What are the first steps?

By their nature, forums create unique content on a regular basis. In the best case scenario, content is added several times a day, more frequently than any other type of site you can create.

Whether your community is new, small, or large, you need to create a friendly and engaging environment where your users can easily and quickly start a discussion. This is where the simplicity and power of Vanilla comes in.

Things to consider

Functionality – Make it work for you and your community!

• Notifications – Let users know what’s going on, give them a reason to come back. You can send them email though the community or create global announcements.
• Keep the barriers low – Make it easy for users to sign up and enter with Facebook and Twitter. Encourage your users to start a discussion or ask an question.
• Monitor content - Preventing trolling (unwanted and unnecessary negative comments). Give users some basic guidelines on what kind of content is allowed and how to properly ask a question. Help users positively engage with other users on the forum.
• Organize your content – Determine how you want your users to find and add content, categories, tags, etc. As you community grows this becomes essential.
• Features – Determine who your community is and what their needs are. What kind of features will be necessary to create a successful community: Voting tools, upload files, badges, signatures, stats, etc. But, be careful, too many features can also confuse your users, just give them what they need!

Design – It’s got to look good as well as work!

• Theming – Create a look and feel that is easy to understand and that resonates with your community.
• Freshen it up – Decide if you want a new look and feel for your community or if you want it to be themed identical to your brand.
• Standalone or Embed – With Vanilla the options are endless. If you already have a site or blog there are some great options for you. You can embed Vanilla into any site or application in minutes. We also offer plugins for popular blogging systems like WordPress and Blogger.