7 Best Community Platforms I Actually Tested Them All

Knowledge, decisions, lessons learned, and collective wisdom all get buried in endless scrolls of messages. New members show up pre-overwhelmed with no easy way to catch up on context or culture, leaving them feeling like outsiders. Deep discussions that deserve space for thought get reduced to scattered replies, while opportunities for members to develop expertise and be recognized for it never quite take shape.

Ask clarifying questions to ensure understanding and communicate your perspective calmly and respectfully. Maintain a polite tone, even when your views are strongly opposed. An essential skill in group chats is text interpretation, which involves reading between the lines to catch subtleties of tone and intention. Emojis, for instance, can alter the message’s perception drastically. A simple smiley face can soften feedback, while a thumbs-up can confirm understanding. Being adept at using such visual hints appropriately enhances communication and prevents misinterpretations.

Encourage members to share their thoughts, ask questions, and respond to others. You can kickstart conversations by posing open-ended questions or sharing interesting content. Make it a habit to acknowledge contributions, no matter how small, to make participants feel valued.

How To Use Snapchat’s Group Chats To Build Brand Communities

Seamlessly text, call, video chat, and play games, all in one group chat. For supported games, you can see what modes or characters your friends are playing and directly join up. If you haven’t already, create a business account on Snapchat. Use your branding elements as your profile picture and write a compelling bio that encapsulates your brand’s mission. Learn 8 proven SEO techniques to grow your online community.

Community Building Recommender For Group Chats In Linkedin Messaging

You can broadcast messages to all members, ensuring everyone gets the same information. Plus, features like workflow automation and smart chat routing help you enforce community guidelines effortlessly. By leveraging these tools, you can keep your group chat organized and focused. Managing a group chat can feel like juggling too many balls at once.

• It’s good for communities of gamers, of course, as well as free communities that you don’t intend to monetize.
• Make it a habit to acknowledge contributions, no matter how small, to make participants feel valued.
• For $99 per month, you gain access to unlimited course creation for an unlimited number of students.
• This continuous improvement cycle keeps your group chats relevant and valuable to its members.

There’s no option to schedule events nativel, host interactive workshops or private calls using Zoom, Google Meet, or any video tool you actually control. You also have limited control over branding, ownership and members’ engagement and data. I didn’t want to start yet another Slack group collecting dust. I wanted a setup where teaching felt organized, participation felt natural, and the community pulled each other up. To help you understand this better, let me start with why I needed a community platform in the first place.

As you get to know different members, try connecting people with similar interests by tagging them in comments or posts. Check out how Vanessa Yaeger, admin of the Women Who Surf Facebook Group, uses Community Chats to bring her members together in real time for a spontaneous IRL meetup. Promote safety in your group and empower members to take action by using these tools and strategies we’ve set up for you. Easily hop in and out of voice or text chats without having to call or invite anyone, so your party chat lasts before, during, and after your game session. Forums function as self-service knowledge bases, where members can find answers to frequently asked questions. By allowing users to help each other, organizations can reduce the number of direct support requests, freeing up resources for more complex inquiries.

Discord, Slack, Reddit, Facebook Groups, and Telegram allow you to build and manage communities for free. However, they come with limitations like lack of ownership, monetization capabilities and  limited customization. You can gamify your community via leaderboards and use polls to boost member interaction. This can come in handy if you rely on video to connect with your audience. You can set one-time or recurring challenges, set their duration, and even specify rewards for winners.

Given the more public nature of Community Chats, we’ve developed a robust suite of tools to help admins easily manage both chat and audio experiences. Members of Community Chats can also report messages to group admins or Meta, block users or leave a chat at any time. Learn more about privacy and safety controls in Community Chats. By creating an environment where fans can actively participate, group chats help build loyalty, encourage interaction, and create a strong community foundation. Selecting the right platform is essential for the success of a discussion forum.

Managing a group chat without clear guidelines can quickly turn chaotic. To keep things running smoothly, you need to set the foundation right from the start. Here’s how you can establish guidelines that encourage collaboration and engagement. Your group chat is more than a message thread — it’s your digital hangout, your community hub, your hype squad. When you use the right strategy (and the right app), you don’t just communicate — you connect.

This sense of belonging can be cultivated by encouraging respectful interactions, celebrating milestones, and recognizing contributions. A group chat collapses under the weight of growth, but a well-designed community can welcome more members without losing its sense of clarity and connection. Group chats can be the catalyst for connection, but they rarely sustain it. If you want your community to last more than a few months, you need to give it a home. Host weekly discussions, AMAs, contests, and themed chat sessions to maintain active participation. Don’t create clubs or organize events because community marketing is something you’ve been told you should be doing.

On one hand, this method is dynamically informed by the query set and can slice away irrelevant parts of a large network. On the other hand, connections and group chats are not always directly related. For instance, Antoine may use a group chat to create an introduction between two alumni with whom he is connected. Furthermore, connections are too coarse of a signal to describe subset communities (e.g. coworkers who volunteer together).

Slack feels more like a corporate collaboration tool and wasn’t designed for community-driven learning. Neither platform offered the control I needed to run a serious business around my community. Discover chat roles and enrich your community’s experience by engaging in new ways through active participation. Create a welcoming and safe space for everyone in your group chat with these simple moderation team-building tips.

For example, if launching a new product, ask group members what features they might prefer. Address members by name and tailor your messages based on their preferences or previous interactions. Personalized communication fosters a deeper connection between your brand and the community. Addressing issues promptly prevents them from escalating and keeps the group focused on its goals. For example, if two members disagree over a project deadline, step in to clarify the timeline and mediate the discussion.

It can host debates because it has basic member profiles, messaging capabilities, and channels. It does include some of the aspects that make online communities functional, such as mentions, various content features, and “huddles” for brief calls. Additionally, because of its widespread use, some individuals have used it to create online communities, which is why it made our list. This demonstrates that we can help members build communities by focusing on the relationships that matter.

A descriptive name eliminates confusion and helps everyone stay focused. Choosing the right name for your group chat might seem trivial, but it’s actually a game-changer. A well-thought-out Meetheage reddit name sets the tone and purpose of the group, making it easier for members to stay aligned and engaged.

Members who actively participate in discussions are more likely to remain engaged with the brand and its offerings. Facilitating meaningful conversations involves guiding discussions in a way that adds value to participants. Some include introducing relevant topics and keeping the conversation flowing smoothly. Avoid letting the chat become a series of one-word responses or off-topic chatter.

Geneva is a group chat app that comes with chat rooms, forums, audio, and video rooms to bring together conversations that are interesting to you. It also has post rooms, which can be used for more long-form content like a traditional blog or discussion forum. If you want to monetize your Telegram, you can sell subscriptions and build a community chat app business.

For example, a band’s fan group could have a “Breaking News” category with chats dedicated to new album drops, tour dates and group activities. Community chats in Facebook Groups will no longer be available effective October 5, 2025. We have learned the best way to support additional community conversations is by giving members the option to join chats.

Discord is great for playing games and chilling with friends, or even building a worldwide community. Lula Gatti is the creative force behind Happy Clippings, where she shares diverse and engaging topics from personal wellness to tech trends. Her passion for discovery and storytelling enriches each post with unique insights and joy. Community circles are a powerful tool for enhancing dialogue and building stronger bonds within groups. The success of these gatherings largely depends on the community circle questions posed to participants.