The Ultimate Community Management Platform Buyer’s Guide

Choosing a community management platform used to be mostly about the community itself. Can members connect? Can they start discussions? Can staff manage the experience?

Those questions still matter. But for trade and professional associations, they’re no longer the only ones worth asking.

Community increasingly sits alongside learning, events, resources, communications, sponsorship opportunities, and member data. The platform you choose can either add another destination to that mix or help those experiences work better together.

That’s why we believe community technology should be evaluated as part of a broader Engagement Infrastructure: the foundation that connects the experiences and engagement signals that support membership.

In this buyer’s guide, we’ll look at what trade and professional associations should consider when evaluating a community management platform, from the core capabilities to the bigger questions about member experience, technology, and long-term engagement.

We’ll cover: 

• What is a Community Management Platform?
• Why Should Associations Invest in a Community Management Platform?
• Community Management Platform Features
• Community Management Platform Purchasing Considerations
• Top Community Management Platform: Tradewing

Every association is unique, which means that the right tool for one may not be for another. To address as many common concerns as possible, we’ll break down core platform elements and why they matter. But first, let’s discuss exactly what a community management platform is.

What is a Community Management Platform?

A community management platform gives associations a dedicated digital environment where members can connect, exchange knowledge, participate in discussions, discover resources, and build relationships with one another.

While many platforms include familiar social features such as activity feeds, groups, profiles, directories, and direct messaging, the strongest platforms connect those interactions with other parts of the member experience, including events, learning, resources, and communications.

Why Should Associations Invest in a Community Management Platform?

Members join associations for more than access to information. They come to build relationships, learn from others in their field, exchange expertise, and participate in experiences that help them grow professionally. A community management platform gives associations a dedicated environment where those interactions can continue throughout the year.

Some associations use familiar social platforms like Facebook or LinkedIn to support these conversations. While those channels can be useful for outreach and broader industry engagement, a dedicated community platform gives associations greater control over the member experience and creates opportunities to connect your community with the rest of your membership base. 

Key advantages include:

• • Member attention. A dedicated community gives members a more focused environment for association conversations, professional connections, resources, and opportunities without competing with an unrelated social feed. A member engagement platform lets your members engage solely with your association.
  • Privacy. Associations have greater control over access, permissions, member information, and how different areas of the community are structured.
  • Member Experience. A dedicated platform can reflect your association’s brand, organize experiences around member needs, and provide access to member-only discussions, resources, events, learning, and other benefits.
  • Engagement Insight: Community activity can reveal what members care about and how they participate. When those signals connect with activity across learning, events, resources, and other experiences, associations can build a more complete picture of engagement.

Social media still has an important role to play. Rather than relying on it as the home of your member community, use it to extend your reach and market the value of membership. For example, you might share a useful article, event, or resource on LinkedIn or Facebook to give prospective members a glimpse of what your association offers, then invite them to explore the deeper connections, knowledge, and experiences available through membership.

A dedicated community management platform gives those experiences a place to grow beyond that first interaction. And when your community connects with learning, events, resources, and engagement data, it becomes part of a broader Engagement Infrastructure that supports member value throughout the year.

Community Management Platform Features

Community management platforms are created for a range of audiences, and as such, there are also a range of features to be aware of. For trade and professional associations, we recommend looking for platforms with the following tools:

1. Community Platform

Community is the foundation of the platform. Members should be able to start discussions, share knowledge, ask questions, connect with peers, and participate in smaller groups built around shared interests, roles, chapters, or topics.

When assessing this feature, look for:

• User-friendliness. A community platform should be easy to navigate and use. The layout should not be confusing, and important elements, such as the home page and messaging fields, should be clearly visible. 
• Moderation controls. While your community platform is for your members, it still represents your association and is up to your team to moderate it. Look for tools that have moderation features, such as the ability to review and take down content, remove users, and pin announcement posts to the top of members’ feeds.
• Knowledge sharing. Look for support for posts, discussions, images, videos, links, files, and other resources that members commonly exchange. Community should make useful member knowledge easier to share and rediscover, not simply create another stream of content.
• Groups and micro-communities. Associations often serve members with very different interests. Look for the ability to create focused spaces for chapters, committees, specialties, cohorts, or other member segments.
• Mobile experience. Members should be able to participate wherever they are, rather than needing to sit down at a desktop every time they want to check the community.

While every association might have different priorities for its community engagement software, the community platform component is the defining feature of these tools. As such, finding one that fits your needs should be one of your top considerations.

2. Video Conferencing

Virtual events are designed to create connections among an association’s members, so it makes sense to host them in the same place where your community already gathers online.

Events can create some of an association’s strongest moments of engagement. A community platform can help extend that value by connecting the live event to what happens before and after it.

Rather than evaluating video conferencing or virtual events as an isolated feature, consider how the platform supports the complete event experience:

• How many virtual events your association hosts. If your association only hosts a handful of virtual events throughout the year, it may be more cost-effective to invest in a platform with a range of tools, including video conferencing, than a dedicated virtual event management system.
• Video conferencing must-have features. When your association hosts virtual events, what features do you need? For most associations, baseline event tools include screen sharing, breakout rooms, and live chat. Some video conferencing tools have additional useful features, like polls, pinned questions, and other ways to make online events interactive. Determine your specific needs and check which platform meets them.
• How events connect with the rest of the member experience. Consider what happens before and after the live event, not just during it. Can members easily discover and register for an event? Can a webinar lead into a community discussion? Can attendees continue connecting with one another or access related resources afterward? Look for a platform that helps extend the value of an event beyond the live session.

Additionally, consider how the video component of your community management software works with the rest of your platform. Your members should be able to easily access your webinars and live video conferences from the same platform they use to connect. When events, community discussions, resources, and other member experiences are connected, it becomes easier for members to continue conversations, find relevant knowledge, and build relationships after an event ends.

3. Member Directory

Community engagement platforms provide your association and fellow members with access to your member directory. A useful member directory helps turn membership into a network. Members should be able to discover people with relevant experience, roles, organizations, locations, or shared interests and connect with them directly.

When it comes to member directory features, be on the lookout for:

• Profile depth and flexibility. Consider what information members can add to their profiles, which fields administrators can configure, and whether profiles give members enough context to make meaningful connections.
• Messaging features. How can members contact one another? Your member directory should include both direct messaging options and the ability to form group chats.
• Search tools. Let members easily search your database by searching names, job positions, business names, or other identifying attributes.

Remember that a member directory differs from a member database. Your directory is a front-facing tool your members can use to aid their networking, whereas a member database is a backend tool with extensive data only for your association’s team.

4. Privacy, Permissions & Access

Joining an association shouldn’t mean sacrificing personal privacy. Empower your members with granular profile controls so they can decide exactly what information to share, and with whom. 

For example, here’s what a member would see when editing their profile within Tradewing:

As you can see, members can decide who can view specific profile attributes, whether that’s the general public, logged-in users, all members, or just the user themselves. For example, a member might make their name and place of employment visible to everyone, their email address visible to members, and their home address only visible to themselves.

This protects your members from unwanted communication, including harassment and spam. Ensure your community management software offers similar privacy features and also maintains strong security standards to protect against cyberattacks.

Also consider how the platform handles access beyond individual profile fields. Associations may need different permissions for members, nonmembers, staff, chapters, committees, course participants, event attendees, or other groups.

5.  Customization

Your community platform is an extension of your website and should include your association’s branding, so the platform you choose should have at least some customization features.

Some software might offer out-of-the-box tools that allow you to customize your branding, messaging templates, and website setup. In contrast, others might require working with a developer to fine-tune the platform to your specifications.

The right level of customization depends less on association size than on your workflows, member experience, internal resources, and technical requirements.

More customization isn’t automatically better. Consider whether the platform can support the experiences that matter to your organization without creating unnecessary implementation and maintenance work for your staff.

In contrast, small and medium-sized associations may value other types of customization, such as customized messaging templates and branding. However, excessive customization abilities can lead to unnecessary stress.

When assessing community management platforms, be aware of what size associations the software primarily caters towards and what specific options are included in their customizable offerings. 

6. Alerts & Communications

Keep members in the loop and encourage them to engage with your community platform through messaging alerts. Look for communication tools that bring members back to relevant conversations, resources, events, and opportunities. These can take the form of email, in-platform notifications, mobile push notifications, announcements, reminders, and automated communications based on member activity.

Look for community management software with automation features to power this strategy. These can be used to remind members about upcoming events, alert them to community announcement posts, share when someone has messaged them, or check in if it’s been a while since they last logged onto your platform.

Also consider whether communications can be targeted to relevant member groups rather than sending every message to everyone.

7. Integrations

Ensure your community management platform integrates with association management software (AMS) and any other tools in your tech stack. Doing so ensures data collected by your community management platform, like member engagement rates, is smoothly transferred to your member database and other relevant software.

If you choose solutions without ready-built integrations, you may need to work with a technology consultant to create a custom middleware solution. These can be costly and take time to develop. As such, prioritize vendors that offer a pre-existing integration with your current software when possible.

Your AMS may remain the system of record while your engagement platform becomes the environment where members participate. What matters is whether data can move reliably between systems and whether staff can understand member engagement without piecing together reports from multiple disconnected tools.

8. Learning & Certification

Professional development is one of the reasons many people join associations, and learning often becomes more valuable when members can discuss and apply what they’re learning with peers.

If education is part of your member value proposition, consider whether your community platform can connect with courses, continuing education, certification programs, learning resources, and peer discussion.

The goal isn’t simply to put an LMS beside a community. Look for ways learning can continue into discussion, networking, mentoring, events, and real-world applications. 

9. Resources & Knowledge 

Associations often have years of useful knowledge spread across webinars, articles, discussions, documents, courses, and other resources. The challenge is helping members find the right information when they need it.

Look for tools that let your organization centralize and organize resources while making them easy for members to search and discover. As AI-powered knowledge tools become more common, also consider whether answers are grounded in trusted association content and whether your organization controls the sources being used.

Community Management Platform Purchasing Considerations

When reviewing community management software, create a short list of top candidates by assessing each provider based on:

Budget

How much is your association able to spend on technology? Most community management platforms operate on a subscription model, and many have multi-year contracts that lock your organization into a set payment plan, regardless of whether you use their software or not.

While associations should aim to grow and evolve, it’s almost never worth it to invest in an expensive tool that does more than your association needs. Rather, assess your association to understand where your needs currently are and gear your technology to where your association currently is, not where you hope it will be in 10 years.

Consider the total cost of ownership rather than the subscription price alone. Implementation, integrations, customization, staff administration, additional software, and ongoing support can all affect the true cost of a platform.

Technology Needs

Association technology is extensive and varied, and your community management platform should fit into your existing technology stack. Outside of community management software, associations might also invest in a combination of these tools:

• Association management software (AMS)
• Customer relationship management software (CRM)
• Learning management system (LMS)
• Content management system (CMS)
• Email marketing platform
• Event management tools

Depending on your specific vendors, some of these tools may contain overlapping features. For example, many AMSs include CRM functionality. Additionally, many AMSs provide some community management software features, though often in a limited capacity.

Assess whether your current technology supports your needs and what a new tool can provide. Then, research integrations to ensure your new software can be easily added to the rest of your software ecosystem.

Last, consider your team’s own technical prowess. If your association lacks an IT team, understand that means you will need to rely on your vendors for training and technical support. Additionally, if you purchase software that requires customization, a middleware application, or further development, you will likely need to work with a technology consultant, which takes time and adds an extra expense to your technology budget.

Vendor Reviews

Third-party review websites are useful resources that allow your association to accomplish two essential things:

1. Discover new vendors. It’s easy to gravitate toward large platforms with name recognition. However, these may not always be the best choice for your association. Search review sites to broaden your range of candidates and discover smaller providers that fit your needs.
2. Assess prospective platforms. After completing your shortlist of prospective vendors, check what past users have to say on sites such as G2 and Capterra about their experience using the platform. Consider both the positives and negatives and how these would impact your organization. 

Additionally, on vendors’ sites, look for case studies or customer testimonials. While these sources are biased, they provide a window into what each vendor feels they specialize in. For instance, if a vendor’s case studies primarily focus on their virtual event capabilities, you can assume that it is one of their strengths.

Tradewing: Engagement Infrastructure for Associations

Tradewing goes beyond standalone community management by connecting the experiences that keep members participating throughout the year. Community, learning, events, resources, member management, communications, and engagement data come together in one connected platform, giving members a more consistent experience and association teams greater visibility into engagement.

Rather than adding another isolated tool to the association tech stack, Tradewing is designed as Engagement Infrastructure: the layer that connects member experiences and the signals they create.

With Tradewing, your association can:

• Connect with members anytime, anywhere. Tradewing is mobile-accessible and excels at keeping association communities connected year-round. Post online content, schedule events, and invite members to interact with each other on your community platform to keep engagement high.
• Focus members’ attention. Rather than sending members away from your association’s website to engage with your community, Tradewing keeps them on one centralized platform. This pushes members to engage with your content by limiting distractions.
• Spotlight sponsors. Earn non-dues revenue by securing sponsorships and promoting their content on your community platform. With a sponsorship sidebar, sponsors’ content is always visible but not intrusive.
• Plan, promote, and host events. With Tradewing’s conferencing software, members can easily toggle between your community platform and event site. Announce events on your community feed, send attendance reminders, and host your virtual events all on the same platform.
• Create more valuable sponsor and partner experiences. Earn non-dues revenue through sponsorships while giving partners opportunities to contribute across the member experience. Rather than limiting sponsorship to logo placement or a sidebar, associations can connect partners with relevant content, events, learning, and community experiences.
• Maintain members’ privacy. Tradewing allows associations to create thorough member profiles with as many custom fields as they want. Once members complete their profiles, they can choose what information they want visible. This preserves members’ privacy as they engage with your community.
• Support learning and professional development. Connect courses, continuing education, and certification with the community around them, giving members opportunities to discuss what they’re learning, exchange ideas with peers, and continue learning beyond the course itself.
• Create designated members-only areas. Tradewing gives associations control over what is available publicly and what is reserved for members, making it possible to create dedicated spaces, resources, groups, and experiences for different audiences. These experiences can also live alongside your association’s website, helping create a more consistent path between public content and member-only value.
• Monitor engagement analytics. Monitor engagement over time and drill down into specific members’ engagement metrics to see who is an active part of your community and who might be at risk of lapsing. By bringing together signals from community, learning, events, resources, and other activities, teams can develop a more complete picture of member interests and engagement.

Tradewing brings these experiences together so they can build on one another, while giving association teams a clearer view of member engagement. The result is a more connected member experience without adding unnecessary complexity for staff.

More Community Management Resources

The right community management platform gives members more than a place to post. It creates an environment where relationships, knowledge sharing, learning, events, and other parts of membership can reinforce one another.

As you compare platforms, look beyond the longest feature list. Consider how easily members can participate, how much work the platform creates for staff, how well it connects with the rest of your technology, and whether it helps your association understand engagement across the member journey.

To continue learning about community management, check out these free resources:

• Tradewing Resources Hub. Discover more of Tradewing’s association management resources, and determine if their offerings are right for your association. 

• 6 Excellent Higher Logic Alternatives: Comparing Features. Looking for a user-friendly member experience platform with sufficient functionality and without a heavy price tag? Check out these platforms that rival one of the most popular names in the space.
• 10 Trusted Mighty Networks Alternatives For Your Community. Mighty Networks is another big player in the online community space. Check out these competitors to find a solution with more customizability, greater functionality, and a more intuitive interface.