Communities are essential for many companies - and there are a thousand different types. Free or paid communities. Those that take place exclusively on social media, in forums or even on closed platforms. They all have two things in common - firstly, they offer companies a direct communication channel to potential customers and secondly, companies gain a detailed insight into their target group.
In the last few weeks, we've had great conversation partners, both in our podcast and in our past Clubhouse sessions. We were joined by the entrepreneur Christian Häfner, who alongside his e-commerce Happy Coffee has built up the entrepreneurial community letsseewhatworks, and Sabrina Goehrlich, who alongside her company DesignSprintStudio has launched the Beyond Design Sprint Community for people interested in workshops. We have learned a lot about building a community from both of them and now want to share these lessons with you.
So how do you start building a community now?
In the first step, find out what topic interests you and around which you want to build your community. Focus on a specific niche in which you want to be active.
Secondly, you need to find out who your target group is and where they hang out. On which social media channels are they active, sharing questions and posts on your topic. Become active on these channels yourself, post tips, tricks, tutorials and experiences on your topic. Draw attention to yourself, comment on posts and offer your target group added value. Regularly include so-called "call-to-action" elements in your posts and try to get your readers to interact with you and your offer. For example, at the end of your posts, point out your community, where interested people can find out even more added value.
As your community fills up with users, make sure that no post goes unanswered. Interact with them on a regular basis and try to promote the exchange with different posts. Connect with other influencers in the field by commenting on posts, writing messages, trying to exchange (no spam!) - try to build relationships. These can serve as multipliers. And then there's the hardest part: consistency or staying power. Publish content regularly, start a newsletter etc.
Tools play an important role in community building. If you don't want to build your community on a social media platform, there are closed platforms where your members can interact.
We have compiled a small list of tools to give you an overview of the applications you can use to build membership areas and communication platforms.
