The main benefit that online research communities provide is instant and on-demand access to data. By holding a database of pre-profiled, engaged members and structured research tools (such as online survey and focus group data collection options) in one place, you can significantly cut down the time from brief to results. Online communities offer efficiencies in sampling, research design, fieldwork and reporting.

In addition, most insight communities are capable of holding multiple customer and consumer segments in a single platform but tailoring the experience depending on group membership. This can be used to build simultaneous communities of the general population plus customers, or communities that span multiple countries and languages. Finally, the social cohesion and competitive elements of the community structure often lead to more detailed and insightful responses to research questions when compared to non-community members.

Maintaining a clean database of members is an important factor in the success of your community. A community of un-engaged or unreachable members leads to low levels of activity, harms the social elements of the methodology and can often be found at the root of disapointing response rates.

In order to maintain a robust database, it is first important to consider what will be stored in it. That is to say what user fields do you wish to record and how will these be used to segment members for future activities. Once you have settled on a structure, we recommend running a minimum of two initial recruitment waves with a further wave to top-up (or ideally grow) the community size every six months. During these waves, it's also important to manage and remove unresponsive participants. This can be done by sending a re-engagement email asking if they would like to remain a part of the community.

Long-term community engagement remains one of the biggest challenges that insight teams face. That's simply because of the number of factors that can impact it. Here are some of the best and easiest ways to boost your community engagement:

Communicate and Feedback Often - the most successful research communities act as a two-way dialogue between brands and members. In recognition of their contributions, it's important to keep community members up to date with the latest brand developments and the impact that their feedback is having. This can be delivered through regular newsletters, updates to the homepage or dedicated news items.

Lead By Example - the more community admins and moderators use the social tools available to them, the more members will too. Try leading by example and publishing blogs or forum posts that demonstrate the type of content you're looking for. And don't forget to engage with community members when they do start to follow.

Incentivise Engagement - a staple of the market research industry, incentivising participants to take part in non-research related activities can provide a massive boost to engagement. This can be achieved by introducing community point systems that provide either regular payouts or entries into prize draws. Consider weighting the activities want to encourage more of with the greatest rewards to really drive and direct behaviours.

The answer to this question depends on a whole range of factors, the most important of which is what you hope to get out of the community. In low-touch communities, a few hours per week to design new activities, analyse existing content and manage database administration will be sufficient. In other cases where the community forms the core of a research schedule, it may be more appropriate to hire a dedicated Community Manager to lead such activities.

As a flexible research partner, the FlexMR team can advise on the time required to manage your community and can provide a number of services to reduce the pressure on your team - including database, communication and engagement management.