1. Invest in the means, not the end.
2. Focus relentlessly on the needs of the members.
3. Resist the temptation to control.
4. Don’t assume the community will become self-sustaining.
5. Consider environmental factors.
6. Extend community-building beyond the discussion space.
7. Seek out and support members who take on informal roles.

Scott Burkett geeft op basis van het onderzoeksrapport een aantal aanvullende suggesties:

1. Follow the 7 principles laid out above (even though the results of the Andersen study were published in 1999, they ring true even today).
2. Give your members a way to communicate openly.
3. Strive for “mass stickyness” in the form of the targeted “killer app”.
4. “Collaboration” should be an over-arching theme.
5. Establish a captivating backstory.
6. Foster a sense of trust.
7. Mitigate security and privacy concerns.
8. Facilitate “relationship conversions” whenever possible (online-to-offline, offline-to-online).
9. Be persistent, but don’t force things.
10. Don’t be afraid to reinvent yourself from time to time.
11. Don’t toss out those ideas that don’t initially work!