Comments on: How to build and maintain trust in online communities

By: Guy Farmer

Guy Farmer — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 17:08:27 +0000

Thank you for the insights Martin. It’s valuable for community builders to realize that we build communities online in much the way we do offline. Building trust is about welcoming people, encouraging them to share, valuing their opinions and creating an atmosphere where people feel safe and respected. Community leaders build trust by encouraging members of the community to be themselves and contribute their special talents and abilities. As the leader goes so does the community.

By: Sasch Nelson

Sasch Nelson — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 10:02:18 +0000

I agree Paul. with blogging and your community you need to keep a level head. remember people can spread what you say and how you say it. its important to understand that.

and its human nature that bad news spreads more quickly than good news

By: Paul

Paul — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 18:21:06 +0000

Being unbaised is very important. Some members are very opinionated and will get upset if you start to argue with them. Its best to just remain unbaised.

By: Bobby Peacock

Bobby Peacock — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 03:03:57 +0000

Trust is very important – with out it many business would crumble. What would happen if site visitors no longer trusted your website, why would they come back?

By: Martin Reed - Community Manager

Martin Reed - Community Manager — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 13:12:04 +0000

Patrick – So the deception worked until it was found out. How did the community react when it was found out? I imagine it didn’t go down to well – and that is why faking it doesn’t work.

By: Footprints (29.10.09) | Chris Deary

Footprints (29.10.09) | Chris Deary — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 18:11:00 +0000

[...] How to build and maintain trust in online communities [...]

By: alvin

alvin — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 15:53:32 +0000

I totally agree with you. Once a member sense that you are not being true and honest with what you are promoting in a group, you would not earn their trust.Hence, in all aspects of life especially in social networking trust is not given easily it is earned…

By: Edmond Arnold

Edmond Arnold — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 23:03:37 +0000

Good points in the post and comments – Building an online community takes time. There are hundreds of sites now like Facebook, Twitter, Myspace and many more that help you build and share content.

With a blog, you have to be consistent in your updates / posts – dont post something every day and then drop back a week and post again… people and search engines dont like that.

By: Patrick Oden

Patrick Oden — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 07:09:49 +0000

Not that I necessarily disagree with you, but do you really think that you can’t fake it? I have been a member of at least a couple of online communities where a person did lie and fake it and was only outed by a chance review of IP addresses that led to exposing the person as someone other than who he or she claimed to be.

It wasn’t the lies that were seen through. I don’t know, though. I tend to agree with you, in that I think these people would have been discovered as frauds eventually. But, they were able to fake it for a while.

I absolutely agree that members of communities will follow the examples of the leaders. No doubt.

By: Alexander Nikolic

Alexander Nikolic — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 04:39:15 +0000

As with other communities, online communities should always cultivate a high sense of brotherhood, mutual trust does not lie with one another within the community including the community itself. More important sharing and consistent in implementing all the agreements that have been outlined by all members of the community.