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Online community building require planning all your activities much before you launch it on the web. Here is the list of 8 questions you should answer before you actually start building a community::

(1)Who is responsible for managing the community. One person who has ultimate authority for managing your online community. Pick this person before you launch. What are the limits of their authority. What can/can’t they do without you? What are their responsibilities and deliverables?

(2)The first people that you’re going to approach. Building an online community needs a very focussed approach. So before you venture into any such project, have a clear target audience profile. You should know their demographics, habits and attitudes. You should have a list of people, but start with the best 20 to 50 consumers to join in the beginning

(3)What you’re going to tell them. Based upon your research, you should know what you’re going to tell a member that will get them to join. We believe it is best to draw up a plan for publishing content according to a table -of -contents and in a timely fashion.

(4)How you will convert newcomers into regulars. What will members do in your community for the first few weeks? You need a clear process that will take a newcomer to the community past the usual 3-week mark into a regular. This means a combination of constant prods asking for opinions/recommendations etc.

(6)How you will grow the community. Will you continue to use direct invites? Will you use referrals? If so what will you do to gain those referrals? Will you go for promotion/mentions in top media outlets. If so, what will you tell them to get those mentions? In our opinion, it is better to grow physician communities via referrals and recruiting health consumers via direct invitation, social media marketing and Google adwords.

(7)What platform you will use. Hot topic, but what platform will you use for your community (should be very clear about why). The default should be forums/mailing list/newsgroups until you outgrow it.

(8)What you are measuring. What metrics matter to you? This should also include how you will react to these metrics. How will these metrics change your actions?
(via Feverbee)


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Despite all the debate about the many differentiating feature of health communities, they are at their core like any other online community. And growing a health community faces almost the same challenges as growing  any other non-specialist communities.

Feverbee is a good source of gyan for building online communities. Created by Richard Millington, it is overflowing with solid practical advice in building vibrant online communities. We have taken one of their recent posts and edited it to answer our own question.

How to Kick Start a passive Health Community? 6 questions which will enthuse activity in your community forum and encourage people to share:

(1) What is your average day like? People love to talk about themselves winning over their arthritis/ diabetes/ whatever. Ask them what their average day is like and they’ll tell you. They’ll also compare it with anyone else that answers.

(2) This question can be difficult to monitor/ balance but will surely get you a lot of traffic. Can anyone recommend ( a healthcare service provider, source of information, treatment strategy which worked for you)…..? People like to be helpful and show off knowledge. Asking for recommendations will solicit knowledge and engagement from users. Another variant of this is Who/What are your top 5 …………… ? Ranking is addictive. Ask people to rank their top 5 anything and then try to create an overall ranking based upon the community.

(3) What is the worst thing that has ever happened to you whilst you have been unwell….. ? Self explanatory. Let members share their stories. It’ll almost certainly boost activity and return visits. Members will slowly get to know and like each other.

(4) Has anyone tried…………….. ? Again, has anyone is all-encompassing and people are likely to share their experiences.

(5) What would you do if ……. ? Create a hypothetical situation, perhaps a problem lots of people face, and ask members what they would do. Life problems work well here.

(6) What should every newcomer know about ….? Well, what should every newcomer know about something relevant in your community? It’s great and much needed advice – perfect for a sticky-thread. 

PS: We recommend an Editorial board of independent experts for every health community.  Plus, Always let users flag content as spam or promotional. Contact info@digmed.in for help in creating health communities targeting physicians/ health consumers in India.