Development Seed Blog

Creating a Success Online Community that Gets Returns

Premal Shah, the president of Kiva, talked yesterday about some of the ways that Kiva's online platform engages people and has created a community of microfinance lenders and borrowers.

Kiva connects small business owners in developing countries with micro lenders around the world through an online platform. The business owners, usually working through their micro bank on the ground in their country, post information about their business, their business plan, and the amount of money they want to borrow to make it happen. Lenders around the world can go to the site, decide who they want to lend to, and then lend the money using their credit cards (and in amounts as low as $25). Borrowers then pay the money back to the lenders over time. 

It's a simple idea, and it's run on an online platform that facilitates the whole business. Premal ran through some of the strategy behind the system. Much of what he said echoes what we tell our clients who are trying to engage a community online and is relevant to every organization trying to do so. Here are a few of the points I find most important.

• Highlight the people in your community. Kiva posts big pictures of its small business owners along with their background, their business plan, and the amount they want to borrow, and lenders can create a profile that the business owners and other lenders can see. This goes a long way in helping people get to know one another and bridging the physical gap between them.

  It also shows off some of their successes.

• Create an addictive user experience. Facebook's news feed is a main element that keeps people going back every day. On your platform, find a way to make new, relevant information highly visible. This information should fall into people's interests or about members in their community, and not be the latest news from YOUR organization. For example, here's how a loan I made is doing:
  Another way to do this is to update people about something you know they're interested in. Kiva emails its lenders to let them know the status of their loan. That's a great way to bring people back to the site.
  

• Low cost of entry. Kiva's loans start at $25. Make it easy for people to start participating in your community and doing whatever it is you want them to do. 
• Radical transparency. When Kiva has some loans not make it to the intended recipients, they told the lenders and, according to Premal, most of the lenders thanked Kiva for its honesty. Nowadays its easy for people to dig up the truth, and you come across better is you're the one who tells your community. 
• Crowdsource your community. If your community gets big, there's no way you can police it all. So why not ask the other key stakeholders - the users - for help?

If you're not familiar with Kiva, go check out their site. You can learn a lot from the platform and do some good while you're there : )