Community is in everything we do and the links and friendship that we have, are built through communities that we belong to be it our family, school or work place are generally stronger and deeper due to these communities. So what are the top tips for creating a strong online community?

1. If you can have your community meet face to face to create a link it will make the online community grow much faster  (Megan Berry)

• This therefore calls for a launch event surely? A large launch event with enough pop to get everyone chatting?

2. Want a page to get shared make it easy- when people sign up give the option to join the Facebook group and invite friends, follow you on Twitter (Megan Berry)

• Shall we dive into the true social media of Facebook and Twitter or are our Clientele more likely to be on LinkedIn? But will this gain momentum?

3. Admittedly controverial to the above but social networking creates weak ties that won’t last as long whereas community build stronger links that can last longer and be built upon. (Michael Wu)

• I don’t think this means to avoid social networks completely but to be aware of how they may make people register to our website but not stick around.

4. People assess the benefits and risk of making links, and then assess again whether to make the link deeper an stronger (Michael Wu)

• Seems obvious but it needs to be risk free getting involved in our community so people join. There needs to be benefits as you become more involved. But the front face of the site needs to show although this is action research there is not risk to it and everything we are doing is completely transparent as this will gain trust, and gain members.

5. Make sure you community finds value in their involvement (Megan Berry)

• This means engaging with each of our members, rewarding them for their involvement – time for me to find something quirky and cool that will spread the low carbon word! This is a start take a look!