So how does one build a community?

Question

They say build it and they will come, but that's clearly rubbish, as we've all probably gathered :)

Any tips for a newb? I'm looking to build a community for my hot new productivity app www.yoodoo.app, but haven't the foggiest where or how to start without coming across as salesy.

Has anyone got any tips on how to do this genuinely without being a fake ass b***h?

Thanks :)

Ross Macfarlane · Accepted Answer

@pamsny wow. That's quite the reply. You're good at this ;)

Yeah i like the tips one, but every man and his dog is doing that - it's a bit saturated. That 'study with me sessions' thing sounds cool though, haven't come across that yet.

Yeah, that FB group is good too - a lot of it always comes across as spammy though, reddit seems to work though :)

I do also like the small creator one. So many people think they're an influencer nowadays though so they all want cash the rascals. There are a few good apples though who do it for the love of the game :)

Ross Macfarlane · Answer

@fiveone45 this is a good point - get to the why :). Better get my thinking cap on :)

Pam Garza · Answer

Always give more than you expect to take and try to engineer interactions between your community that allow them to provide value for each other.

In this case, you are working on a productivity product, so maybe for your community, you can curate the best tips you've come across and share those. You don't need to recreate the wheel or have some novel innovation, as long as you save people time by curating these.

You could host "study with me sessions" and use the Pomodoro technique and use as a funnel for obtaining community members. I've seen these be very successful on TikTok.

You could join a productivity fb group and have a free offering of your product... or post on a discussion group and do the same ;)

You could reach out to smaller creators in the productivity field and share your tool with them (they are always wanting to discover the next big tools to share with their audience) after establishing a relationship you could ask if they are interested in co hosting a live AMA session with you and your community and members can get value by asking questions/ sharing best practices etc..

Just some ideas, hope this helps!

Jamie Page · Answer

What's the purpose of the community? And what's the incentive for someone to join. If you can answer those questions and they answers would make you want to join then your community can sustain itself. People get benefits from communities by sharing knowledge, experience, hacks, jokes, shared interests. Perhaps pick a niche or subject that is related to yoodoo that people can latch onto and enjoy exchanging ideas and content – then they _might_ come.

So how does one build a community?

Replies