102: Being a Good Community Admin

Admins must act promptly and strictly to enforce their community rules when dealing with inappropriate behaviour and content in order to create an environment where members feel secure and comfortable in expressing themselves. It is a good practice to recognize positive interactions, such as by appreciating members who demonstrate positive behavior and respect the community rules. Regularly share resources to educate your members and make them aware and responsible for the content they are sharing or supporting.

If unwanted offensive material is posted or shared, take action to quickly delete it and, if necessary, report and remove the member who posted the content. Apologize to the group and remind everyone they can also delete any inappropriate content on their own devices. This is a good opportunity to remind the group about the community rules on such behaviour. Good rules create a safe space and set clear expectations of what members should and should not do.

Encourage members to engage positively and alert you to negative behaviour that violates the community rules. Let them know that they can reach out to you and your admin team if they have any questions or concerns.

Remind members that being a community does not mean that they can reach out to any member whenever they want. Always use WhatsApp responsibly and remember to ask for permission and respect boundaries:

• Send messages to members you know, those who have contacted you first or asked you to contact them;
• Refrain from contacting any member who asks you to stop messaging them.

About blocking and reporting contacts

As admins, the tone of your communications will influence how your groups and members communicate and interact with each other. It is important that you listen to understand, offer guidance and support when you are dealing with conflict or concerns raised. Engaging with empathy means putting yourself in someone else's position to understand their views and feelings when communicating with them.

To create a respectful community, lead by example by always:

• Being kind and polite
• Being open minded and welcoming different views;
• Showing sensitivity to your members;
• Treating everyone as equal;
• Challenging prejudices and stereotypes;

Being empathetic also helps you to focus on your members’ needs and motivations. Keep asking yourself why the member is part of your community, and how you can help them meet their goals. Members will be more open to sharing and interacting when they feel that you are genuine and have their interests in mind.

How to turn disappearing messages on or off in a group

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Communities on WhatsApp helps admins organize conversations more effectively, and reduces admin overload when managing numerous members and groups in a large community.

To be effective and efficient, work with your team of admins to manage your time and workload. Here are some tips to consider:

1. Share responsibilities. Train your team so that they feel confident in their role and own decision making.
2. Plan ahead. Brainstorm ideas with your team and create an action plan and scheduled timeline of content, to align on messages before they are communicated.
3. Set boundaries. Let your members and groups know when you will be online to manage their expectations. No one is expected to work 24/7 so make use of the notification setting to avoid feeling overwhelmed. You can customize your notifications by group or member, or also decide when to mute notifications.

It’s important to remember that your team has a life outside of the community. Respecting each other’s personal time will enable everyone to have a healthy work-life balance.

How to manage your notifications

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There may come a time when you no longer want to continue in your role as the community leader, or when the purpose of your community may have run its course. When circumstances have changed, it might be time to transition to another admin or deactivate the community.

It is helpful to think about who would be most suitable to hand over your role to before speaking to the rest of your admin team. If you do decide to step down, you can dismiss yourself as an admin and then leave the community by leaving all of the groups that you have joined.

Consider whether the community is still thriving and healthy, before taking any steps to deactivate it. Ask yourself:

• Are most members still active and interacting?
• Are there many new groups and members requesting to join the community?
• Are there many members and groups leaving the community?
• Is the total number of members constantly decreasing?

If the community is now having fewer conversations, no longer being used, or its purpose has been fulfilled, it might be appropriate to deactivate the community.

Deactivating the community will make the Announcement group unusable and will remove the groups from the community home. However, the groups will remain usable and members can continue to connect and send messages. Do broadcast a final message communicating your plans to deactivate the community before doing so.