Does Your Community Need an Online Space of Its Own?

You don’t need a formal membership platform to have a community.

It may have developed around your clients, a course, regular events, an email list, a networking group or conversations happening across social media.

In the beginning, managing everything through a mixture of emails, shared documents, social media groups and individual messages may work perfectly well. But as more people get involved and the amount of information grows, keeping everything connected can become harder than it needs to be.

If information is scattered, onboarding depends entirely on you or useful conversations keep disappearing, your community may be ready for a dedicated online space.

What is an online community space?

An online community space gives members one central place to access the information, resources and activities connected to your community.

Depending on what you offer, that could include:

• Welcome information and onboarding
• Downloadable resources
• Courses or training materials
• Event details and booking links
• Recorded sessions
• News and announcements
• Discussion areas
• Member directories
• Paid or restricted content

It doesn’t necessarily need to be a completely separate platform. It could be a member area added to your existing website, a community created through an established platform such as Wix or Kajabi, or something built more specifically around the way your community works.

The important thing is that it makes life easier for both you and your members.

Three signs your community may need a proper home

1. Information is spread across different places

Resources are stored in one system, event details are shared somewhere else and important links regularly have to be sent out again.

Your members may not know where to look, while you or your team spend time repeatedly answering the same questions and directing people towards the right information.

Bringing everything into one clear member space makes it easier for people to find what they need without always having to ask you. It can also reduce the risk of useful content being missed simply because it was shared in the wrong place or at the wrong time.

2. Every new member relies on you to get started

Perhaps you manually send welcome emails, create individual logins, share links and explain how everything works whenever somebody joins.

That personal contact can still be valuable, but the entire onboarding process shouldn’t have to depend on you being available.

A member portal can provide a more consistent starting point. New members can be guided through the important information, introduced to the community and shown where to find the resources or activities available to them.

You can still add the personal touches that matter without having to recreate the whole process each time.

3. Useful content and conversations keep disappearing

Communities generate a lot of valuable information. Members ask questions, share experiences, recommend resources and contribute ideas.

When those conversations happen entirely through social media feeds, emails or message threads, they can quickly become difficult to find again. The same topics may keep coming up because people can’t see what has already been discussed.

A dedicated community space gives you the opportunity to organise useful content and make it easier to revisit. Over time, it can become a valuable resource in its own right rather than a collection of conversations that continually disappear.

Start with your members, not the platform

It can be tempting to begin by comparing platforms and features, but the first question shouldn’t be, “Which platform should we use?”

It should be, “What do our members need to be able to do?”

For example:

• Do they need to access resources or complete a course?
• Will they be booking events?
• Do you want members to be able to speak to one another?
• Will some content only be available to paying members?
• Do you need to share recordings or regular updates?
• Will different members need access to different information?
• Who will add content and keep everything up to date?

Once those requirements are clear, it becomes much easier to choose the right approach.

It also helps prevent you from paying for a complicated system filled with features your community will never use.

What type of community platform might you need?

There isn’t one platform that will suit every community. The right option depends on what you need the space to do, how much it is likely to grow and who will manage it.

A member area within your existing website

Adding a member area to your current website may be enough if you want to keep everything in one place and provide access to resources, events, updates or private content.

For example, Wix can be used to create branded member portals with gated resources, courses, events, discussion areas and paid membership options.

This can be a practical choice when your website is already central to the way people interact with your business.

An established course or membership platform

A platform such as Kajabi may be appropriate if courses, subscriptions or structured learning are central to the community.

Using an established platform can give you many of the features you need without building everything from scratch. However, it is still important to check that the platform fits the experience you want to create, rather than choosing it simply because it has the longest feature list.

A more bespoke solution

A more bespoke space may be worth considering if your community has unusual requirements, different types of members, more complex access arrangements or needs to connect with other business systems.

This can provide greater flexibility, but it also requires more planning. You need to be clear about what the bespoke functionality will achieve and how the space will be maintained once it is live.

Does every community need a dedicated platform?

No.

If your community is relatively small, centred around occasional events or doesn’t need to share much ongoing content, email and social media may still provide everything you need.

Creating a platform because it feels like the next thing you “should” do can result in another system that needs to be updated without adding much value for members.

The right time to create a dedicated space is when it solves a clear problem or makes the member experience noticeably better.

Creating the space is only the beginning

A well-designed platform provides the foundations, but it won’t run the community for you.

Someone still needs to:

• Welcome new members
• Answer questions
• Update resources
• Organise events
• Share information
• Encourage participation
• Create content
• Promote the community
• Follow up with people who have shown an interest

This is why community support often involves several different skills. There is the technical and creative work needed to build the space, the practical administration that keeps it running and the communication and outreach that keep people involved.

How MFA can help

Community support is something we’ve been involved in through MFA for years, even if we haven’t always grouped all of that work under one heading. We begin by understanding what you are trying to create, what your members need and where the current setup is causing extra work.

From there, we can help with three different stages:

Create

We can help you choose and create the right online home for your community, from branded Wix member portals and gated resources to courses, events, discussion areas, paid memberships and more bespoke solutions.

Run

We can support the practical work behind the community, including member onboarding, administration, communications, event coordination and keeping information up to date.

Engage

We can help with content, social media, targeted outreach, messages and follow-up, so you’re not relying entirely on the right people happening to find you. Rather than expecting one person to cover every part of the work, MFA can bring together people with the different skills your community needs. You may need help with one particular area or a combination of all three.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need a dedicated platform for my community?

Not necessarily. A dedicated space is most useful when it solves a specific problem, such as scattered information, repetitive onboarding or valuable resources becoming difficult to find.

Can I add a community or member portal to my existing website?

In many cases, yes. Platforms such as Wix can be used to add member access, gated content, courses, events, discussions and paid membership options to a website. The right setup will depend on what you want members to be able to access and do.

Should I choose the platform before planning the content?

It is usually better to define the member experience first. Think about the resources, activities, access levels and interactions your community needs before deciding which platform can deliver them.

Who will manage the community once it has been created?

That is an important part of the planning process. Someone will need to manage members, update content, respond to questions and keep activity moving. MFA can help with both the initial setup and the ongoing work.

Ready to give your community a proper home?

If you’re considering creating an online space for your community - or your current setup is becoming difficult to manage - book a conversation with us.

We can help you clarify what your members need, choose the right type of platform and identify which parts of the setup or ongoing management you’d like support with.