What managers can learn from building an online community from scratch
Something I've done a lot over the years is build online communities – a blend of marketing, journalism, and startup/tech operations has taught me it's equal parts art and science because, ultimately, you're creating a space that's about belonging.
For managers, particularly if you’re leading either a remote-first or hybrid remote/in-person team, there’s a lot to learn tactically and strategically from building online communities.
Here are some of the things I think about early on...
a) How to create socially & technically accessible conversations
For example:
Making content asynchronous, e.g., a monthly live video chat, but if you miss it, there's audio + transcript shared afterward
Leveraging video screenshare (I use Loom regularly) to provide tips in an accessible format, including transcript, closed captioning, increase/decrease watch speed, rewinding, etc.
b) Leveraging editorial thinking/planning for internal communications
This doesn't have to be formal, but it does need to be consistent because a lot of community building is about habits, not a strict content calendar.
For example, ensure that there are always 3-5 ways for people to engage with content because different things spark people. Some people like how-to's and educational stuff, some like to be able to take an action, and some just want to share stuff to sound important (I could write a whole essay on that last thing, but suffice it to say, don't over optimize for that).
c) Noticing what's important to most active community members and returning to it consistently
A lot of community building, in my experience, is about making sure people feel heard and that they belong, and that is as much art as science, but things like the above go a long way to inviting & welcoming a range of people. This piece about long-lead listening also has some good tips and templates for how to do that as a manager, in the process speeding up work and creating stronger ties with your team.
As Brad Feld noted in his book Startup Communities (originally published in 2012 and still a great read), when you create porous boundaries, you're essentially starting with an expansive definition of community where people can come and go as needed and create important ties, learning, and value for each other.
d) Measuring community so you know what’s working and what’s not
Many people think about community as a feel-good enterprise, something that's nice but can be cut first if things get tight.
As an aside, many companies are doing this as we speak because of the economic conditions. IMHO, you'll see their online community quality deteriorate over the next 12-18 months as they try to extract as much customer/revenue value as possible while reducing community manager & content resources.
With community metrics, you can and should map back to a specific goal, like 1,000 active users in the next 12 months, and then lay out the activities on a weekly and monthly basis that you think will work backward. Similarly, as a manager, your goal can be to have your team and surrounding teams engage with internal communications e.g. updates in Slack, comments on blog posts/social media, updating workflows on a weekly basis, etc.
No one is more versed in all of the above, especially the strategy, metrics, and people-first approach, than Suzza Silver – their CMX Hub article on building/measuring online communities from scratch is basically an outline of how to do it well, and having personally worked on a few projects with them plus built engaged online communities of 3,000 to 50,000 myself, I know the approach works.