Workflow automation features we want from online community developers in 2015

Image by: Ewen Roberts

Many online community developers are starting to lock in their 2015 roadmaps this time of year. We’ve seen a lot of cool new features in community platforms crop up in 2014, from making the community platform 100% responsive for mobile devices, to enhanced reply-by-email functionality, to development of community automation tools.

In this series of posts, we’re revealing the top features we’re looking for from online community vendors in 2015. Today, we’re focusing on workflow automation.

The best, most experienced community managers know that what it really takes to effectively grow and sustain a community comes down to executing on a few routine processes and procedures.

For most people, this routine work isn’t fun; actually, it’s a monotonous grind. We’re talking about mundane tasks like sending new members welcome messages, carefully watching forums for posts that have gone unanswered for more than 24 hours, finding members to reply to unanswered posts, and nudging users that have formerly been active to get them re-engaged.

But this routine, mind-numbing work is totally worth it. Consistently delivering on the basics is proven to be the most effective way to grow and maintain communities.

What if some of the basics could be automated? Think you could focus on higher-level and more intellectually stimulating work? You betcha!

Fortunately, several online community vendors are building out automation features to do just that. Borrowing concepts from marketing automation products such as Salesforce, Marketo, and Eloqua, many platforms now enable managers to send automated messages, alert community champions to new members, and join users to new groups based on actions they take in the community.

Here are some workflow automation features we’d like to see released in 2015:

• Time-interval based automation: Existing automation features work strictly on an if-then, moment-in-time basis. For example, if a member posts 10 replies, then immediately give them a “10 Replies” badge. We’d like to see a time interval introduced into automation processes. This would allow for an automation like: if a member authors a post, and if the member fails to author another post within 7 days, then send them a “we miss you” message. With time-interval features, another automation possibility is a drip welcome campaign. You could send multiple welcome messages over the course of several days or months to get new members oriented to the community.
• Report automation: Let’s face it, most community managers aren’t data-heads. For the majority of community managers, the most enjoyable parts of the job don’t include pulling reports, analyzing data, and creating pivot tables. Yet, these are critical parts of the job. Anything vendors can do to serve up reports on silver platters will be much appreciated by community managers. I love Google Analytics because it will automatically email me reports on the first day of the month recapping the previous month’s web analytics. This reminds me to pull the additional community analytics and send reports to my clients. What if the community analytics I care about also showed up in my inbox on the first day of the month. Other automated reports that would delight community managers: (1) A daily report of users who logged in for the first time; (2) A daily report of the most recent unanswered discussion posts aged X or more hours; (3) A weekly or monthly report of members with the greatest increase in activity and members with the greatest decrease in activity.
• Security role automation: A few platforms are doing this, and we’d like to see more if it. This feature allows users to be moved from one level of privilege to another. For example, if a member’s posts gets 100 up-votes, they earn the ability to create a blog. Or, if a user has two posts reported as inappropriate, they’re placed on full moderation. Or, if a member sends more than 10 new private messages in a day, their ability to send private messages is revoked.

What kind of automation features are you using now? Leave a comment to let me know what kinds of automation features you’re yearning for.