Question for the fol
[2023-01-30 12:56:27 AM] : Question for the folks who’ve set up a community, how did you overcome the initial chicken-egg problem of folks being inactive because nobody is active? Any tips or resources on setting up an involved and participating community from the get-go?
3 Replies
[2023-01-30 01:03:17 AM] : A bit more context. I’ve got 100+ people who’ve downloaded a free project challenge. I was thinking of inviting them to a Discord server where they can discuss the obstacles they’re facing, help each other and share their finished projects.
[2023-01-30 08:50:14 AM] : My advice is to launch a community with a pilot group of 10-20 people who essentially volunteer to be the pioneers of the community and welcome everyone who comes after them. Put your most engaged folks in first, invite them to help you set community norms and expectations, etc.
[2023-01-30 08:51:38 AM] : I usually do this with a form or similar for people to join the pioneer group, then treat it like a mini launch for that group. Build momentum, tell them when you're gonna open the doors, invite them all at once, establish a rhythm around a couple of things for them to do.
[2023-01-30 08:52:07 AM] : And let them know when you're gonna invite everyone else.
[2023-01-30 08:52:32 AM] : Also, don't set up a ton of channels
[2023-01-30 08:53:23 AM] : Just one or two essentials and then have folks help you come up with other channels you might need. Better to have fewer rooms with more activity than more rooms and most of them be empty. Less is more.
[2023-01-30 12:52:52 PM] : Hey Maxim, I'm actually doing this right now! I took Jay Clouse's course, Build a Beloved Membership, which suggested a pre-launch very similar to what Alex is talking about.
• Here's the tweet I made to announce the pre-launch for founding members
• Then, I opened registration for 2 days and sent people who DM'd me a Stripe link to pay
• Closed with 28 registrations :tada: (Jay shared the DM I sent him earlier that day)
• Then, sent platform invite links the next day (last Wednesday)
• Had an onboarding process ready to go that helped people start being active from day 1
It's going super well so far, and I'm glad I took this path.
Marissa Goldberg (@mar15sa)
Excited to announce I'm building a community for remote workers who want to end bad meetings!
We'll explore how to work in an async-first way without degrading communication and productivity.
If you want to start having time for things that matter, read on...
X
[2023-01-30 12:54:25 PM] : Thanks for taking the time to answer alex! Def agree on having few rooms/channels. Interesting idea to treat it as a mini-launch. It makes sense, as you want to folks to be excited in participating
[2023-01-30 12:59:54 PM] : That’s exciting Marissa Goldberg! Happy to hear you got great results. You’ve got a healthy number of pioneers that gladly paid for the privilege. Wow!
What sort of things did you put in the onboarding if I may ask?
[2023-01-30 01:06:19 PM] : I'm still surprised so many people signed up. I was hoping for 10 and I was an anxious mess for days before launch thinking no one would sign up :sweat_smile:
A bunch of things in the onboarding:
1. New member survey - This has given me so many ideas on resources to create and gave me info to DM each member about to start a conversation. Also, used this to start connecting certain people together.
2. Intros - Added specific things they should include that encouraged conversation
3. Resources - Added a bunch to the community before anyone joined so that there would already be something there. Also, posted links and questions to start sparking convos.
4. Office hours chat - On Friday (2 days after joining), I scheduled an hour were I would be able to instantly respond to any chat questions posted. This got people online at the same time and filled the feed with a helpful Q&A
[2023-01-30 01:44:38 PM] : Amazing! Sounds like you’re at a great start by thoroughly preparing. Makes sense if it’s a paid community. This is very valuable. Many good things I can draw inspiration from. Thanks for sharing. Hope your community will thrive :sparkles: