Private Online Community Platforms: Build Exclusive Connections
Next, a private online community platform is ideal if your model includes paid memberships. This enables you to invite all your patrons and share exclusive content with community members only.
And finally, private groups may have strict membership criteria, ensuring that only approved individuals gain access. Private communities allow you to cultivate authentic conversations, build stronger relationships, and maintain tighter control over membership and content visibility. This also implies they are a given for community management - no need to worry about spam accounts messing up your internal flow.
In this article, we will discuss the benefits of creating a private community platform: its pros and cons compared to public online communities, the community features you need to set it up, and how to choose the best online community platform for your next project.
What are private online community platforms?
A private online community platform is a space where only accepted members can join. All information shared within the community space is hidden from the public, enabling higher community engagement among members who feel safe and free to express themselves.
The admission process may vary, depending on the moderation settings. The group can be invite-only such as exclusive social media platforms, or the admin has to approve the application of new members based on their applications (e.g. private Facebook group).
How different are private online communities from public ones?
As the name suggests, public online communities are open to the public. This means that anyone can join by creating a profile. If there are rules about sign-up, they are typically quite lax.
While only members can participate in the inside discussions, the information is available for everyone to benefit from. Anyone can see the discussions that take place in these communities.
Hosting a public community platform has many benefits as well. For example, sharing public content can help increase the reach of your community. You could get the content indexed on search engines like Google to help with forum SEO or share it in newsletters or social media posts.
What is a public community platform best for?
A public community platform is best used as a community-led growth strategy - inspiring members to become ambassadors and invite their friends and family to join.
This type of community is also good for customer support or knowledge base - the kind of information you want to share with your customer community and bring them closer to your brand. Another great application of a public online community is a customer feedback community - a space for all your customers to express their satisfaction and dissatisfaction directly to you.
However, public communities are typically harder to moderate and control than private ones. This is because you have less control over the people who join and are more likely to end up with a larger membership base.
That being said, there is always a risk of spam accounts disturbing the flow of discussion forums or abusing the private messaging feature. In that sense, public community admins have a lot more work than the admins of private communities.
Private vs. public online community comparison table
Private community use cases and examples
There is no single reason to build a private community. People use them in many ways. Here are some of the most popular private community use cases.
Customer communities
Yes, in some cases private customer communities are created when the intention is to offer exclusivity or the discussions are around a sensitive topic. For instance, a community for only paying customers or a community of loyal customers to gather feedback on upcoming projects.
Employee communities
An employee community is a private space that provides employees with all they need to know about their job. They can ask and answer questions and find answers by browsing the existing content library. Meanwhile, HR can use the community to update employees about crucial business changes. These groups often contain sensitive data about business operations. That's why employee communities must be private.
Roadmap is another example of the need for a private employee community. Discuss product updates, plan the development and customer support, and make sure the entire process is kept behind the scenes.
Example: IBM Corporate Social Responsibility Community
The IBM Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Community is a group for IBM employees who want to make a social impact. Members use the space to discuss how to get involved in social projects. As the community is private, employees can discuss sensitive issues without sharing them with the outside world.
Industry masterminds
Masterminds are private community portals where a small number of peers offer each other advice and support. They typically form around industries, types of work, or goals — with the idea being that everyone contributes their experience to help.
These groups typically have strict requirements for who can join. Everyone in the group must add value to the community. People often discuss sensitive information in masterminds, so the conversations must stay private.
Paid membership communities
Paid communities are those where the community creator charges people to join. These communities typically provide access to exclusive content or a valuable network.
This type of community is often a Community of Practice. This means they are centered around a profession or industry. Here members can learn from each other, network, and simply discuss the topic they are interested in. Paid communities must be private, or people will be able to access the content without paying for it.
Example: MO Pros
Mo Pros is a community for marketing operations professionals to learn and network. There's a free version of the community that anyone can join and a paid community with access to exclusive content and mentorship opportunities.
Course communities
People who run online courses often create communities so students can discuss class content. It's a great way to provide a more involved learning experience. These communities may include extra content and spaces to talk about each lesson. They must be private, so only people taking the course can see the discussions.
Some of the best online community platforms are designed with course communities in mind. Bettermode's template, Edumark, is designed as a learning community platform, enabling you to host courses, and discussions, feature alumni, and even post job opportunities for your students.
How can you create a private online community with Bettermode?
Creating a private online community platform is easy with Bettermode. Here is a step-by-step guide to making it happen in under 30 minutes.
Step #1: Define the community purpose and plan
Before you get into practicalities, the first thing you need to do is outline the goals and mission of your private community. Based on your goals, you can develop a community engagement plan and determine what set of community features you need to realize your idea.
Community features may vary depending on the type of community. For example, private communities designed as social media platforms need to enable direct messaging, while a branded community for your customers doesn't have to anticipate users texting each other directly.
Step #2: Set up your Bettermode account
Sign up for free to get access to Bettermode software and start setting up your community platform. In our world, you don't have to do anything from scratch - Bettermode already incorporates a variety of community website templates for you to choose from and customize for your benefit.
Step #3: Choose the right template for your online community platform
From a sophisticated social network to an employee engagement platform, Bettermode offers predesigned templates where you can find what matches your needs the most.
Earth Guardian template
For example, the Earth Guardian template is pre-set to support a nonprofit community that engages users around a social cause. Its community platform features include everything you need for setting up an activistic campaign or hosting a benefit:
- Members section
- Learning academy
- Volunteers dashboard
- Forums and discussions
- Events Calendar
- Awards to the most dedicated members
Collide professional networking platform
The Collide template is created to make professional events management feel like a Christmas morning. It includes features for event hosting, attendance keeping, networking, and comprehensive profiles of industry professionals to make the experience extra beneficial for the community members.
Step #4: Set up your own community platform
Once you choose the template that matches your community the best, you will be redirected to a ready-made environment. To customize the spaces and settings, hit "C" and address the background of your online community.
Behind the scenes, you can customize all aspects of your online community:
- Design and brand (colors, logos, fonts)
- Responsive design for web and mobile app
- Members profile sections
- Moderation (allow direct messaging, forum posts, and flag inappropriate words)
- Billing settings for paid communities
- Spaces/sections your private community will offer to the members
- CMS and content shared by you and other members
Step #5: Set the online community platform as private
To ensure you are launching a private community platform, go to Site Settings and customize the permissions. You can select/unselect the following options:
- Set your community platform as private, so the content is not visible to the public.
- Decide whether outsiders can apply to join or only be invited by you or other members.
- Enable community members to invite their friends, or keep that right exclusively for the group admins.
Don't forget to hit the Update button in order to save your settings. When your community is all setup, publish the website and start growing.
Step #6 Invite your first members
Et voila! You are all set. Start growing your private community platform and invite members to join.
You can do that by sharing an invitation link or inviting people from your email list to your community space. Personalize their onboarding experience with a custom message and a set of spaces they will automatically join to meet everyone else.
Step #7: Listen to the community
Incorporate your customer engagement plan and listen to your community members to discover what you do very well, and what could be more useful to your target audience.
Creating a community is easy - keeping it engaged and happy is usually the challenging part.
Conclusion
Online community platforms are highly effective in bringing people together around the same values and goals. Private communities offer a high level of intimacy and trust, and their use cases go from employee community management to paid subscriptions for a peak into a creator's process.
Whether you are looking for the best online community platforms to bring together your customers, patrons, volunteers, or professional network, you need a powerful tool to make your community private and successful.
Whatever your idea for a community is, Bettermode might jus be the right community platform for you. With numerous templates to support various cases and many more templates that are yet to come, Bettermode helps you to launch a community online without starting from scratch.
Sounds too good to be true? Sign up for free and check it out for yourself!
This article was originally published on June 14th, 2022, and was updated on November 23rd, 2024.
FAQ
What is a private online community?
A private online community is an exclusive, members-only digital space where discussions, content, and activities are visible only to approved participants.
These communities often have strict membership criteria and provide a secure environment for focused conversations, relationship-building, and sharing valuable content. They are ideal for businesses, organizations, or creators looking to foster deeper connections or monetize their audience.
What is the best platform for a community?
The best platform for your community depends on your needs and goals. Platforms like Bettermode offer versatile features such as customizable branding, robust moderation tools, integrations with popular apps, and embeddable forums.
For businesses, these tools help create engaging and well-managed spaces for customer support, networking, or content sharing.
What is the most popular online community?
Some of the most popular online communities include platforms like Reddit, Discord, and Facebook Groups, which cater to a broad range of interests and user bases.
However, for businesses or niche groups, private community platforms like Bettermode offer tailored solutions for building focused, high-value communities.
What is a gated online community?
A gated online community is a digital space where access is restricted to approved members, often requiring an invitation, application, or payment to join.
These communities are designed to maintain exclusivity, protect privacy, and foster meaningful interactions among a select group of individuals. Gated communities are commonly used by organizations, creators, and brands to provide premium content or services.
A private online community is a members-only community platform where discussions and shared content are visible exclusively to the participants.An online community platform can be private for various reasons. For example, privacy offers an intimate setting, exclusivity, and higher engagement quality due to the safe environment it provides. This makes private community platforms an excellent solution for group coaching and other sensitive groups.
