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Most small businesses operate with the Angel in the Outfield mentality: if you build it, they will come. Building your business, advertising, and creating content, without a plan, will add hours to your job without guaranteeing much in return.

Too many companies promise growth, leads, and results without taking the time to truly understand you or your business. You know your company’s vision and values better than anyone else, and you deserve the tools to build your brand on your own terms.

Building your brand takes careful planning and consistent effort. That is why we’ve put together a growth plan to help you on your journey. After all, a great community doesn’t just support your business. It becomes your business.

In the plan, you’ll find a year-by-year breakdown of:

• Content strategies
• Metrics to follow
• Ways to optimize for growth along the way

Stress, test, and tweak it as you see fit. Keep in mind, growing a business is like running a marathon; it takes time, you have to keep putting one foot in front of the other, and it isn’t about winning. It's about completing what you set out to do.

Process and Persistence build your community

In the over-saturated internet age, building an online community isn’t a matter of chance; it’s a marathon paved with process and fueled by determination. Building your community is an invaluable asset, no matter the goal of your business. Whether you're growing a business, carving out your niche, or creating content; your community will determine how far you will go.

The following article is about determination and the process of building an online community. Determination is the key ingredient to flourishing online, but a bit of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) doesn’t hurt either.

Laying the Groundwork

Plan your beginnings. Before you start a group, send an email, or invite a member, you need a clear vision for your chosen platform. Plan for success by starting with a strong foundation.

• Define your goals: What do you bring to the community? Are there shared interests or challenges that you provide solutions for? Clearly defining your goal or niche is the foundation of building up your audience to last. (ex. “household repairs for DIYers”, “runners group for marathon training”, “3d print projects and file sharing”)
• Who is this for? Who are you trying to attract into your group? By identifying their interests and online behaviors, you can build your content around a strategy that resonates to them. Keyword tools can aid in identifying the relatable terms that they use in searches related to your niche.
• Choosing the where: Where do they like to hang out online? Choose a platform that your audience uses. Types of platforms to consider:
  • Forums (ex. local chamber of commerce, alignable): Offer a place for discussion and revisiting topics that have been solved previously. Highlight valuable information in these forums in a dedicated place to help answer questions for newcomers. Make them easily digestible with titles and relevant keywords.
  • Social Media groups (ex. Facebook, LinkedIn): These spaces have a low barrier to entry and offer the benefit of an existing pool from which to work. Leverage their SEO tactics to grow your audience within the framework provided while working toward conversion to a product you control.
  • Messaging servers (ex. Discord, Slack): Similar to forums and great for quicker responses. Live conversation can foster relationships and build a close knit community.
  • Custom Website (highly recommended): A website is a platform that you control. Often, website owners can integrate their sites with other platforms to make a seamless transition. Engaging with your audience through a website will offer the most growth potential with the least outside obstacles.
• Set the rules: Establish how your community will be moderated and set the guidelines to be followed. Foster a positive and safe environment that your community can trust and depend on.

Building the Frame

With the groundwork laid out, it’s time to pivot to attracting new members. Creating valuable, searchable, easily digestible content will build a catalog of convenient information that will attract repeat customers.

• Creating value: Focus on providing informative and engaging content that addresses your target audience's pain points and interests. Content will be the lead magnet that brings users to your products and services.
  • Writing (Blogs, Articles): Sharing information, tutorials, or thoughts about the industry. These are ways to connect to your audience and share expertise. Ensure you optimize your posts with strong keywords, relevant titles, and headings.
  • Video (YouTube, Voiceover, Animation, Livefeed): Sharing videos is a popular tactic to build community, making it rank highly in searches. Try sharing stories and lessons learned relevant to your field.
  • Q & As: Asking your community questions is a great way to discover new interests relevant to their needs. Try interacting with your community by offering a Q&A webinar to answer their questions and gain feedback in real time.
• Scheduling: Set a schedule to be active with posting and interacting. Treat your posts and comments the same. Each is an opportunity to build upon your previous experience and convert new members.
• Be Proactive: You don’t have to sit back and wait for users to fill your community. Promote through other online communities and existing social media channels to begin the process.

Setting the Table

Engagement within your community signals search engines that your channel is valuable. By engaging and encouraging relationships between members, your community will grow into a self-sustaining entity.

• Have a presence: As the founder, you need to be active and engage with your community. Respond to comments, answer questions, share news, initiate discussions, and trade memes.
• Encourage participation: Members can share their experiences, answer questions, and help one another. Productive feedback encourages users to continue interacting because they get helpful information without judgment.
• Contests, giveaways, polls, events: Holding an event can create a buzz within your community. Events expose new members and create a shared space for members to bond in a new environment.
• Recognize Contributions: Acknowledge active members in your community to encourage their continued participation. Share member stories and content with your community, giving members a sense of collaboration and ownership.

Growing Sustainably

Now that your community is thriving, it requires ongoing effort and a willingness to adapt. A community is an ecosystem that needs nurturing in return for its continued support and loyalty.

• Maintenance: Maintain community guidelines with fair judgment. Consistently hold members to the same standard of positive and productive discourse.
• Listen to your community: Hold yourself to the same productive standard. Ask for feedback and listen for suggestions that would improve everyone's experience. People who feel heard are more likely to stick around.
• Empower members: Your community will have other experts and people who are just as passionate and helpful as you. It can reduce your load by delegating power and giving leadership roles to members within the community.
• Moving forward: Stay up to date with your industry or niche. Trends change, and your content should adapt to engage with audiences accordingly. Review and refine your approach and try out new tactics. Track key metrics like membership growth, views, engagement, and abandonments.

It’s a Marathon

Stay determined and remember, building a thriving community won't happen overnight. It takes patience, determination, and persistence at a sustainable pace. Periods of success or plateaus will challenge you throughout the process. Encountering challenges or negativity can be discouraging, but remember your foundation and why you set out to build your community in the first place.

• Staying focused: Remember your foundation or reasons why you got started. Why are you passionate about building your community and sharing your experiences? Reignite that passion or adapt it if you find it no longer resonates in the same way.
• Learn and adapt: View setbacks as learning opportunities; you don’t need to win every time to grow a strong and supportive community. Teaching others your mistakes can be a part of that process.
• Connect with community builders like you: Sharing experiences with others like you is a form of professional development. These people can share what works for them, offer support, or help you grow with crossover content.
• Show up: Staying consistent when motivation is running low or you’ve hit a wall is difficult. Be upfront with your community and give them the chance to help you recharge, take breaks if needed, and keep showing up.
• Celebrate the small things: Give yourself the time to enjoy little wins when they happen. Appreciate your progress by celebrating wins, no matter how little they seem.

Final Thoughts

Building an online community isn’t easy or everyone would be doing it. Remember that it can be a long process that blends strategic decision making with unrelenting determination. Focus on providing value to your community in a way that is SEO friendly and easy to digest. Nurture your members, whether they are new or long term contributors and you both will thrive from the community being built. Embrace the building process and watch your community become influential in your industry.