Business benefits
Nurture top community members through a strategic process to quantify, identify, and reward your most active and relevant users.
Decide whether you need a formal or informal superuser program.
Superusers are typically drawn from a pool of members who have made a large number of contributions or unique quality contributions.
There are two types of superuser programs you can run:
- Informal: You get to know, consult with, and support some top members better than others.
- Formal: For groups that exceed a few hundred members, set up a documented superuser program to motivate people to make their best contributions to the group.
Calculate the number of superusers you need based on the size or level of activity in your community, using number of participants and number of questions per week as inputs.
| No. Participants | No. Questions per week | Superusers needed |
|---|---|---|
| 1 to 100 | 0 to 150 | 2 to 3 |
| 100 to 500 | 150 to 250 | 3 to 5 |
| 500 to 1,000 | 250 to 500 | 5 to 10 |
| 5,000+ | 2,500+ | 50+ |
Create a list of basic tasks your superusers should take on in your community.
Focus on tasks that most closely align with your community goals. Typical superuser tasks include:
- Answering questions
- Helping to moderate
- Creating content
- Sharing photos
- Providing feedback.
- Creating reviews.
- Publishing testimonials.
- Testing new products or ideas.
Develop a set of criteria that determine which community members are eligible to become superusers.
For example, criteria to focus on may include:
- A baseline level of participation in the community.
- Character traits that focus on helpfulness and passion.
- Interest in participating in a superuser program.
- Unique skills and expertise in your community’s topic or niche.
Recruit members to join the program via direct outreach, an application form, or nominations from other members.
Direct outreach requires a personal message from community administrators to each potential superuser meeting the criteria. An application form allows community members to raise their hand, while a nomination form ensures an early level of social acceptance in the superuser selection process.
Reward superusers for their activity using access, status, influence connection, or challenge rewards.
Rewards fall into one of these categories:
- Status: Members gain a level of prestige in the eyes of other members.
- Access: Unique access to people or opportunities which other members don’t receive.
- Influence: The ability to have a unique impact or sense of control over the community.
- Connection: Members feel connected to a unique, special, group.
- Challenge: Enable members to participate in unique challenges.
| TYPE | REWARD |
|---|---|
| Access | Exclusive news and information (product information/roadmaps etc…) |
| Direct access to you and company staff | |
| Access to training and expertise | |
| Attending events | |
| Status | VIP treatment at events |
| Mentioned and recognised in newsletters and on stage at events | |
| Badges for member profiles and social media | |
| Special SWAG for members. | |
| Influence | Giving feedback on key decisions |
| Getting early access and being able to give feedback on the products | |
| Unique powers to control parts of the community | |
| Connection | Sense of exclusivity |
| Participate in a private group just for superusers | |
| Feeling a sense of belonging with other top members | |
| Challenges | Working on exciting projects with similarly minded members |
| Trying to solve problems no one is able to solve |
Build a superuser roadmap to develop the program over time, splitting the roadmap into the basic stages of formation, development, and full program.
- Formation: Just a few specifically headhunted superusers can experiment with the platform and receive rewards such as access, status, and SWAG.
- Development: A larger number of superusers who applied to be included play an active role in the community and receive access, status, connection, and SWAG rewards.
- Full program: The ideal number of superusers have joined after community nominations and are split into multiple tiers, like top contributors and mentors, receiving a wide range of rewards and following fully developed SOPs in managing the community.
| FORMATION | DEVELOPMENT | FULL PROGRAM | |
|---|---|---|---|
| No. of superusers | 2 - 5 | 5 - 50 | 50+ |
| Resources | 25% of community leader’s time | 50% to 100% of a community leader’s time | Several staff responsible for the program |
| Application | Head-hunted | Application form Application window |
Nomination form. Nomination window |
| Tiers | None | Two-tiers | Rising stars Top contributors Mentors |
| Rewards | Access Status SWAG |
Access Status Connection SWAG |
Access Status SWAG Influence Challenges |
| Internal work | Experimenting and gaining permissions to provide some levels of access | Lobbying to better connect superusers with employees | Fully established processes for treating members properly |
Create a one page superuser strategy document to share with internal stakeholders and staff members.
Include the:
- Goal of the superuser program, explained in a single sentence.
- Behavior in which you want to engage your superusers.
- Skill and attributes that qualify your ideal superusers.
- Recruitment method by which you will attract superusers.
- Number of superusers you are looking to recruit into the program.
- Rewards your superusers will receive for their participation.
- Timeline on which you want to develop your program.