Every time I attend an event like Pushstart and SydStart, I get asked the same questions about community.
- Do I need a community?
- What should I use to build a community?
- How do I build a community?
The answers to the first two questions are simple: ‘YES’ and ‘It doesn’t matter what tools or platform you use.’ Really, it doesn’t. Because it comes down to the third question: how do you do it?
This is where it gets hard, and to make it slightly more complicated, I don’t have a list of things you can do at the end of which you’ll have a community. What I do have a is a set of guidelines which should get you started.
Community building is about sharing, engaging and listening. Share stuff your community would be interested in, not just broadcast news about your organisation. (Broadcast is equivalent to a swear word in community lingo ;)) Engagement and listening go hand in hand, and are the hardest to do. It isn’t about merely responding to complaints or questions, it’s about connecting to your people on a human level. No one wants to talk to a faceless corporation.
The best way I thought I could put those points across was to point out examples of companies doing it right. On Facebook, I find myself having conversations with Henry the Mule from mmMule.com. Not only is he the cutest mule I’ve ever seen, but he’s promised to help me in my quest for procuring KitKat from the UK. What I admire about mmMule is that they haven’t launched their product, yet they have a community ready and waiting for when they do.
Then there’s Café Café on Twitter. I admit I didn’t initially pay attention to them when they first followed me. A lot of businesses do. But they’ve been paying attention and feed my coffee addiction. I haven’t visited them yet, but I fully intend to just because they’ve been engaging with me.
And finally, the one newsletter I look forward to every month comes from Dreamhost. They provide what some might say is a ‘dry’ service, but they sure make up for it in their newsletters. And even their new (Aussie) CEO gets in on the act. I actually remember first dreading reading the ‘Simon Says’ bit when I got to it, and by the end of it I was chuckling. Bestest ‘Hello I’m your new CEO’ bit ever.
I hope these examples give you a better idea about how to build a community. I’ve been known to say ‘It’s not rocket science, you just have to be human’, but I should qualify that by saying that it is a very very hard thing to do. You need patience and commitment in spades. And you’ll make mistakes, but that’s ok. We learn, apologise and do better. We here at Pollenizer realise we haven’t done our best with community, but we’re learning and will do better.