How to leverage a community for your growth? 🤔
Frank Sondors
24 replies
Hey guys,
I have a community on Slack, but I would like to understand how you drive self-generated content, especially being a bootstrapped founder and how you may use the community for your business growth?
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Vincent Lonij@vincentropy
Thread - Wireframe Generator
I think most communities will recognize pretty quickly that they are being "leveraged" and will respond poorly to that. The conventional wisdom is to focus primarily on bringing actual value to the community and let the growth happen organically.
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Mailforge
@vincentropy agree
Requestly
Build and deliver value constantly even if its very small. They need a reason to feel included and exclusive. The more exclusive you make them feel, the more they'll engage.
@sagar_soni5 Very helpful! BTW, cool product and notified! You are more than welcomed to leave your support on mine if you find any interests:)
Requestly
@sagar_soni5 Absolutely! Ensuring consistent value delivery, no matter how incremental, is pivotal for growth. Always prioritize your audience's experience, making them feel esteemed and integral to the journey.
Boolvideo
Be more active in the community by posting and interacting with customers. Do small activities to keep them engaged. Imagine the community as your other home, and keep renovating and adding channels in it, which is the same as adding furniture.
@quinn_boolv Totally Agree! Are there any tools you'd recommend to make the job easier? ... And also, what about the mindset? I struggle to stay active. Also because I don't use social media (I'm trying to use it for the products I launch). What do you recommend?
Bring people together with common values and interests. If your product is about these values, then they will become your customers and ambassadors.
@branimir_vuchih awesome response! Follow up question: How do you communicate something that deep such as values? :) (In the context of trying to create a community)
Creating a community of like-minded people and converting them into clients seems to be nothing unique.
@felix_felix2 true... but.. .how exactly do you get there? :thinking: . What would you recommend?
Hey @profy17 , Could you share some of your experience to build a Slack community? How do you build it? That's the part I'm starting with my product and I feel totally connected with your concern about Generated content. I was planning to build a small tool to do so. If you discover something we could use please let me know :) Cheers and thanks!
Goleko
Genuine relationships, valuable content, and active engagement are key. Collaboration, exclusive benefits, and listening to feedback all contribute. This is my opinion on this :D
Leveraging a community for growth is all about engaging and providing value.
Set clear expectations.
Provide incentives.
Make it easy to contribute.
Be patient.
Here are a few tips to drive self-generated content:
- Be active and engaged. As the founder, it's important to be active in the community and engage with users. This will show that you're interested in what they have to say, and it will encourage them to continue contributing.
- Use tools to help you. There are a number of tools that can help you manage and moderate your community, as well as to drive self-generated content. For example, you could use a tool like Crowdsignal to create surveys and polls, or Trello to manage your community content.
And here's how you can use the community for your business growth:
- Get feedback. Your community is a great source of feedback on your product or service. Ask members for their thoughts on new features, pricing, or marketing campaigns.
- Build relationships. Get to know your community members and build relationships with them. This will help you understand their needs and how you can better serve them.
- Promote your product or service. Share news about your product or service with your community, and encourage them to spread the word.
- Drive sales. You can use your community to drive sales by offering discounts, coupons, or early access to new products or features.
Hope that helps!
@zedkira Follow up questions: What do you recommend to(?):
1. How to be active and engaged? What's the recipe? Or the mindset you recommend? As a founder I often feels like these activities are distracting from "most important stuff"
2. What tools do you recommend to make the job easier?
3. What's a good approach to get feedback from cold users? They always feel as if I'm just trying to sell something when is not the case (yet)
Thanks in advance! Sorry if I ask too much. I just feel you know the exact answers to a problem that many of us experiment :)
@aalvz No worries Alfonso, feel free to ask any questions! those are actually some great questions to ask.
So for your follow up questions :
1- Some tips on how to be active and engaged in your community as an introvert founder :
- Find ways to contribute that are comfortable for you. This could mean starting a conversation on a topic that you're passionate about, answering questions in the community forum, or creating content that you're proud of.
- Don't be afraid to ask for help. If you're feeling overwhelmed or like you don't have the time to be active in the community, don't be afraid to ask for help from a co-founder, community manager, or other member of the community.
- As for the mindset, it's important to remember that being active and engaged in your community is not a distraction from the "most important stuff." It's actually essential for the success of your business. By building relationships with your community members, you can get feedback on your product or service, learn about their needs, and promote your business.
2- What kind of tools you're looking for ? is it AI or automation tools ?
3- Getting feedback from cold users can be a challenge, but here's some tips that can help you:
- Be clear about your intentions. Let the user know that you're not trying to sell them anything. Start by explaining why you're reaching out.
- Personalize your approach. Take the time to learn about the user and their needs. This will help you to tailor your feedback request in a way that is relevant to them.
- Offer something in return. In some cases, you may be able to offer the user something in return for their feedback, such as a discount on your product or service, or access to early beta features.
Here's an example for getting feedback from a cold user :
"I noticed that you're a member of the [group name] community. I'm the founder of [your company], and we're developing a new product that I think you might be interested in. I'd love to get your feedback on it. Would you be willing to chat with me for a few minutes? [offer something in return here]"
Leverage community for growth by actively engaging, building relationships, sharing knowledge, offering support, seeking feedback, collaborating, showcasing achievements, adapting, showing leadership, and maintaining long-term commitment for mutual benefit and sustained development.