102: Being a great Community admin

Admins must act promptly and strictly to enforce their community rules when dealing with inappropriate behavior and content. An engaged admin creates an environment where members feel secure and comfortable in expressing themselves. It’s always good practice to recognize positive interactions, such as showing appreciation to members who demonstrate positive behavior and respect for 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 messaged or shared, take action to quickly delete it and, if necessary, report and remove the member who messaged 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 behavior. 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 behavior that violates your Community’s rules. Let them know that they can reach out to you and your admin team if they have any questions or concerns.

Remind members to use WhatsApp responsibly and respect each other

• Only send messages to members you know, those who’ve contacted you first or asked you to contact them;
• Do not contact 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’s important that you listen to understand, and offer guidance and support when dealing with conflict or concerns. Engaging with empathy means putting yourself in someone else's shoes to understand their views and feelings.

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

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

Empathy also helps you to focus on your members’ needs and motivations. Keep asking yourself why that 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

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

Work with your admin team to manage time and workload. Here are some tips:

• Share responsibilities. Train your team to be confident and decisive.
• Plan ahead. Brainstorm ideas and create action plans, so that you’re all on the same page.
• Set boundaries. Let your members and Groups know when you will be online to manage their expectations. No one should work 24/7 so make use of the Notification setting and customize by Group or member, or mute Notifications altogether.

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 maintain a healthy work-life balance.

How to manage your notifications

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

It’s helpful to think about who would be most suitable to take on the role before speaking to the whole admin team.

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

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

If the community is having fewer conversations, no longer being used as much, 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.