The hardest part of the community building journey is the first step. I’m thinking of starting a new online community, but not sure where to begin.
I have a clear idea of who I want to bring together and I “why”, but when it comes to actually launching the community, I feel a bit stuck. Should I test the community MVP with WhatsApp or FB group, or just talk to the users? Let me know.
Founder • 1w
The first step of starting an online community is to define its purpose and target audience. It's the most fundamental step in building a community and setting it up for long-term success. Of course, it's also the hardest part.
Why is defining community's purpose and goals important?
Knowing why your community exists helps you focus better. It helps you organise your community, define the content and pick your early members.
It's also important to have a clear idea of who are the ideal members of your community. A community unites people with common goals, interests or pain-points; and knowing who the community serves; helps you reach out to those people.
Remember, the first members of community will set you up for growth and long-term sustainability.
The second step of community building is to pick the right community platform. I think that'd be another discussion though.
Member • 1w
That makes perfect sense. If you don't mind - What are your tips to define the purpose, goal and target audience for the community?
Founder • 1w
That's an excellent question, Paula. This is a great topic for an article. But I'll give you a TL;DR version.
Start by asking "Why should this community exist?". You can approach the answer from following angles:
After analysing the reason for community to exist, write down the purpose in one line. For example, Jatra Community exists to help community builders create sustainable and engaged communities.
That's simple and effective way to define the purpose of the community. This purpose gives us clarity on what kind of content to create and what kind of audience will the community attract.
Knowing that our community exists for community builders, we can easily identify the most common pain points of community managers (starting a community, identifying right platform, managing community, community manager jobs etc.).
Having clarity in purpose and knowing the audience is truly the first step of community building.