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Online community spaces offer users something they’re missing from social media — a place to meaningfully connect with others. Instead of fleeting interactions, these communities create a sense of belonging and purpose.
And there’s something for everyone. Members can find online spaces that cater to their interests, from gardening to software development. At the same time, businesses can set up online communities to build brand loyalty, gather user insights, and create a platform for customer engagement and support. Even Super has a Discord community where users can exchange ideas and questions.
Building an online community can bring plenty of value to your business, so we spoke to Nityesh Agarwal to learn more. He founded Curated Connections, an online platform for businesses to streamline their community engagement. He also created Beginner Maps, a crash course full of lessons from top community businesses, and has plenty of advice for anyone looking to build an online community.
Focus on creating meaningful connections
So, you have a great product or an idea that would work perfectly for an online community. But how do you know it’s worth investing time and resources? For Nityesh, building a community starts with following your personal motivation.
“The best approach is to solve your problem, as that's the only way to sustain and keep the community going,” he says. “Building a community is not an easy task, and if you're doing it solely for the money, it's important to understand that it won't be profitable overnight. The only way to keep it going is if you're enjoying it. So, my advice would be to optimize for your enjoyment.”
Take Skyler Birk-Stachon and John DiLoreto’s Tech Pickleball community as an example. It started through their mutual passion for the sport and soon became a regular, sponsored event for tech people to connect over a relaxed game on the court.
Then, the next step is to treat it like any other business—talk to the people you aim to serve and have one-on-one conversations with them.
“If you can build a community that addresses their pain points, people will join,” Nityesh explains. “Once you have around ten people who have joined your community, focus on creating one experience that brings people together and encourages them to interact with each other, not just listen to you.”
Start small and grow organically
The decision to build a small or large community, online or offline community (or a mix of both), depends on the experience you want to create. Building online and offline communities are completely different games.
“If you're the type of person who thrives on in-person interactions and gets a lot of energy from them, then by all means, start with offline events,” says Nityesh. ”It's a great way to meet people and have a real impact on your regular day-to-day life. After all, who doesn't enjoy hanging out with like-minded people at a cafe, bar, pub, or even a picnic?”
Offline communities require a lot of resources, such as securing a venue and getting people to attend. They are also limited to your city or locality. On the other hand, attending an offline meetup can be a more memorable experience.
If you have a more global outlook and want to bring together members who aren’t necessarily in the same city or even country, then an online community is the way to go. It can start as simple as a low-key Slack group with a handful of people.
“I've spoken with people who have gone in both directions. The founder of Ramen Club started with an offline London-based meetup that grew into an online community,” says Nityesh. “You won't be limited to one approach if you start with the other, but you need to decide where to begin.”
Use metrics that make sense to your community
Analyzing your community's metrics is a great way to track its progress, but only if you pick data that matches your community's mission. For instance, while daily active users might be a crucial metric for a social gaming community, it may not be as relevant for a quarterly book club. It’s important to remember that just because a certain metric works well for one community doesn’t mean it’s right for yours.
Nityesh has observed other community leaders making the same mistake—focusing too much on chat engagement. For example, if you have a community on Slack, you might try to optimize for the number of people logging in or posting. While this may seem like a good metric to track, as a community needs people talking to thrive, it can create the wrong incentives.
“If you notice that only 10% of your members engage on Slack each week, you might start creating false engagement that serves your numbers rather than your members' needs. Even if you manage to increase engagement to 15% or 20%, you're still not focusing on the experience the other 80% of your members require,” Nityesh explains.
People are busy and exhausted from being online, so look beyond just chat engagement. The top community builders often focus on various engagement strategies beyond chat. For example, you can:
- Run asynchronous programs
- Host Zoom calls with workshops featuring guest experts or community members
- Organize a monthly book club discussing books relevant to your community
- Implement a peer connection program that matches members based on common interests
- Run challenges or co-working sessions
Keep a pulse on your community
Beyond quantitative metrics, how can you genuinely gauge the sentiment of your community? Nityesh suggests maintaining a connection with your members. While you don’t need to talk to every member, especially as your community grows, connecting with some of them is important.
“If you're building a community you want to be a part of, it will happen naturally as you participate in chats, read messages, or have one-on-one calls,” says Nityesh.
“You can also send quarterly health check-up surveys to the entire community to get a pulse on their needs and experiences. Talking to and understanding your members is a constant process, and this user research should never stop, regardless of your community's size.”
Use the power of Notion for community management
Running an entire community can be a lot of work for a solo community creator, but it doesn’t have to be. Community builders have to do many things simply because the tools to automate those tasks don't exist yet. Building online communities is still relatively new, and few people are focusing on developing tools specifically for this purpose—just like Nityesh’s Curated Connections.
Can Notion be used to manage a community? Absolutely. Nityesh has noticed Notion as a popular tool within the community-building space, especially for communities hosted on platforms like Slack.
“When you have a community, you often need documentation or a way to list things you want your members to know that can't be easily communicated through Slack alone. Many people use Notion to create their community documentation,” he explains.
You can use Notion as a collection of resources people can access. For example, if you have a separate program where members can participate in monthly challenges or if you're offering them access to a portal or recordings, Notion can be the central hub where everything lives. The guidelines can evolve and become a living document over time.
Nityesh uses the free version of Notion and adds that most communities find creating a free page on Notion, publishing it, and sharing the link with the community sufficient. You could also add a layer of brand customization or password protection by publishing your Notion page with Super.
Follow the needs of your community members
Only a couple of people may join your online community or attend an event, but it’s part of the journey. The easiest way to succeed is to see what's working in top communities and replicate it in your own unique way. Try joining one or two to see what's working for them, and take that experience into building your community.
But most importantly, start. Whether going all-in or keeping it low-key, you'll never know what your community members need unless you start building and listening to them. To learn more about building communities, visit Beginner Maps, built with Super, which hosts insights from numerous community builders who have cracked the key to success.
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