Nebthtet

IC (Invision Community) needs to start integrating with major social media platforms, beyond basic link sharing. We recently relented to demand and started a parallel FB "group" in addition to our existing FB business "page". It has resulted in a quite a few new users for our IC powered community site, but maintaining a "lite" version of the same community on a second platform is a huge burden.
Here are a few major pain points that IC could address with better integration:
It's a ton of work to duplicate every one of our major calendar events in the FB group. We create these as "link" type events on FB with the get-tickets/more-info link pointing back to our community site calendar event and the description of the event saying that to sign-up, you must click the link and do so on our community site. IC should have a share/promote/push feature that would create an event in our FB group (or a FB page) based on the IC calendar event (same date/time/photo and a link back to the IC event). This would be a huge step forward, even if it was a one-way push, and even if there was no further integration after the initial FB event creation (i.e. we'd have to make changes to the FB event manually if something in our community event changed or if it was removed).
  Sharing an IC discussion topic to any social platform doesn't include a good preview image most of the time. This is because most people don't upload photos directly (as attachments), instead they embed a photo URL from a photo hosting/sharing site. IC should use the first photo in a discussion topic as the social share image even if it is an external URL. Yes, this would mean that there would need to be an option for IC to "always cache topic external preview images" even if the option to save/cache all external images was disabled.
  We need even the most basic 2-way integration with social platforms... For example, If I promote/share anything from our community to FB, Twitter, IG, etc., then there should be an option to pull the comments from those other platforms back into our community and show them on that shared item. I know this is possible as I have another site powered by Wordpress and there is a plugin which does exactly this (pull the comments on a shared blog post from Facebook and mix them in with the native WP post comments). I realize this feature would require a lot of thought about how to effectively show those external comments (as a different thread or mixed within the native discussion but visually differentiated). However, I believe that if IC doesn't start putting in more work to integrate with popular social platforms (FB, IG, Twitter), then they are going to continue to lose entire communities to those platforms.

Although there are lots of settings and features built into the suite to programmatically encourage "connectivity", it takes a great deal of finesse to keep both the early adopters and those that join later "truly" connected.
If a site admin "wings it", then...

It will likely lead to a "very" bumpy ride for one-and-all.
It takes thought and experimentation to hit upon how to create an overall environment that encourages members to connect with each other at the various stages of a site's development and long-term existence.
Eliciting feedback from early adopters is important but there is no guarantee that the first cohort's personality and interests will mirror that of future members. As such, it's wise not to build-out a site utilizing their input exclusively.   One should continuously elicit input from folks that have been around for varying periods of time. When you get a handle of the needs of your overall membership new and old you will have a better sense of how to guide the community towards ever more connectivity around areas that matter to the group as a whole.
As people's interests change (and you factor in short-lived trends) a site needs to constantly figure out how to address those changing interests and possibly differences in how members engage with each other. This is especially important if a site caters to a demographic that encompasses multiple generations and geographic regions.
Adopting a top-down approach to community engagement is unlikely to work much past a site's launch. A site admin should refrain from thinking this is "my site" and instead of think of it as "our site". What should "we" do to make this site far more engaging for all of us in comparison with our competitors?  Does "our" content "engage" and "inform", and does it feel like a place to hang out and make "real" connections with others.
Instead of admins setting the tone for a site by ensuring members adhere to a complex set of community standards one might consider changing their roles to be facilitators. They could be utilized to facilitate great dialog and introduce various members to each other they think might benefit from getting to know each other and elicit great conversations.
Getting to know other members in meaningful ways may require revealing a little more about oneself than just one's screen name. Profiles with just the right kind of fields filled out can go a long way towards helping ferret out fellow members with similar interests. This is a feature that often isn't utilized to its fullest extent as the value proposition isn't properly communicated to one-and-all from my observations of this site as well as others.
I've had 12,719 profile views here but as very few other people have filled out their profiles, I've followed suite and left mine almost blank.  People appear to want to know more about other fellow members here, but IPS has chosen not to promote the use of profiles.
Being in regular contact with your entire community (not just your early adopters and power users) is important. This will better allow you to find common ground amongst your entire membership. You might have to make a special effort to draw some folks out but it's worth it in the long term.  Many new members are a bit shy at first but in time may become quite active when they reach a certain comfort level. Who knows, some of these folks might be some of your best contributors in the years to come.
Society seems to instill a strong sense of independence in the populace.  Although that has many positives there are negative aspects as well.  One being that we are often reticent of asking for help from others.
Collectively we can accomplish so much more than what we can do individually, so don't be afraid to ask for assistance from your membership to help create a "community". You might be surprised by how many folks will offer to lend a hand if it is being used in a truly useful fashion and a task can be completed in a short span of time.
@Matt made some great points above, I would recommend folks check out more of his blog postings along with Joel R and Jordan Miller.
 
 

Collapse only for quotes? It would be nice to have the same feature for code blocks.

This updates can help Administrators to make its communities alive and protected from prohibited content:
Allow Administrator to change the topicstarter. Options to ban members to change topic title and firts message separately. Setup permissions for members group that way, so the members of "one group" could see each other content, but other groups can't see "one group" content. Like parallel world in the same community. If Reply to this status... in All Activity feed, then updated status goes UP on the feed. Notifications about someone's replied to any Status Updates. Delete Digg and Delicious from Share on. Change for WhatsApp, Telegram, WeChat, Instagram. Add the setup option for it in the AdminCP. Word Filters for Status Updates replies. Word Filters for About Me in Profile. Display Pinned topics and Recommended posts in All Activity feed. If Added new word to filter, all the filtered content must be updated regarding Action to take. Built-in translator for messages in other languages. Quote Collapse.

This will be a welcome addition and can I can see also the potential for other uses.

Thanks for the welcomes! Can't wait to start implementing some nice updates into Invision Community for everyone in future versions. Stay tuned! 🙂 

@Ehren H congrats on joining the IPS Team :)
The redesign looks nice but I'll +1 to the dark side fans too 😉

@Ehren H congrats on joining the IPS Team :)
The redesign looks nice but I'll +1 to the dark side fans too 😉

Indeed, they do 🙂 

Hey, they use great forum software too!

I find this whole hashtag business so impersonal... On top of that for me it always feels forced and artificial. Probably this is because I've started my adventure with the web around Y2K, so the community aspect looked totally different. Those communities were much more closer-knit and even in larger ones people still acted differently - and this is something I still try to look for and foster although in many cases it's growing more difficult.
Anyway, I think that good example is Serif who have a really fine community where you can ask for tips on how to use the software, suggest new functionality (the devs often respond too). The community shares self-made tutorials, links, their art, etc. It isn't only Serif spamming with links "we made a thing" "here's our tutorial", "here's promo article". They of course have social media presence but use it as an extension not a base.
They also make a damn fine software, that surely helps too 😉

I find this whole hashtag business so impersonal... On top of that for me it always feels forced and artificial. Probably this is because I've started my adventure with the web around Y2K, so the community aspect looked totally different. Those communities were much more closer-knit and even in larger ones people still acted differently - and this is something I still try to look for and foster although in many cases it's growing more difficult.
Anyway, I think that good example is Serif who have a really fine community where you can ask for tips on how to use the software, suggest new functionality (the devs often respond too). The community shares self-made tutorials, links, their art, etc. It isn't only Serif spamming with links "we made a thing" "here's our tutorial", "here's promo article". They of course have social media presence but use it as an extension not a base.
They also make a damn fine software, that surely helps too 😉

I do the same but I try to keep the same URL if possible. I limit words used on FURLS to 5 words max which allows me to make changes without changing the URL. But, there are times you just have to change the whole title.
Other things I do to improve SEO...
Merge similar topics (especially if old and not driving too much traffic; especially, those that have some value) Format content so that it's easier to scan.  Improve content that drives traffic. (Evergreen content) Delete/Archive old poor quality content.  Delete old accounts with 0 content. None of this is easy but it's worth it. I recommend starting with your most popular topics (high Views count).
I'm against auto-tagging. I just don't see any value to it.
My team have instructions to tag only "high-quality" content.
We use tagging for the Similar Content block because it gives us some control.
We have control over what keywords are used. We  have control over what topics are tagged.  We have control over what topics are found in Similar Content block (and tag pages). The easier it is to find these "quality pages" the more value they gain. (eg. More traffic, shares, word of mouth, etc)
BACKGROUND...
Years ago I used tagging like you do. Enabled auto-tagging, allowed all members to tag, etc ... we literally had hundreds of thousands of tags (perhaps over 1 million) - many were similar, typos, poor quality, etc. (VBULLETIN BIG BOARD SITE)
I found myself working constantly in cleaning the mess. The ROI just wasn't there when compared to other things I could be doing. So I dropped it altogether with no regrets.
TAKE CONTROL
I'm sure you have heard of User Generated Content (UGC). If you run a forum site you are dependent on your members to produce content. About a decade or so ago, most forum admins peaked in terms of traffic. Since then traffic likely plateaued or dropped (more likely the latter).
Heck, back then you would see many forums selling for over $1 million dollars. Not these days. 
The biggest problem we have with a UGC business model is that we have very little control over what members post.
Technology and Google are changing rapidly it's time to start taking some control back. The above is just one way of doing just that.
Joel R's Community Management tips is another great way to take back some control.  A good community manager redirects focus where it should go. 
So let's get back to these Growth Hacks. I'm sure @Joel R would appreciate it. 😉

@GTServices manual staff tagging adds quite much work for staff which is problematic especially for small communities (i.e. I have to be a webmaster, head editor, admin, mod etc). Do you have any good suggestion how to best do this?
Currently what I use is a mix of automatic tagging (autotags are based on subforum / gallery category that the user posts content in) mixed with fixing tags when I notice that there's a need. I also periodically go through tags via backend to get rid of errors, things that should be merged and similar. So the users have freedom to tag as they see fit (some use that, most of them properly) and lazy users aren't forced to tag too.

@GTServices manual staff tagging adds quite much work for staff which is problematic especially for small communities (i.e. I have to be a webmaster, head editor, admin, mod etc). Do you have any good suggestion how to best do this?
Currently what I use is a mix of automatic tagging (autotags are based on subforum / gallery category that the user posts content in) mixed with fixing tags when I notice that there's a need. I also periodically go through tags via backend to get rid of errors, things that should be merged and similar. So the users have freedom to tag as they see fit (some use that, most of them properly) and lazy users aren't forced to tag too.

1. Tutorial or Articles - Everyone needs help. Creating tutorials on your website brings users but doesn't add much interaction. Then the new enhancement from IPS kicks in. I am just going to quote you @Joel R - 
2. Log-in - Make it fast and more user friendly. Add all available logins ex. Twitter, FB, Discord, etc etc. Time is important and everyone hates filling Govt. forms.  :P 
3. Target advertising or follow ups - Can't wait IPS to add Bulk emails/PM's which supports Custom Field. Don't spam users with generic emails. Everyone hates it and it would be soon marked as spam by user!  Ex - If player is not playing RPG games - don't send RPG games email. Use custom field which they have selected i.e. FPS to send him FPS games update. I can't wait for new enhancements on it! @Matt
Use custom fields to show their profile completion progress, Registration should be email/password and validation. 
4. Themes - Provide light and dark theme at least. Even now mobile OS provides - light and dark theme so that user can use what they like. I just wish Themes would be available to select through drop down menu rather then all the way in bottom! 

Whoa whoa, 16 minutes is way too long to spend on growth.  Four minutes is plenty 😆.  
Kidding.  
If you have any growth hacks, write them down and I'll be happy to aggregate them! 

Oh yes, those things do help - one thing to be on the lookout for though - with hack #4 a moderator should look at least sometimes on the topic if the community has some passionate but hotheaded members 😉 

Oh yes, those things do help - one thing to be on the lookout for though - with hack #4 a moderator should look at least sometimes on the topic if the community has some passionate but hotheaded members 😉 

The only thing missing for me from IPS is an app so people can get notofications instantly (about PMs, likes etc - that should be configurable like forum notifications). We have a webhook on discord for posts and stuff, but that's the most important missing thing that comes to mind which could help in community building for me.

I agree. I think being able to have an app for your website would make it more competitive against others such as Facebook and other social media platforms.

The only thing missing for me from IPS is an app so people can get notofications instantly (about PMs, likes etc - that should be configurable like forum notifications). We have a webhook on discord for posts and stuff, but that's the most important missing thing that comes to mind which could help in community building for me.

The only thing missing for me from IPS is an app so people can get notofications instantly (about PMs, likes etc - that should be configurable like forum notifications). We have a webhook on discord for posts and stuff, but that's the most important missing thing that comes to mind which could help in community building for me.

The only thing missing for me from IPS is an app so people can get notofications instantly (about PMs, likes etc - that should be configurable like forum notifications). We have a webhook on discord for posts and stuff, but that's the most important missing thing that comes to mind which could help in community building for me.

You have the data on your server (or if you are on our cloud plan, we will give you a copy when you leave) and there are numerous conversion tools for other platforms.