DEWALT, a power tool company, saved $6 million in research costs by launching an online community.

Also in 2012, the University of Michigan looked at the relationship between online communities and sales. It found that customers spent 19% more after becoming members of a brand's online community.

So how do you maximize this trend? This article will give you insight into the platforms you need to build a robust online community.

What Is an Online Community

Photo by Chris Montgomery on Unsplash

An online community is a group of people who use the internet to share views, ideas, thoughts, and information about the same topical issues or interests. It's also called a virtual community.

Here are a few advantages to starting or joining an online community for your business or personal brand:

• You can build a strong network of like-minded individuals

• You can spread your ideas and grow your business

• It can provide an invaluable source of feedback on the services and products you offer

Now let's dive into some internet-based communities to set up your own virtual community.

1. Circle: Easiest Platform for Building Communities

If you want to set up a community without the need to monetize it, then Circle is your choice. It lets content creators discuss, connect, share private messages, and moderate posts.

Also, you can allow specific individuals to have exclusive discussions by creating private Spaces.

Circle is an easy-to-use online platform because of its user-friendly interface. Your members can find it easy to move from one community board to another. They can also participate in private and group discussions.

An iOS app is available for members to download from the Apple Store.

Key Features

• Integration of your community with your website, product, online tutorials, or membership

• Nifty, advanced interface design

• Organize community talks in public or private spaces

• Direct messaging, rich posts, and member profiles

• White-labeled community experience

• Community moderation is automated

• Supports Single Sign-On (SSO)

2. Disciple: Most Effective for Monetizing Content

Disciple is the perfect online community if you want to make money through advertisements and sponsorships. You can direct traffic from the online community platform to your landing pages and can create and share sponsored posts with others.

Another practical way to make more money on this platform is through premium subscriptions. You can offer members exclusive spots by asking them to subscribe.

One brilliant thing about the option is that you can use freemium and free trials to let the members test the waters. In-app purchases and paid app downloads on iOS and Android apps let your creators generate extra money. 

They also enable you to limit access to specific community sections for premium members.

Key Features

• Use targeted push notifications to connect with audiences

• Monitor crucial engagement metrics

• Live video streaming for your entire community

• Tools to moderate posts and comments

• Threaded comments

• Create polls

• Schedule countless posts

3. Mighty Networks: An All-inclusive Community Platform

Mighty Networks is excellent if you want an all-around community platform. You can showcase your digital assets, such as tutorials and sales pages, on the forum.

Keep your members engaged through chat messages, subgroups, activity feeds, and member categories. Content creators can make videos and embed images and sound files to liven up their discussions. Polls, posts, questions, and comments improve community engagement.

It’s available on Android, iOS, and the web.

Key Features

• Personalized activity feeds for community members

• Direct messaging

• Make it a public, private, or paid community

• Analytics

• Custom domain

• Integrates with Zapier for workflow automation

• Members can subscribe

• Members can search by topics or articles

4. BuddyBoss: WordPress' Best Community Platform

It's a WordPress-based plugin that lets you turn your dashboard into a platform. BuddyBoss empowers community members to hold discussions through private and group messaging.

Also, you can create social groups, sub-groups, customized activity feeds, and social posts.

Need to host live events on Zoom? You can do that with the plugin. Here are more benefits of BuddyBoss:

• It works well with WordPress-based learning management systems (LMS), such as LifterLMS and LearnDash

• You can sell online courses and issue certificates through these integrations

With BuddyBoss, you can spice up the discussion by creating your own branded mobile app on the platform. Community members can get the app on their Google Play and Apple Store accounts.

Key Features

• Create events for everyone or specific group members

• Set up and manage custom file extensions

• Keep your documents and social group documents private

• Fully compatible with WordPress

• Customizable email API

• Members can share different file formats.

5. Vanilla Forums: Community Platform with the Most Maturity

Vanilla Forums is a cloud-based community and open-source platform. However, it has paid plans that offer more features.

You can post questions and polls and turn them on and off on your Admin dashboard. It’s also possible to embed images and videos to breathe life into the discussions.

Key Features

• Can match your brand guidelines with themes

• Gamification system

• Moderation system (merge, edit, delete, demerit points, banning)

• Question and answer system

• Events (scheduling, sharing, discovery, and RSVP capability)

• Groups or sub-communities

• Social login and SSO

6. Tribe: Top Brand Promotion Platform

Tribe is your ideal choice to create a customized brand through layout colors, widgets, logos, and a domain. You can manage your virtual community as a branded website on web browsers and mobile devices or as a Progressive Web App (PWA).

The PWA option lets you create a website that looks and functions like a native mobile app. But users don’t have to download and install anything from the app store. This provides a seamless experience for users and a more affordable solution for your business.

One pro of Tribe is that it lets you mimic social media platforms like LinkedIn and Facebook.

Community members can log in with their social media accounts, such as Slack, Google, Facebook, and LinkedIn. You can motivate your members to be active in the community via membership points, virtual currencies, leaderboards, and viral currencies.

Key Features

• Single sign-on and social login

• Customize in real-time with a user-friendly interface

• White-labeling

• Custom domain

• Set up public and private communities

• Reach members through omnichannel notifications

7. Discourse: A Great Open-Source Platform for Communities

It's an open-source platform that lets you customize communities and manage discussions by adding moderators and administrators. You can create and organize topics and threads.

Discourse makes it easy for members to find topics they like, as the platform can organize discussions based on their categories. Content creators can also send messages to their peers, share content, and make comments. 

You can also fend off trolls and spammers through Discourse's internal defense system. The app’s security can flag any unusual activity and help you moderate content.

Key Features

• Summarize long topics into the most entertaining and popular posts

• Built-in Akismet spam protection and heuristics

• Add standard social logins, such as Facebook, Google, and Twitter

• Community members can get custom badges

• Full API

• 100% open-source code

Build Your Online Community Today

You can set up your online community to establish long-term relationships with your audience. Online communities provide a platform to connect with like-minded individuals, spread ideas, and receive valuable feedback on products and services.

You can leverage the benefits of customer engagement and increased sales.