Hey there- me again!
Hope you had a good week.
I’ve had a rollercoaster week dealing with my emotions and trying to keep my hope high around my entire career. I pulled through and yeah I’m fine again.
Today, I’m sharing a question someone asked in a community group that I gave answers to. It's a good one, so I hope it helps!
Hi everyone,
I have a few questions to ask
1. What are the first steps you take when starting a community from scratch?
2. What do you do to get people to join your community... I know this is different for each community but I just want to know.
3. What makes your community different from other communities?
⇣
⇣
1. "Why do you want to start a community? Who will be a part of it? Where will it exist? And how will it function?"
Getting clarity on these basics will help you lay the foundation for a healthy and successful community.
- What is the overall goal of the brand or company?
How does community align with this overall goal
What do you want to achieve with community?
Is building a community the right and only solution to achieve that goal?
- Why must this community exist?
What specific problem will the community solve for its members?
What opportunities will the community create for its members?
- Who are you building the community for?
What group of people will you gather and NOT gather?
What are the requirements for membership?
Their demographics (if necessary)
What are their values?
What are their challenges?
- Where will the community be hosted?
Where do your potential members gather?
Would you gather them online or offline?
How often do you want them to gather?
- How will engagement be handled?
What different ways do you want people to participate?
What programs can you create to support their different ways of engaging?
Reward system?
How will you gather feedback and support members?
This is the formula I stick to mostly to get through the basics but if you need another perspective, you can check out the 7Ps of community by CMX
⇣
2. The approach to get people into your community varies.
Some communities come together from events, some from circle of friends, and some from the social media audience already gathered.
Others ways to get people in is by promoting the community on your personal space. And when you get a few people in, encourage them to promote it to their networks as well.
In a situation, where you are working with a community team, encourage them to speak of the community in their space too.
In all, don’t try to force the numbers.
⇣
3. What makes your community different from other communities is your content and how you deliver it.
Content here can be in any form- events, engagement programs, blog posts, discussion thread, etc.
What are you offering them that no one else is? Or how are you offering a common thing in a different and enjoyable way?
Did you miss this?
EngageMate is an all-in-one community content/engagement planner for staying organized and productive, tracking your progress, and measuring success all in one place.