Trust 🤝 Community: Strategies for nurturing a safe space

Learn more about strategies to build trust within your community

We often talk a lot about engagement and growth when it comes to community building, but I think something that we should be talking more about is trust. Trust is the glue that holds the community together while creating a safe and inclusive space for all members.

In order to build a sustainable community where members come back and want to connect with others, there needs to be trust in place. In this post, I explore some strategies with actionable tips on how to build trust in your community.

Clear guidelines

The first step in building trust is to create clear community guidelines that outline acceptable behavior as well as consequences for violations. Guidelines act as the foundation of a strong community, because they set the standards for interactions and behaviors, ensuring that each community member knows what’s to be expected of them.

These guidelines should be easily accessible to all community members. In my previous role, we had a dedicated space for these guidelines to live where we members could access easily. Also, remember that guidelines aren’t meant to be static documents, they should be constantly evaluated, enforced, and updated as needed.

Tip: Regularly remind community members about the guidelines and how they contribute to a safe and inclusive space.

Be transparent

Transparency builds trust and is crucial for keeping your community members informed about what is happening in and around the community. When members understand why certain actions take place, such as removing a post or warning a member, they’re more likely to see the process as fair. When you explain the reasons behind moderation decisions clearly, the members will respect how the communication and decisions are made in the community.

One thing to remember is staying consistent with enforcement is key. It’s always best to avoid any perception of favoritism or bias in moderation decisions. All of the community members should be held to the same standards.

Tip: If you have to remove a post because it goes against the guidelines, then let your members know why this happened. It’ll also educate members on what not to do going forward.

Encourage and act on feedback

Your members are a valuable resource in helping shape how the community is run and as a community leader, you should look for ways to encourage members’ input and feedback. You should be actively seeking their input and involving them in discussions about the community direction. One example of this is to have dedicated feedback channels for members to leave their thoughts or at the very least to dedicate surveys to collective feedback on a regular basis.

The goal is to build with your community, and one way to do this is to seek feedback. Get them involved in the process and act on the feedback that is going to improve the overall community experience.

Tip: Schedule a regular cadence of time to review this feedback and create plans of action for how you are going to implement it. Keep your community informed throughout the process.

Staying on top of messages

When members ask questions or raise issues, be there to respond quickly to address them. When you’re timely in your responses it helps to demonstrate that you are attentive to the community members’ needs. This responsiveness also helps build trust and shows them that the community is committed to maintaining a supportive environment.

Beyond just being on top of messages, make sure you follow up with any solutions that you and the team are working on. Members want to know that their questions are being solved and one way to do this is to keep them in the loop throughout the process.

Tip: It is a good idea to set expectations on how frequently the team responds to messages and when they occur. This way members know from the start and don’t feel like they’re questions are being ignored.

Celebrate & recognize members

When your members make valuable contributions to the community, it’s always a good idea to recognize and celebrate that. Beyond just the team celebrating members, empower your community members to give shout-outs and praise to others too. By doing this, it helps create a culture of appreciation and trust within the community.

One example that comes to mind is in a previous community, we had a highlights channel where the team and community members had a dedicated space to show praise to one another. This was a great way to acknowledge the members for their amazing work in the community.

Tip: Make this part of your regular community strategy work. Celebrating and recognizing community members goes a long way in building trust.

“Mistrust begets mistrust; trust begets accomplishment.”  Lao Tzu

The strategies and tips that I mentioned above are designed to build trust and foster a culture of respect and inclusiveness within the community. However, I want to say that this is just a glimpse into the ways that you can build trust and remember that this takes time to build, but is an essential piece for the long-term success of your community.

How are you building trust within your community? Let me know in the comments below!