A startup may have few customers before they gain traction. Other than sending out a newsletter to the customers to let them know a community site has been launched for the, what would be good advice on how to get them to log into the community and start posting comments and questions?
Before you launch a community, make sure they're already motivated to ask questions and provide feedback (they should be sending it to you consistently over time). If they're not motivated to take those actions without a community, launching a community will not change that. Assuming they're motivated, ask yourself if that's the best way to support them. It's possible they just want access to you, and don't want to talk to each other yet. What's the value in launching a community vs just giving them direct access to you and your team? What's the benefit of using a social space? If you find that they want a community, and there are specific benefits to being able to talk to each other, then there may be value in offering a community space. You should launch something really simple, like a small chat group, and stay consistent in prompting conversatinos, providing product updates, asking for feedback, etc.
Thanks David. Fortunately, launching my community was a few clicks on my Zendesk account, so the overhead to getting it started was small. You bring up a great point. Most customers reach out to me directly or to our support email. I often wonder if they may have a motivation to collaborate with each other across organizations.
Incredibly detailed writeup. Wanted to call-out one other example of a community-led event program that fits the audience of this newsletter: ProductTank - https://www.mindtheproduct.com/producttank/
Events by product people for product people - pretty much everywhere in the world :)
If you don't have an audience, go to where people are already spending time: Discord, Slack, or Facebook are generally your best options. Reddit isn't great because you won't be able to own the community (but it's a great place to participate in communities and find community opportunities.
If you have an audience, you can build community on a platform where you have more ownership. Circle and Mighty Networks are two good options, but there are many more.
Whoa, this is such an awesome playbook! I'll be sharing this with my team to help grow our Community.
Excellent write-up. I wrote down some related thoughts on this topic here: https://ramansharma.substack.com/p/what-does-community-mean-in-tech
This is super detailed and insightful David and Lenny. Thanks for sharing.
A startup may have few customers before they gain traction. Other than sending out a newsletter to the customers to let them know a community site has been launched for the, what would be good advice on how to get them to log into the community and start posting comments and questions?
Before you launch a community, make sure they're already motivated to ask questions and provide feedback (they should be sending it to you consistently over time). If they're not motivated to take those actions without a community, launching a community will not change that. Assuming they're motivated, ask yourself if that's the best way to support them. It's possible they just want access to you, and don't want to talk to each other yet. What's the value in launching a community vs just giving them direct access to you and your team? What's the benefit of using a social space? If you find that they want a community, and there are specific benefits to being able to talk to each other, then there may be value in offering a community space. You should launch something really simple, like a small chat group, and stay consistent in prompting conversatinos, providing product updates, asking for feedback, etc.
Thanks David. Fortunately, launching my community was a few clicks on my Zendesk account, so the overhead to getting it started was small. You bring up a great point. Most customers reach out to me directly or to our support email. I often wonder if they may have a motivation to collaborate with each other across organizations.
Incredibly detailed writeup. Wanted to call-out one other example of a community-led event program that fits the audience of this newsletter: ProductTank - https://www.mindtheproduct.com/producttank/
Events by product people for product people - pretty much everywhere in the world :)
SPACES: Support, Product, Acquisition, Contribution, Engagement, Success.
Amazing playbook! One question though - what is the right way to choose an appropriate platform for your community? Discord, reddit, etc?
If you don't have an audience, go to where people are already spending time: Discord, Slack, or Facebook are generally your best options. Reddit isn't great because you won't be able to own the community (but it's a great place to participate in communities and find community opportunities.
If you have an audience, you can build community on a platform where you have more ownership. Circle and Mighty Networks are two good options, but there are many more.
this is amazing! one question I have is what is the difference between the acquisition strategy and the success strategy?
acquisition = getting new users
success = making sure new users are successful