Building a community without any initial followers?
Hi there,
I want to build a private community around a subject I'm personally involved with. I know that there are thousands of people talking about this and searching for communities because they already exist in the form of Facebook communities. The problem with Facebook though is, that it is super unorganized and open for everyone.
To differentiate myself I would run my community on Mighty Networks and (after the first 100 users) would make it a paid one as well.
The only question I ask myself is if it's possible to build a community totally from scratch without having any kind of followership in that space? There already are some influencers who also build there own communities (Facebook) off of their online presence. Is this bad or good?
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It's totally possible. Just start small, and be crazy active: facilitate discussions, generate excitement, host events, have a relationships with your early members, send reminders, otherwise provide value at a personal level. Even a community with just a handful of people is a solid community.
Remember that you never want your community to feel dead, so ensure the "container" of your community is appropriately sized. If there are 10 people in your community, don't add a ton of subgroups that will just be dead, and try limiting discussion to a small number of events per week rather than keeping it always on. That'll give the feeling of activity.
Also remember that community is about people helping people. If it's just you helping people all the time, that's an audience, not a community. So try to grow it in a way that empowers your members to provide value to each other.
Differentiation is great, but I wouldn't prioritize it too highly. Rather, prioritize customization. Product-market fit, but more like community-member fit. Make the right community for your members at the right time. You can always switch platforms later as your community grows and its members' needs change.
Thanks for the awesome advice! I heard the point on the "container" size a lot and I think it's an important thing to keep in mind in the beginning.
Community-member fit also needs to be a huge focus, that's right!
I think what keeps me back from jumping straight into it, is the fact that I'm not sure if I can deliver meaningful value on a persistent schedule. It sound's like you have to create a huge amount of content over a long period of time, in order to keep the community engaged.
I'm struggling a lot with that in my side projects since I'm a fulltime employee as well.
For me personally, one of the most important things about building community is showing that you are going to stick around and that you care about what you are building. To do that you have to show up (every day) and produce things of value.
We've all started zero, so it's perfectly feasible to grow without followers, but you need to find a way to find them, attract them in and gain/keep their trust.
That's a huge part of it I think! Thank you for your insights Rosie :)
You have a response from @csallen which is all you need. He built this community you are on! :)
I would also say, Of course, it is possible. But as the comments say you need to first give before you take. Seth Godin calls this the “permission” that you will have earned - or more broadly known as “social capital”. To put it simple, it comes down to how much are you willing to give to make friends?
Access to a platform is a “must” at the start.
Once you have a foot in or you find your way around then you can move on to your own platform.
I built a small group over the years called Cambridge Game Creators. Meetup dot com gave me the platform I needed, it helped me bring in people who were searching but also gave me a place to invite my friends from around the world to join in. It took two years of giving away free events, quality speakers and “being there every day”, until I built this. At only 1000ish members, it is small but hey, in a small town, having a direct line to 1000 game developers is a big deal.
A friend of mine, Ben, used Kickstarter. He had a good product in mind for Udemy and KS gave him a platform to gain a few thousand followers in 30 days. Then Udemy helped him after publishing the content because Udemy has millions of viewers.
He didn’t give anything away for free exactly but he delivered so damn much more than the small amounts he got paid that you can say he has given it all away for almost nothing compared to what you got!
Another example is Shripaphai Thai restaurant in NY. She used the existing Chowhound as her platform to build a hardcore follower community around her Thai food.
So it’s all about your mindset. But don’t forget, a community, a brand or a common belief is not something you invent or ever own - it’s there, in people’s minds - you may find it or have found it and, if so, you may have a chance to become the voice of that common belief but don’t make the mistake to think you can “change” it because people are the ones who own it.
I used Instagram as my platform to find my community. Have roughly 2k followers that are also interested in my niche (so not random friends & family) and about 200 people converted into a Facebook group community in about two weeks, with other IG-ers helping with promotion, me posting about it in other FB groups, and some posts on Reddit. People in the group also are inviting their friends, so organically growing too slowly without my direct push.
Facebook was easier for me to launch the community because the majority of IG folks were already on FB so they didn't have to download a new app or join a new website = less friction. I keep the FB group private so I have to approve if anyone joins, keeping it less open to the world. I'm intrigued by Mighty Networks though, I'll take a look at it.
The engagement rate out the gate is extremely high (about 50% posters/lurkers). A big part of this is due to the folks who were following me on IG are also content creators - they are used to sharing about their passion. So targeting people who are active content creators in adjacent communities might help as well.
@RaminZaghi I love your example of Shripaphai Thai! Were you following that rise when Chowhound still in its heyday or did you read about it somewhere? Also would love to look at how Ben framed his Kickstart for inspo if you don't mind sharing?
Unfortunately I did not have the pleasure of being there - never lived in NYC - I am based in Cambridge, England. This was one of many dozens of founder success stories I listened to on various iTunes business related podcasts.
RE: KS, I won't speak on Ben's behalf. He does have a very good grasp of how to talk to sell and according to himself he kept failing for almost a decade until he found his niche. But he has repeatedly told me that KS is all about "Just hit the publish button and don't think about it too much, if it's the right product for that audience at the right time, it will be winner..." and thinking about his KS video and his first KS camp that does sound about right. It was like "people like to learn game development but they don't know programming, so let's teach them, and he made a half funny half serious video and just hit the publish button". He argues that nobody can ever guess the right asking amount either because what are the chances you ask for $X and the massive market gives you exactly $X !? Just ask anything and let the platform prove your right or wrong - if the time and the product is right, you will get a lot more than you thought, otherwise you get nothing...
If you want to hear him, I included him in a series of interviews with a few founders that I published on https://udemy.com/starting-up
Very wise words. Love how you phrase that no one really ever owns a community spirit. I believe this to be true.
It seems like it's coming down to "social capital" and how much one is willing to invest upfront to gather a group of likeminded people. Pretty much the same principle for winning new friends in general.
@Dahfab yes, correct and it reminds me of something that makes me laugh every time I remember it: Somebody said think of the Internet as a loud speaker. If you do not have a good voice then you cannot sing, having a loud speaker is not going to turn you into a singer, lol :D
Your community are like your friends, if you want to make friends then you have to put in the effort, turn up, be true to them...
Start by offering something of value.
You'll probably have to offer many free things over a long period of time to gain their trust (as @rosiesherry suggested), so I'd start by creating one big free resource, then trying to build up a mailing list. Continue offering free blog posts, advice, and other articles to subscribers until you have a critical mass of subscribers.
Once you do, it'll be easier to get them to join a community.
It's possible. It's a good sign that people are searching or talking about this, but it'll take you more time and energy to persuade people away from Facebook. If Facebook's organization isn't a problem to your target users, why would they switch to your community elsewhere that doesn't have the network like Facebook does? And why would they pay (if they're after 100 users) for something they can likely get elsewhere for no cost? But building a follower base is absolutely doable, just takes time, persistence, and offering people something that is valuable TO THEM.
Thank you for your answer!
Yes, I know it needs to be more valuable and I would only make it paid if I would bring more value trough special webinars, interviews, AMAs and databases. Something you can't quite accomplish with Facebook.