You’ve put a lot of effort into building your community. You’ve developed it to hundreds or thousands of members. Or you’ve created the perfect content strategy and your members appear to be enjoying the experience – however, something isn’t quite right. As your community expands and grows, its needs shift, and the platform that you initially employed to establish your online community might not be able to meet its requirements. What do to do when you realize it’s time to migrate your community’s online presence to a new platform?
In this article, we are going to explain some ways and tricks to help you migrate your online community.
Why should you migrate your online community?
Facebook is among the most popular social media platforms around the globe It’s not a surprise that numerous established networks continue to utilize it to host their communities. But, the emergence of the modern internet community often needs more specific features than Facebook like any social media platform is currently able to provide.
What are the disadvantages of using a website like Facebook?
Along with the absence of customized features and options for monetization, conventional social networks leave you a limited amount of control over your community’s future. Although a platform such as Facebook is not likely to go away entirely, its key features are frequently updated, however, there’s no assurance of what you’ll find on the platform from week to the following.
In contrast to community-building platforms, which offer white-label services, you’ll never really own your community’s or your own community’s data when it’s hosted by a platform like Facebook. This makes accessing and exporting members’ data virtually impossible.
To have complete control over the way your members interact with each other and maintain ownership over all the content produced by your community it is essential to control the core components within your organization in a manner that lets you gain access to your members, content as well as data.
Considering Facebook’s controversial practices regarding data security and practices, it’s easy to see the benefits of migrating your online community to a different platform.
What are the benefits of community-building platforms?
Online community-building platforms have numerous ways in which members of the community can interact in a personalized setting. Furthermore, many of the latest online community-building platforms manage their members’ data and establish their guidelines and safety measures.
With all the options it can be difficult to choose the right platform for your group. If you’re having trouble understanding the difference between them, make sure to check this article about the best way to migrate the most effective community platform for your business.
Deciding to migrate your online community over to the other platform is just the beginning. In the second, you’ll have to figure out a method to get your members to move with you. But, with careful thought, meticulous preparation, as well as clear and concise communication transferring your members, shouldn’t be that difficult.
How to migrate your online community
1. Do your community research
Before you choose the right platform, you need to choose the features your online community requires to flourish, establish an appropriate monthly budget and decide which community-building platforms meet your highest goals.
To assist you in finding the right platform to meet your requirements Here are some of the questions you can ask yourself:
- What features can help you build the online community you’d like to see?
- How can this platform enhance both the experience of the Community Managers and the members?
- Does this platform offer the features that your customers require?
- Does this platform permit users to export their information in a way that facilitates the transfer? If yes, what will it cost you?
Once you’ve discovered the advantages of an online community platform, you must discuss these benefits with your community members.
If your members know the reasons behind why you are moving your online community and the better chance they will be able to help your efforts throughout the process.
2. Be honest with members, and pay attention to their concerns
While you may be tempted to seek an online platform that can make your work as a community manager easier, however, you must also consider the needs of your fellow members. If they aren’t able to grasp the advantages of the platform it’s very difficult to persuade them to make the switch.
It is important to inform your members of your decision before you make it official so that you can discuss any concerns or feedback before the move. Involving members in the decision-making process makes them feel valued and likely to make decisions without friction.
One of the things you can do for better communication is to designate an individual point of contact members can contact with questions or concerns. If they feel like the communication channels are always open They will be less stressed by the relocation process in itself.
Being transparent and honest to your members or customers on the reasons you’ve decided to change your community is vital. It could be due to security concerns, costs, or inability to control the platform you’re currently using, stating the reasons behind your decision gives you the possibility of gaining additional feedback from your customers regarding how their experience might be improved.
After you’ve collected information through an open discussion It’s now simpler to determine the most effective community-building tool for your group.
3. Define what successful migration signifies to you
One of the most effective methods to determine if you’ve successfully migrated your online community is to establish the success you want to see in the future by setting clear goals with data to measure the progress.
A significant part of this process is researching the various indicators you’ll be able to use to assess your performance and the tools you’ll have to use to measure these metrics.
For certain Community managers, this might be as simple as keeping track of the number of members who have migrated to the new platform for community members. Others could be making use of analytical tools such as questionnaires, polls, or surveys to determine when, how, and why members have changed.
4. Plan and be prepared for likely problems
Migrating your online community over to a different platform isn’t an easy task there are a variety of issues you could consider in the process. For example, technical issues could be raised, and some members might be against the change or the new platform may have a different relationship with the existing community as you’d hoped.
Before you decide to migrate, it’s helpful to write down every possible issue that may be encountered during the migration process and an action plan to address these problems. What could you do to ensure that this does not happen? If they do happen, how can you limit the negative effects they could cause?
Spending a few minutes to think about this before you migrate to your online community will ensure that the transition goes much more smoothly for you and your fellow community members.
5. Create your online community to succeed
Before beginning the process of migrating you’ll want to ensure that everything is configured properly on the new platform. Begin setting the foundation for your community’s future make sure it’s appropriately identified and is comparable to the structure members are familiar with and simple to navigate.
You can then begin the process of migrating your existing content onto the brand new platform for online community building. It could be anything from user-generated content to pre-established subgroups. You must ensure that your members have access to the details they require to adapt to the new platform. They will likely continue where they were in the previous community.
Also Read: Best WordPress Migration Plugins 2022 To Migrate Your Website Safely
6. Be sure to monitor your previous community platform
To support your strategy for marketing you may have sought out other industry-related websites or published guest posts to advertise your business. Although they are excellent advertising tools for your business, they could quickly become obsolete if they connect to your old communities.
It is vital to regularly update these links frequently to ensure that every member is directed to the new community platform. Contacting websites and referrers will require a lot of time, so think about the possibility of incorporating a redirect link in your existing community to direct users to join the platform.
It’s crucial not to completely shut down your old community until you’re certain that you will not lose any members in the process. One of the drawbacks of switching to a different platform could be that some former members may not want to move. A few members may need to be reassured regarding the reason and method of making the decision. If you’re in a position to do so, take the time to talk to members on an individual basis, and answer any questions or concerns they might have, and then explain how this migration is beneficial to the community.
As we have mentioned before the importance of transparency in ensuring that your members are transparent. Giving them the date when you will shut down the old community and reminding your members of this date might encourage them to switch to the new platform earlier.
Also Read: How to Migrate WordPress MultiSite
7. Make use of the change to create a new marketing opportunity
Migrating to a different platform is also a good method of promoting your online community to prospective new members. It proves that being a community manager you’re always improving your community in response to the needs of your community and feedback from members.
While you could lose some members who aren’t ready to move onto the new platform, you’re likely to attract new members. Before you migrate be sure to announce the change via your social channels and on your monthly publication.
Give your reasons for switching to a new online community platform, and how it can help the community as a whole. Take the time for new users to be invited to participate in the new adventure.
Also Read: Want to Boost Your Website Conversions? Migrate to WordPress
BuddyX Theme for Building your Online Community
BuddyX is an advanced WordPress Online Community Theme that comes with amazing features to help to get started with a powerful membership site on WordPress. This theme helps to build your social online community websites using pre-built layouts features and processes without any coding knowledge or experience. This theme is easy to manage, fast loading, cross-browser compatible, mobile-friendly and is suitable for all types of communities website.
BuddyX WordPress social network theme for creating websites such as Facebook or private communities with a variety of niches. The theme is highly responsive and flexible for creating all kinds of social-oriented websites such as Social Marketplace and social learning websites that support WooCommerce, bbPress, WC Vendors, LearnDash, BuddyPress, and Elementor Page Builder.
Key Features
- Setup Sign-in Popup | Register Form Fields.
- How to create vertical menu?
- LearnPress Archive and Single Course Layout.
- How to Configuration LearnPress – Archive and Single Course Sidebar?
- How to Configuration WC Vendors Store Branding?
- Add WC Vendors Store Opening Hours and Store Social Media?
- WC Vendors Pro.
- Learndash Profile.
- How to Configuration Learndash Archives Course Page Sidebar?
- Learndash Single Course Layout.
- WooCommerce Product Styling.
- Site Top Bar Settings.
- BuddyPress Single Group Page Settings, Single Profile Page Settings, Group Directory Settings, Member Directory Settings, and BuddyPress Activity Page Loader.
Conclusion on Migrate Your Online Community
Each platform is unique however, some of the most popular community-building platforms have tools that make the transition to a different platform as simple as it can be.
Platforms such as BuddyX will help you navigate the process by providing an account manager who will ensure the smoothest setup to help you avoid any possible difficulties you might face in the process of migrating. When you migrate your online community to BuddyX and you are ready to invite your members to join by sending them an invitation email or adding their email addresses to BuddyX by uploading CSV files.
It will also ensure everyone in your community will be the chance to be part of your brand-new website-based platform for community interaction.
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