Communities are never born. They are built. Usually deliberately. Someone has set out to create something and has an idea, anything from politics to marketing…and builds it. The best brands on the internet have communities powering them. From Apple, to Lifehacker, to Copyblogger…to Active Rain…brands large and small have a cadre of followers, a set of promises and people both advancing the brand and holding it accountable to keep its promises.
When it’s time to take your business online, a community of people that are invested in you (and vice versa) is the difference between a leader and an also ran. Your community is your primary audience: important customers, vendors and peers that have something to offer you. But, making a community is hard. Many communities fail, and the difference in failing and success isn’t in effort, it’s in direction. Directing your efforts into something smarter is the difference between success and failure.
Does this work? Watch me do it. In six months, come back, see where we’re at.
Build an Online Community Step 1: Pick Out Your Core Group & Commit To Helping
The first thing is this: pick out your own crowd. The people that are currently peers, vendors, and clients that you really enjoy working with–and enjoy working with you! Write people’s names down, in 24pt font. In most cases, no more than 12-14 people, and at least 5. I’d pick at least one person that you don’t yet know well. You are recruiting and selecting folks you think you can add value. This can change later, but be committed to the people you are picking out.
Remember: your community and your tribe are never about you. You have to respect your network. You have to on purpose determine what they’re going to get from you, and a minimum amount of time you’re going to spend on it. You’ve got to build a community and do much or most of the work. What do people get when they work with you? What happens next? Be specific, write it down. Give real value. For me, I’ m always happy to read and comment on work in progress, I’m happy to help out and even do some “water-carrying” unglorious labor for my network. Gratis.
Send them an email, offer to help & be aware of what they are trying to accomplish, and be a resource for them. 5-12 people is plenty.
Now, other people may want access to your time and energy and effort for free. Don’t sweat it. You’re not under obligation to give yourself to anyone other than those you chose to find & recruit.
The goal is to communicate with this crowd about once a week.
Caveat: you must have no drama here. If someone is overly dramatic, they can’t stay. Note: If you don’t know 5+ people that will help… you have bigger issues to address, and probably should hit those first.
Step 2 To Building an Online Community: Find 12-50 more people that you admire & Offer to help.
Again, this takes time….and real personal engagement. And this is a spot where some people may be nonresponsive. They may ignore you or not have a fit. Since this isn’t about you, it’s not a big deal: you’re offering people something that we hope that they need. If they don’t need it, drop it. Figure out what you have that they need. Some businesses will be able to re-use workproduct, like Hugh does at Gaping Void. Other businesses will have to offer something non related: contacts, referrals, or anything.
When you add value, make sure you have it to give and keep it real.
You can find this part of your community in past blog comments, Twitter followers, peers you admire, Facebook friends, linkedIn friends and elsewhere. These folks are folks you want to pay attention to, help when you can and be aware of. I track mine in a spreadsheet. I want to talk to these folks (to help them) once a month or two. Simple hellos, emails and relevant articles are some of the value. Look at their websites, offer improvement.
My rule of thumb is to pick 10-15% of people “below” your level, 60-70% of people “At” your level and 20-30% of people above your level. Don’t be cocky about this, and realize that you’re here for them not you.
Now–when you write a blog post, this crowd is who you are writing it to. This is your best audience. These people will do business with you, and these people will get value from you. You’ll get much from this crowd. Stay on top of it, look at their social networks, make notes. This is good for you as it is for them because it’s a deliberate listening skill.
You want to have these people feel like VIPs and you want to know who they are and what projects they are on. Talk to them once or twice a quarter and learn that. This can take a while, so don’t worry if you get bogged down.
I have a spreadsheet that has who they are, their email, their goals. It’s separate from auto-responders/CRM. You have to keep track, and you have to stick with this to make it work. You’re here to help, and you have to divorce your brain from the expectation of a return. And yes, sometimes people in this list can go into the “first/best” crowd and vice versa. Still: that there are 50 people that you’re committed to helping in the form of referrals, and everything else is the important first step.
I have a whole sheet of these folks that I’m committed to helping every single week. Starting next week, I’m giving up my Fridays to help folks in my network get what they want.
Notes: don’t feel entitled to anything. You aren’t owed anything by this crowd and if you feel that way, this project will turn rancid and poison you.
Step 3: Ask your crowd to bring their crowd.
This is your big step, and you take it after having demonstrated helpfulness to your “broader” crowd. You’re asking them to trust you with business contacts. And some of these people will inevitably make it into your “12″ or “50″ and that’s fine. Once you can demonstrate that you add value in your profession, you have earned the right to ask people to bring their crowd. You don’t need to have high expectations regarding this–if they aren’t convinced…
…you haven’t been convincing enough. They are right: you can’t force trust. You are hoping that “their crowd” is in the systems you have in place: the RSS readers, the autoresponders and everything else. These folks will occasionally move into your ‘known’ folks, and my suggestion is this: once you get 100 or so in your excel spreadsheet, you can simply remove the “non-responders” from your list. Managing intimate relationships with 200 people isn’t really a relationship, but delivering value to strangers…
…is the highest paying job there is.
I’ll share what I’m doing to benefit each list as time passes.
I’ll share the results and how everything worked, and what traffic converted into buyers and sellers.
500 people that know, like, trust and pay you. And that you serve. That’s a tribe, and that’s enough for you to make a good living.
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