I've been into community building for over 15 years. How may I help you?
I've been into community building for over 15 years. I've also built a highly-scalable community platform and know a thing or two about what works and what doesn't.
If you are building a community and have a question, please share it below. I'll be happy to help.
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How to get the first 100 initial members of community?
That's what I am wondering too!
@sumit9988 and @Enias - Please don't think about first 100 members. Please read my other answers in this discussion.
In summary, your first job must be to validate the community and build relationships with your potential first 20 engaged members.
You'll find those 20 members on other forums, platforms by discussing about the topics you wish to build your community around. Connect with these people and form strong relationship. Invest good 2-3 months into it. It'd be very much worth it in the long run.
Hi Thebigk,
This is Mohan and the owner of site https://altty.com/, the mail intention of my site is that the People(I call them as Gifters in my site) will list their unused items for free and the person in need of such item will get it. Same like classified concept, instead of selling the items, Gifters has to list the Items for free/gifting, but not for any monetary value. It's like Giving Back To Society the ones they no longer using or useful to them (to the Gifter).
The main reason I am commenting in this forum is to check whether in your career did you came across any Community which is into donations, gifting, giving back to society type of concept, I request you to provide such community details, so that I can contact the community & take their help in growing my site and help the needy.
@Alttyjoy - I've explored a lot of communities that are into giving back to the society. I think most of the commenters in a serious community are giving it back to others without any expectation in return. That's the real power of the community. Giving back in terms of knowledge, advice, consultation etc.
I can't recall any particular community that'd be of your interest. But you'll have to think about the primary reason anyone would want to keep coming back to your community. If that pull is missing; growing a community becomes 100x harder.
If you are in that situation; I'd recommend making gifting a byproduct of the community; not the main focus.
Thanks for this opportunity!
I'd like to ask you:
which tools do you use for the communities you built and what you found very annoying and what you found great in these tools?
@SeaCat - I started out with phpBB, moved to vBulletin and xenForo and ultimately decided to build my own platform to suite my specific requirements.
Most of the community tools are super focused on 'discussions'. Very few are focused on proper onboarding and retaining users; leaving the community managers/owners do all the hard work. That is one of the reason, I'm planning on building a community platform that leverages my past experience and answers the most common questions I've been asked about community building.
I've noticed a trend of building community over discord and slack; and I"m highly biased against using them. Those platforms are good for real-time chats; but thats it. You always have FOMO. A community, should feel like a home where you are at your own pace; not something you always need to catch up with.
Thanks! I actually totally agree with you, and it may be just a coincidence that I'm also thinking of building a modern community platform. I'd like to chat more about your requirements if you wouldn't mind and share mine.
Sure, why not. DM'd you on Twitter.
Hi! I am growing a community for a social media (www.mapmelon.com) for travellers.
I posted it on all the Startups forums I know (Product Hunt, IH, reddit, betalist, etc) and in some blogs/forums for travellers (TravelMassive, colivings channel, facebook groups, etc), but I find it difficult to grow it outside of our friends.
Right now we have 80 users after a month of the launch and we are in a moment when we don't know if still pushing(maybe with paid ads or influencers) or just pivot it to an utility tool and not focus in the social part.
So the question will be... How can we create a Social media from (almost) 0 users?
Hey @garciasole - You are on to a good start. You already have 80 users. I'd recommend stopping all marketing activities and focus on building communication with these 80 users who've trusted you.
Try to find 5-10 people who'll want to talk to you, share why they signed up, what their expectations are etc. Make them feel connected. Try to get them together on a casual, fun Zoom call where they discuss stuff on their own. Encourage them even if you feel that discussions aren't in the direction you want.
These people will bring the next set of users. Try to integrate a community platform on your site if the content can be public.
Thank you so much for the tip!
Will totally improve communication with those users :) The Zoom call sounds great.
I didn't even thought about community platforms, do you have any recommendation?
Circle, Tribe, Telegram, Mighty Networks, Slack, Discord - there are a few; each with its own advantages and disadvantages.
I'm building a tool and plan to release it soon. Let me know if you'd want to give it a try and help shape its development.
Thank you for the help!
Yes, I'll be interested, let me know when you release it :)
I have a new community-based site of startup founders and investors. It's called VCbackME.com and it's a database of startup pitch decks, which members can comment on (or connect with the founders).
I am a bit unsure regarding which way to steer my community's direction. I've had some traction, but not sure if I need to change the product or marketing (or both). Is there anything blatantly obvious to you that I could do to improve this project? Thanks.
Looks interesting, @mark_b1234. Please think about -
Blatantly obvious: Your landing page gives me no idea about what to expect from the community. I can't figure out if it's a community at all. I need to see people interacting with each other to get a feel of community.
Good points. I want to build more than just a website. I want to build a community. A real community meets in real places/spaces. Like meetup. Although I've always had my misgivings about meetup, I find it one of the more interesting websites/communities online.
What was the most difficult problem while you were building your community?
@taka80 - I built a large (430K+ members) community of engineers from 180+ countries. I began building it in 2005 and it was difficult to keep it relevant after 15 years. I've done a ton of experiments and have learned through my own experiences.
What kind of engineering community was it?
A generic community where engineers from multiple disciplines could discuss on variety of topics.
Is the community still active?
It is; but has drastically changed. Memberships are manually approved. Search for "CrazyEngineers".
Wow, this is a big community! Well done building it :)
Yes. Over 430K engineers from over 180 countries. I don't actively run it though. Let me know if you're interested in the new community platform I'll soon begin building.
How do you start out a community from scratch when all you have is a brilliant idea but no following whatsoever?
Good question, @lexdragos. The best way to start is to test your idea before you actually get into community building. Try discussing it on existing forums, reddit or any place you think your first 20 members are.
If you get people talking about your idea, you're onto something. At this time, you must initiate one-on-one discussions with these people.
First 50 engaged people are the key to building a successful community. Your community may be a group of people you send emails to OR on Telegram or WhatsApp.
You don't need any followers to do that. I hope it helps. Let me know.
Maybe you could try to post your brilliant idea on an active platform and find like-minded people before building your own community or forum, as I think Conscious is the basis of a community.
What do you see as the top 5 things you need to build a successful community?
Additionally, where do you market a new community without much cost?
These are the top 5 things that come to my mind -
Validate your community by attracting at least 20 people on existing and established community platforms like FB, Reddit, LinkedIn, Instagram etc.
Build one-on-one relationships and connect with these 20-50 people. Talk to them about your ideas for community and help them understand the value they're going to get from the community.
Focus on initial content on your community. Make sure it's super relevant and engaging for your first members. Do they engage with it without you having to force them? If yes, you are on the right path.
Offer instant gratification and encouragement to your initial members. Acknowledge their contribution, express interest in what they want to contribute. Help them and guide them. Make it easy for them to be a part of the community.
Do not rush. Community building often has a slow start (~ 2-3 months to a year) but the ROI is 10000x. Take things easy.
I firmly believe that a good community markets itself. Your members will invite others if they find attached. It often is a snowball effect.
I recommend building open communities and not a fan of building community on Slack or Discord.
@thebigk Thanks for these tips. I'm trying to build a community around NLP for SWEs looking to improve their products with language AI.
Curious about what you mean by open communities. We thought building a community on Discord was the way to go. Sounds like you have a better alternative.
I'm happy you found them useful, @Enias. By open community, I mean where the content is not blocked by the platform viz. Slack/Discord. Though there are several successful communities built on them; I see the following problems -
There are several other drawbacks; but those are the ones I'd highlight.
Disclaimer: I might sound bit biased here. I do have a better alternative.
Interesting!! Can you suggest the alternative platforms?
@Hardik_Shah - There are several like Circle, Tribe, Mighty Network, XenForo. These are finding good traction.
I'm currently developing a new platform because I'm not happy with any of these.
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I'd love to know the context of this question. It'd be foolish to ignore social media altogether because that's where people are on the Internet. However, you can build your own audience through newsletters, community, blog etc.
Regulate your business's engagement with social media; is all I can say.
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I've been away from social media as well. I purely use it for business needs. Been active on Twitter lately; but only a few minutes every week.