What's some good tips for starting a community?
I'm trying to build a community around a certain niche/topic and Iv'e created a forum & simple website but the old adage "build it and they shall come" is a complete lie. I need to build the community so that any visitors don't just see an empty forum and leave.
What are some good tips for getting activity happening on a niche forum?
I saw a tweet from @rosiesherry last week that said "To be remembered, listen well" and it makes so much sense when it comes to the community! Be aware of what people want to see and build your community according to their needs. Rosie gives precious tips to build a community, I suggest you follow her on Twitter :)
Thanks for the mention!
I created a community https://sellers.mn.co/ but no one joined
Maybe some of these posts will help you kick start your community - https://rosie.land/posts?topic=starting
lol yeah I'm sure it's not uncommon. It's so easy to visualise the community humming along and the niche in perfect vibrancy. But it's really hard to visualise the long windy journey needed to build it to that poin.
I've written a few things here on starting communities - https://rosie.land/posts?topic=starting
Find the best people on twitter that are into audience building and community and grab all their great threads. A good starting point: https://twitter.com/jayclouse
Be the first power user. Make threads, reply to every comment. Invite via DMs, FB replies, Reddit comments, HN comments. Recruit 1 by 1 as if you were selling a product. Seek out active members of social media sites who have an agenda to post and reply, and invite them in to seed the first few active people.
Perhaps hand recruit a few people and make it useful for them first?
interaction
Leverage other high traffic communities e.g. Indie Hackers, Twitter, Slack groups, Discord servers, Facebook groups, or even Instagram. Establish yourself as a 'the' person in your niche/topic and be engaged with the members.
At the same time, write quality posts on your website about the topic while making the sure best SEO practices.
In time, this will bring in the right visitors to your site :)
This might help (I didn't write it):
https://orbit.love/blog/a-tactical-guide-to-kickstarting-your-community