason online communities aren't used or adopted is that the technology is in some way signaling your potential members that something is wrong. Something as basic as a missing site certificate can erode trust before a prospective member even decides to sign up.

Are you being abundantly clear about how content will be used in your online community?

TIP #2 If you're a company creating a product or service and have created a community to glean customer information or to get ideas for new products or services, you need to say when, how, and why you might use this data.

Organizations that try to hide, or who seem to be hiding, their reasons for running an online community will struggle at gaining trust.

Disclosures that could affect trust should ideally appear during the community signup process and should always be easy to find in the global footer or the About section of your website. For example, is your pharmaceuticals company’s online community going to gather data from members to create new products? It’s far better to disclose that in advance, rather than your members finding out in a roundabout way.

Do you regularly communicate the community purpose to members?

TIP #3 In addition to communicating how a member’s personal information may be used upfront in registration and linking to it in the about section, you need to do more. You need to explain the purpose of the online community, clearly, frequently, and personally.

Remind your members that you, as a representative of your organization, are a regular participant in the community. As a community manager, remind members frequently about why you're there. Remind them of the purpose you had for starting the community in the first place. It's a good idea to explain what's in it for you as well as for them and how those interests coincide.

If you don’t take this step, members may begin to make assumptions about your intentions that aren’t true. And if you don’t explain what’s in it for them to belong and to participate, they may make assumptions about the purpose of the community that you never intended.

By explaining why the community is important, you’ll be reassuring members that they made the right decision to join. You may even inspire them with the confidence to make unique contributions that will strengthen the community.

Are you creating a place that welcomes opinions and ideas?

TIP #4 Once you've addressed the issues of trust with the platform and your own reason for running a community, it's time to work on ensuring that members feel like their ideas, opinions, and contributions are welcome.

Do this first of all by fostering introductions and networking to help members see that there are people "just like me" in the community.

Your community should also include an easily visible statement about welcoming diverse opinions and ideas. You should also back that up by dedicating online spaces to those discussions that are of interest or concern to your members.

When members join your community, they probably bought into whatever description you provided for them on the landing page and registration area. Once those members have joined the community, you have another opportunity to assure them that their decision to register was the right thing to do by personally greeting them and by offering to introduce them to others with similar interests, challenges, or ideas.

This onboarding process should be described in your community charter, a document that records your plan for launching and running the community.

Do you praise members who exemplify how best to participate?

TIP #5 As your community takes root and begins to grow, you'll start to see who your star contributors are.

Are you taking every opportunity to praise contributors for exemplifying the best of what the community is about? It is much more powerful for you to show members what a good post looks like by holding up models rather than just telling members what you'd like to see.

Praise for star contributors may take many shapes:

• A curated top contributor list indicating “who to follow” in the community

• A weekly forum post rounding up the week’s top contributions and describing what makes them awesome

• A blog post with the bio of a star contributor. Ask them to answer 5 questions about why they love your community

• A mention in your e-newsletter spotlighting the star contributor

• A special badge (or NFT) that can be awarded to community members who meet published criteria for “star contributor” status

Have you created small groups where new members feel safer sharing?

TIP #6 It can be intimidating to step into a brand new online community and make a first contribution. Very few people are comfortable doing this.

Instead, try to group newcomers or individuals with strong like interests in small groups where it's less intimidating to make that first post. Small groups may be formed around members all being from a similar geographical location, sharing the same profession, facing the same situation, or holding similar beliefs.

Small groups tend to perform best if one or two members of the group are already well acquainted with how your community works.

Small groups are also particularly useful in emphasizing your group’s commitment to diversity, inclusivity, and equity. Small groups can help ensure that individuals who often feel marginalized or ignored have a welcoming and nurturing space where they can express themselves and gain confidence before posting in more public areas.

Ideally, if you can identify a highly active member or community ambassador to facilitate the group, it’s going to give you a leg up and protect your community managers from burning out.

These facilitators can break the ice by modeling how members can go about introducing themselves. They can introduce members with similar needs or situations.

In short, they act the part of a junior community manager and may require some coaching or extra help from you to be a success.

Do you tolerate posts that may offend your personal sensibilities?

TIP #7 It's easy to be anxious about posts that seem to rub members (or you, the community manager) in the wrong way.

Try to remember that it's okay to attack ideas but not people.

Controversial, even curmudgeonly opinions may seem abrasive, but they may catalyze great conversations or even galvanize a sense of belonging. Before you delete that post, consider the good that it may do you!

One way to keep yourself honest about these reactions is to ensure that your community members have an active hand in co-creating policies for community discourse. You and your organization will have to be the ultimate judges of what goes, but including your members and getting them to speak up about what is acceptable conversation, what’s out of bounds, and how issues will be resolved is a great way to demonstrate, openness and inclusivity.

Conclusion

Helping new and existing members of your community feel safe requires more than one approach. Think about all three levels of safety when designing your community experience.

The technology platform must make members feel safe. First of all, make sure that your platform, the technology itself up on which your community is built, inspires trust. If your prospective members do not feel safe, they will never take the next step of joining and contributing, wondering whether their login data or credit card information will be compromised because of a poorly designed site.

Your organization must make members feel safe. Second, ensure that you’re being as transparent as possible about your motivations so that you are helping members to trust you and feel safe contributing in a community where their information is not going to be used to bad purpose.

Your members must feel safe with each other. Finally, do all you can as a community manager to help members feel trust for each other. You do this by helping members to see that there are others like them here and by grouping newcomers together so that they do not feel overwhelmed by the new digital experience.

If you’re looking for guidance setting up safe spaces for your online group, contact me to schedule a free consultation.