Many times, HOAs are seen as a real pain by many homeowners, but they can be beneficial to the entire neighborhood, and while often rules may seem overbearing and the fees high, they can both preserve and increase the value of your property and that of your neighbors.
There is a way to both keep the power they wield in check and keep neighbors in touch. While often HOA’s have websites, they often lack simple ways to communicate. Here are a few tips on creating an HOA blog that is designed to stay in touch and communicate well.
Set Up the Website Correctly
Especially in areas where homeowners are paying large HOA fees one thing they want to know is where those fees are going. A good place is a website, one that is well designed and does what it should: illustrates where the money is being spent, and the value the HOA adds to the neighborhood.
This is not difficult to do. A good domain name is not really that expensive, and one that is related to your neighborhood should not be hard to find. Design is simple, with a few simple pages and clear contact information. If a resident has a problem, who do they get in touch with first? Make this easy. If someone is new to the area, welcome them and show clearly what they are paying for with their HOA dues.
Along with these simple things, the addition of a blog will set up one vital thing: real time communication over the web along with valuable discussion.
Define Blog Uses
What is the blog for? It is for neighborhood updates and communication. The things it should not be for are probably more easily defined. It should not be for complaints about individuals publicly, arguments, inappropriate comments, insults, or other negative behavior.
Residents and administrators should both be coached in constructive feedback. This means you can raise a concern but do so with a solution and in a positive way. Things that are vague, passive aggressive, and demeaning should not have a place online or in your community, and clear standards and consequences for violating them should be thoroughly outlined.
Offer Blog Roles to Everyone
The HOA blog should not just be a pulpit for board members and the president to preach from either. It should have a place for everyone to express themselves and residents should be able to choose how they want to participate and to what level. This means roles should be offered to everyone. Those roles can include, but are not limited to, the following:
Subscriber: This is someone who can get updates from your blog and can make comments, but cannot upload articles, photos, or other media on their own.
- Contributor: This role has the same privileges as the subscriber but can also upload blog posts. They can’t upload photos or media though.
- Author: This person can author their own posts and upload media, but cannot edit the site itself or the posts that others contribute.
- Editor: This person can edit their own posts and the posts of others, along with all of the abilities of the other users.
- Administrator: This person has control of everything on the website. This role should be granted to as few people as possible, and these are users who can moderate comments and even delete them and modify almost any user or post on the site, including setting roles for users.
The good thing about WordPress is that you can create custom roles for each individual and control what can and can’t happen on your blog. This way, you keep internet trolls and others from intruding into your online community.
Enable and Moderate Comments
One way that people interact and communicate on a blog is through comments. This can be a good thing, but it can also be a source of frustration. So you need to enable comments on your site, but moderate them. Keep out any hate speech, personal attacks, and any other negative statements that are not constructive.
One way to keep this a clean and safe place for your community to post and comment is to make the rules of engagement very clear from the start. Outline the consequences of violating them, including removal from the site itself.
Remember the point of your blog is to increase communication and add value to your community. Any other uses should be discouraged, regardless of who the user is or what role they play in your organization. There should be a system of checks and balances in place to assure that your online community is as safe and friendly as your physical one.
Be Open to Suggestions
The point of your HOA blog is to be a community, and that should mean that the input of every member is welcome. This does not mean that every suggested change should be implemented, but that they should be carefully considered. Everyone has a different perspective and sometimes seeing things from a different angle really helps.
It may take a village to raise a child, and it takes a neighborhood to form and maintain a worthwhile HOA. Create and use an HOA blog as a way to communicate and stay in touch with that community. You will add new value to the members, and make the place you live a better place.
