11
25 Comments

😎 Slack, LinkedIn or Facebook?

Hey people,

Which platform shall I use to build a home for the community I'm creating for my brand Anthro? ( https://anthro.substack.com/ )

It's a weekly newsletter sharing advice on brand strategy/campaigns/marketing for startups. Soon there will be some online resources (theory, guidance & exercises).

I want to create a place for people to share knowledge, help each other and network. Personally I don't like Slack, Facebook is well... Facebook. LinkedIn is kind of bland. Would love your thoughts and suggestions! 🙂

Which platform should I build my community on?
  1. Slack
  2. LinkedIn
  3. Facebook
Vote
  1. 5

    Why not use the threads feature of Substack to see if you can get some discussions going? Then it is all in one place.

    1. 1

      Didn’t even know this was a thing haha! Thank you! Will do this for sure!

  2. 2

    @sanyajeet Avoid Facebook and LinkedIn like the plague!!! They own the platform and access to your members and, though they may make things simpler, they WILL screw you over eventually. Slack isn't ideal, either, but there are TONS of amazing community platforms out there to check out. We're using mightynetworks.com and it isn't perfect, but it's really great at encouraging engagement (and has a nice mobile app).

    1. 1

      Hey @sanyajeet
      I would love to hear more about what "isn't perfect" about Mighty Networks. Just trying to learn in order to improve our own offering. Would you be up for a quick chat about it?

      1. 1

        @Mellie66 I wrote that...sometimes IH is confusing! :)

        Isn't perfect, because it needs:

        1. giphy / emoji integration ;P
        2. a better, more controllable onboarding process (put in steps to help familiarize people to the platform and community guidelines as well as our own TOU)
        3. a more flexible, customizable ambassador program (right now, there are three levels and it's not ideal) and ways to build in gamification (leaderboards? badges for participation?)
        4. somewhere to house documents / a resource center (for everything from a community handbook to a knowledge center of resources to download/use)
        5. better inner linking - with proper preview images (right now, any time I link to an event or group, it just shows "phlywheel" general)
        6. more flexibility with paid memberships (we can't give someone a free month, for instance, as a reward. We can't charge $40, only $39.99. People on a free plan can't go to a paid plan...weird stuff like this)

        That's to name a few!

        1. 1

          Wow this feedback is incredibly useful! Thank you so much for putting this together :)

  3. 2

    What about Discord? In my opinion, it's superior to Slack as people don't need to create a separate account and you can set up a private server. It has a powerful role system so you can allow access to channels based on that. And the full history of all chat is included in the free plan. Not even mentioning audio channels anyone can join for a quick chat.

    One pain point of Discord is lack of threads, so hot discussion over several topics can become messy.

  4. 1

    I've created the community for https://www.cashout.games/ on Telegram! Is easierto chat directly with the people 💬 It's very easy to create it

  5. 1

    What about Panion? https://panion.com

    We've been receiving quite a few community managers transitioning from FB groups and Slack as well as those building from scratch.

    We are having a sale where the first year of comprehensive analytics is totally free for the first 25 customers.

    Feel free to reach out if you have any questions: [email protected]

  6. 1

    Ask your potential community what would be the best platform for them :)
    This way you will start the engagement!

  7. 1

    From a features perspective, Discord is probably your best bet – in particular, the role/moderation features and the new community server stuff are really great. That being said, I agree w/ other people here that the "professional" aspect of your community may make Slack or LinkedIn the right choice. Discord still is marketed at gamers so the branding might feel a little off – hope to see them improve on that 😅

  8. 1

    Not listed, but you should consider Twitter

    1. 1

      Can you have closed groups on twitter??

    1. 1

      Can you have closed groups on twitter??

  9. 1

    Slack out of those listed - given its a professional network. Though would be really awesome if you could check us out too - https://meshchat.co - made for networking IM platform.

  10. 1

    I hated Slack for a while but am starting to see its value. Facebook has great groups if you manage them right, but LinkedIn groups are totally dead

  11. 1

    Out of these three, I'd say Slack is the best bet for your use-case / niche. But just curious: why not right here, on IH?

    1. 1

      Can you have a closed/private group on here?

    2. 1

      Call me a novice- I’m new to IH.... but I’m looking to create a closed group. So it’s quite exclusive.

      1. 1

        @sanyajeet on Mesh we've got a whitelist group feature that allows creating invite-only closed groups. Will be great to see if you think its something that fits the bill - https://meshchat.co - we've just about gone live.

  12. 1

    Why not joining an already existing community focus on these topics and share / help / network like hell inside first?

    1. 1

      Ohhh nice idea!! Can you recommend any? 😊

      1. 1

        Nope but I'd be surprised if no meaningful discussions whatsoever aren't happening somewhere on the web right now 😉

  13. 1

    This comment was deleted 4 years ago.

  14. 1

    This comment was deleted 3 years ago.

Trending on Indie Hackers
How I grew a side project to 100k Unique Visitors in 7 days with 0 audience 47 comments Competing with Product Hunt: a month later 33 comments Why do you hate marketing? 27 comments $15k revenues in <4 months as a solopreneur 14 comments Use Your Product 13 comments How I Launched FrontendEase 13 comments