Over the last couple of months we have been doing a deep dive into what makes our most engaged communities so successful. The new analytics dashboard reveals some surprising insights about what these communities have in common. Interviews with community leaders helped us unpack the strategies and techniques they put in place to get such high engagement. The good news is that it’s not that difficult to replicate. You can get the same results in your community if you put the following strategies into practice.

1) Onboarding

The most important place to start and is true across all of the most engaged communities is that their community leaders have doubled down on onboarding all of their residents. Community leaders run training sessions with residents, they check in with residents when they come to reception, they stop them in the hallway to see how they are going and they follow up on residents who have not logged in yet. They also take the time to follow up residents who appear to be struggling with technology in general and make sure they get the help they need. Community leaders become the app champion in their community and guide their staff and residents through the change of approach to communication and community management. Now I can here you saying, “But we have already onboarded our residents.” That is true. Here are some strategies to engage your casual or non active users.

1. Provide a reward for every resident who get’s another resident activated and trains another resident in how to use the app.

2. Host a smart phone help event. Sometimes the reason a resident might not have signed up in the first place is they don’t know their Apple or Google ID to download the app in the first place. A general help session can get this sorted.

3. Hold a relaunch morning tea. Get some residents speaking about how they use the app and why they love it so much. Get residents to buddy up at the end of the session to help those who might have been struggling

2) Content

The most highly engaged communities post daily with fresh and engaging content. These communities tell stories that are about residents, their interests, activities they are attending and will introduce new residents to the whole community. Whilst posting at least once a day is important, it’s the quality of the content that makes the most difference.

3) Ownership

The top performing communities help residents feel a sense of ownership of their app. Residents talk about the app as being theirs, not the organisation’s. Residents are empowered to contribute content and they are allowed to comment on events and news posts. They are writing news posts, contributing photos and creating their own events. Some residents even become app champions and provide support and encouragement to the rest of the community.

4) Messaging

Residents are messaging each other through the app and making the most of the people list to call each other directly. This has been pointed out to residents as part of the onboarding process.

5) Alerts

Staff are using the alerts and notifications feature to keep residents up to date with urgent and important information.

6) Bookings

The most engaged communities have bookings turned on for events and are using the events feature. Why is this important? Residents can see other people are attending the event and that they won’t be the only ones showing up. Community leaders tell us that this really helps build community and engagement.

7) No More Paper

The last key to success is to stop using paper. Highly engaged communities only use the app for communications. They don’t print a newsletter or paper notices or use noticeboards. This can be harder in older retirement communities where there is a long history of monthly paper newsletters. We recommend a phased approach where the paper newsletter is phased out over time. This can be a 12 month transition where residents have plenty of time to get used to the change. In brand new buildings, be clear that communications will only occur in the app. It will set you up for success and your residents will work well with this approach.

8) Involve Everyone

The whole staff team are using the app regularly for their work in the community. It’s a core tool in the life of the community.

9) Live Polls

Use the live polls tool to get feedback from residents in real time on matters that are important to them. Live polls are a great way to build engagement in a creative way that keeps the app content fresh and always changing. Consider these live poll ideas:

1. Who will win the footy this weekend?

2. Which movie would you like to see played in the theatre?

3. Would you like to see us host a Book Club?

4. Which social activity would you like us to host next?

If you would like some free one-on-one coaching with a Pluss Communities team member to help you work through ways you can get your community more engaged then please get in touch with the Pluss Community Manager, Melanie Hall, via email mhall@plusscommunities.com