Community Building 101

Guest piece by Katarzyna Kowalewska

May 05, 2023

This month’s edition is about a topic close to my heart: community. I feel particularly fortunate in welcoming a guest writer who has inspired and informed my approach to communities, online and offline.

Katarzyna Kowalewska has worked on all sides of social media - from copywriter to content creator, paid ad specialist to data analyst - in European institutions, around elections and most lately as a consultant.

I love her focus on building authentic relationships and creating genuine value - indeed, I have been the subject of it myself! I am a member of her community on LinkedIn, where she provided me with advice and insights that make me want to collaborate with her. It was this experience that led me to ask her to contribute to this newsletter.

I recommend connecting with her and keeping up with her work - and if you are thinking of building or growing your own community in a meaningful way, why not reach out?

Communities on the rise

“Community” has become a buzzword over the last few years, and more and more brands and organisations are going all in to build their communities.

For an organisation, a community can have numerous benefits - deepening brand awareness, generating valuable feedback and acting as a loyal group to mobilise at key moments.

In return, a well-cultivated community can offer its members value, skills and insights, a sense of common purpose and identity - and even the feeling of authentic connection (something not to be underestimated in an increasingly lonely world).

Not a cell phone in sight, just a community living in the moment and creating authentic connection with the great beyond.

Building a community is a long-term project that takes time, care and strategic thinking. You can’t just toss some people in a Facebook group or Slack and call it a community.

A community is a group of people who come together (online and/or in person) around a shared interest, challenge, or goal. A community goes deep, not wide, as its members embark on a journey to master, achieve or solve something together.

An enthusiastic member teaching a new recruit about the signs, signals and rituals of their community.

In this article, I will walk you through the three most basic principles of community building. If you can answer these three questions, you will have formed solid foundations upon which to build your community.

Your Why.
Your Ideal Member.
Your Big Purpose.

Then, once you have those figured out, I will point you to some helpful materials, recommended reading and next steps on your community building journey.

1. Find your Why

In his popular TED talk, Simon Sinek presented tips on inspiring action and leading with your “why”.

Source: https://tyche.consulting/start-with-why/

According to Sinek, many organisations and leaders know WHAT they are doing, some know HOW they do it, and very few know WHY they are doing it. Those organisations which think from the outside in (WHAT → WHY) - usually fail, while those which think from the inside out (WHY → WHAT) inspire people to act.

In community building, the WHY is essential. It is the cement that holds everything together.

Far too often, we see organisations that focus on the HOW or WHAT when they start their community (for example, how they will launch it or which platform they will choose to host it) instead of exploring WHY they really want to do it.

You can do better than that!

Start as simple as asking yourself: “Why?”

Why do you want to create a community?

Answering this easy question can be more difficult than it seems.

I advise you to do the following:

Start with what you/your organisation do/es and why it is important. Look at the big picture. Brainstorm as many answers as you can. Consider interviewing and engaging relevant departments.
Why do you want to engage people? How will it serve your organisation’s goal? Again, come up with as many answers as possible.
Notice when the fundamental motivation stands out. Search for the answer that resonates and arouses your passion.

In this process, you may discover that you want to:

gather people around a common cause,
bring together people facing similar problems or passionate about the same topic,
gather people who want to get better at something or learn more about a subject,
mobilise them to take action on something.

(Note: While exploring your “why”, you may also discover some signs you are not ready yet to start a community - check out this post.)

Once you know your goal, you can look into who will be your Ideal Member.

2. Define your Ideal Member

Pictured: The ideal subscriber to Speaking Moylanguage - four arms, four legs, great hair.

Your community won’t serve everyone - and it shouldn’t!

You should have a solid understanding of who your community is for - your Ideal Member. The more specific you are in imagining your Ideal Member, the better. It will help you attract the right people and hone your content and experience by asking yourself, “What does X need right now?”. It will also provide clarity to people if your community is really for them.

What is then the Ideal Member? It is a fictional profile (persona) created to help you understand your typical member.

It doesn’t mean your community will be exclusionary or serve only one type of member. Creating your Ideal Member profile is a process, not a one-off task. You will keep testing, refining, and analysing it as your community grows. The first one is just a starting point.

To define your Ideal Member, you need to look at a community as a journey - taking people from A to Z. Your Ideal Member is in transition - someone who starts somewhere and wants to achieve something.

Here is a quick template to get you started, but the criteria you can define are endless.

What can help you in defining your Ideal Member? The answer is good research.

Consider looking into:

surveys and public opinion polls,
1:1 interviews with your potential members,
other similar communities and their membership.

Once you know who your community will be for, we can move to the next step.

3. Define your community’s Big Purpose

A community manager ponders their purpose before giving up and posting another meme.

A “Big Purpose” is why people will gather and participate in your community.

When someone joins your community, what will they look for? What will they get out of it? What problems will you solve for them or what will it enable them to do?

You can capture your community’s Big Purpose in a simple formula that consists of 3 elements:

“Our community brings together [your ideal member in a transition] to [the bridge, or the activities your members will do together] so that we can [achieve the result the community wants].”

The Big Purpose is what makes people participate. It can be anything - a love of birdwatching, political activism or passion for cooking or communications (the same passion that makes you subscribe to Tom's newsletter).

Two critical things to remember about the Big Purpose:

Big Purpose defines what's in a community BOTH for your organisation AND members. It’s all about finding your community goal - the sweet spot between your needs and your members' wants.

You need to define your community’s Big Purpose BEFORE moving forward with anything else. Why is that? The purpose will serve as your North Star. Everything from a platform you choose to your content plan becomes much easier when you have clarity on the Big Purpose. This clarity will keep you disciplined and focused through the ups and downs of your community journey.

This extensive Mighty Network guide will help you define your community’s Big Purpose.

Speaking Moylanguage