Community engagement checklist

What is a community engagement checklist?

A community engagement checklist is a practical, step-by-step resource designed to help you build and maintain an active, valuable community around your brand, product, or audience.

Online communities are powerful because they allow you to interact with your target audience, share information with current and prospective customers, collect feedback, improve product adoption, boost trust, and even speed up product development

What’s inside the checklist?

This template includes actionable guidance and tick-box tasks across the most important community-building areas, including:

• A checklist to help you define who your community is (and who it isn’t).
• Practical actions for staying visible and responsive.
• A set of prompts to help you show expertise without being overly sales-driven.
• A planning checklist.
• Steps for identifying, rewarding, and supporting champions.
• A checklist focused on building trust through action.
• Engagement ideas.
• Clear steps for setting community guidelines.

How to use the checklist

1. Start with audience understanding
   Use the first section to validate who your community serves and what they need most.
2. Build a repeatable engagement rhythm
   Map out when you’ll be active, what you’ll post, and how you’ll respond — so engagement becomes consistent, not reactive.
3. Prioritize value over promotion
   Use the “be knowledgeable” and “have a strategy” sections to lead with education, resources, and support rather than selling.
4. Introduce champions and gamification
   Encourage participation through recognition, rewards, and community status signals like badges or leaderboards.
5. Protect the community experience
   Set clear guidelines, remove spam quickly, and add moderators if needed to keep the space safe and welcoming.
6. Review and improve regularly
   Revisit the checklist monthly or quarterly to refine your strategy as your community grows.

Download your community engagement checklist

Engaging your online community [checklist]

Engaging your online community [checklist] Online communities are the bread and butter of product marketing, as they allow you to: Interact with your target audience Share information with current and prospective customers Get feedback about your product Save product costs as users can help you…

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