Creating an online community is hugely rewarding, but ambitious. It’s a little like trying to light a fire – you must keep adding kindling as you go so it doesn’t peter out. The inception stage is particularly critical; no community website is born a roaring success. You must carefully and continually fuel discussions that will breed participation, before they take off on their own.
A steady supply of exclusive content is how you’ll provide value and earn loyal visitors. But continually producing new content is time-consuming. Through content curation, you can reduce the amount of content you need to create while still meeting the expectations of your emerging community. In this way, you can establish yourself as a trusted authority – and become more aware of developments in your industry along the way.