The Best Way To Test A Community Platform
There are numerous community platforms in the world, all of which are different and have their own approach. But, selecting the correct community platform is critical to the long-term success of your the relationship your brand has with its audience.
Not sure how to effectively test a community platform? No problem! We’ve put together a couple of simple steps to quickly setup a demo environment on Honeycommb and test the community platform accordingly.
Define Requirements
Effectively testing a community platform requires some up-front thinking about what you prioritize in a solution. To start, think about your requirements as a means of defining what’s most important to your brand and establishes how you’re going to evaluate.
In thinking about your requirements, it never hurts to align on your requirements with community KPIs and the data points (both qualitative and quantitative) that you’ll look to prioritize when you start building your community; for real.
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Create A Demo Environment
After you’ve defined your priorities and requirements, the next step is to get hands on with a demo environment to put the community platform to the test.
Your demo environment should check off a couple of key line items as you look to test and experience the platform:
- Provide a level of customization to mirror your brand
- Create a simple way for you and your users to experience the platform
- Give you an expectation on how your audience can use the community functions
Create your demo environment for free on Honeycommb:
Add Your Brand Assets
Your demo environment should be yours! Help your users feel right at home by putting your spin on the platform.
Onboard Your Community
The foundation to capturing feedback is to invite the folks who’ll be using your platform.
If applicable, we suggest that you select 10 – 15 of your most loyal and/or engaged community members (or select group of community leaders) to help with the evaluation process and create a more diverse set of feedback about the platform.
In addition to actual community members, it’s also a best practice to invite stakeholders and other decision makers in your organization too. If company leadership is invested in the growth and engagement of your community, it’s never a bad practice to capture their thoughts and feedback too.
Test The Community Platform!
After the brand assets are uploaded and created, the best way to actually put the platform through its paces is to give it a run through.
Create content, share videos, send private DMs and start group chats. Use the platform like you’d be using it in the case that you have a real community.
If you’ve onboarded a small subset of your users, then notifications should start pinging their way through your community and simulating the engagement that you’d expect in your network.
Create A Platform Survey
What are the critical parts of the platform that you need to evaluate? What can you ask your community to help with that evaluation?
Using a tool like Survey Monkey or Typeform is a great mobile-first way to capture feedback on their experience and usage of the platform in your trial period.
Analyze Community Feedback
Your community platform is FOR the community! Take their feedback seriously. Use this as an opportunity to give the people in your network a chance to be involved in the process and actively contribute to the outcome.
Using your survey (and community platform) capture as much qualitative and quantitative as possible. Review that feedback with your them and then evaluate your options accordingly.
Looking to create your own demo environment? Look no further!
Use the Honeycommb app to create your demo community & upgrade to a branded network at any time.
About Honeycommb:
Honeycommb is the best consumer-grade, complete, user capture and engagement solution in the world that gives you total control and ownership over all data and content in your custom social network.
Reach out to Honeycommb today to get started or Book a Demo to see what we can build together for your audience.
Another great resource when evaluating platforms:
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