Online community management software creates a digital space to engage, host, and manage an online community. In an online community, members can discuss their thoughts and ideas around shared interests.
Businesses use online community management platforms to create a centralized digital space for productive discussions with their employees or customers and to gain feedback on ideas, products, or services. As a result, companies can address support issues, measure satisfaction, track activity, build stronger relationships with community members, and ultimately gain strategic insights to improve community engagement.
Online community management platforms are used across several industries and departments to support specific business goals for employees and customers. Whether it’s customer support, marketing, or product development, there are many cross-organization benefits from online communities. These tools often integrate with CMS tools to share, store, and manage digital content and help desk software to provide community members with FAQ, Q and A tools, and minor troubleshooting solutions.
Community management software is typically a website-compatible community platform that is easily hosted on a desktop but can also offer a branded mobile app version that is easier for mobile users to engage and stay connected.
To qualify for inclusion in the Online Community Management category, a product must:
- Provide a digital platform or forum to host community discussion and peer-to-peer communication
- Track community member activity with dashboards and analytics that measure engagement, satisfaction, or trending content and discussions
- Provide a library of resources to share information and documentation internally and a content management center
- Provide a member directory and CRM features to manage members in one place
