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7 reasons why you should focus on building a community around your startup — January 21, 2014

7 reasons why you should focus on building a community around your startup

/The Fetch community

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A community comes in many forms. It’s greatest form, some might say, is a movement. David Spinks elaborates…

I know, it’s a bold request to ask a startup to focus on anything other than their product and growth.

I know, because I’m a startup founder myself.

Time is our most limited resource and that you have to say no to a lot of things in order to maintain your focus, and sanity.

So why am I writing a post telling you to focus on community? Because I’ve seen first hand, and in the example of many other startups, the power that community can wield even at the earliest stages of your growth.

Lyft, Airbnb, Eventbrite, Lift, Foursquare, Soundcloud, Skillshare, Udemy, Github, Binpress, Yammer, Hootsuite, Buffer… I could rattle off startups all day who have invested a great deal of time and resources into building community. Social products, B2B, B2C, technical products, toys, fitness, non profits… name the kind of company and I can name several companies building a strong community around their brand and products.

Why is that? With all the things a startup has to figure out, why do they focus on community?

7. Create highly engaged evangelists

The simplest and most valuable thing you’ll get from a community is highly engaged customers or users.

When done right, your community creates a sense of belonging. Members feel like they’re part of something important and they’re proud, they feel special. Their experience with your brand then becomes so much more than just products and features. They develop strong emotions around your brand. They build relationships with other members.

My mentor Aki Sano once said something along the lines of “You’ll know you have a great business when you can find just one person who’s absolutely in love with your product”.

I’ve seen first hand how building a strong community can create an environment where your members do in fact fall in love with your brand.

This high engagement leads to the rest of the benefits…

6. Stay close to your customers

Perhaps the most important value is that you get to stay very close to your customers.

Your community = your customers.

By creating a community where your users/customers can interact, converse, share and help each other, it gives you an opportunity to be a fly on the wall and learn more about who they are.

There are things you’ll learn from watching them talk to each other that you’ll never see in a survey.

And when you have a highly engaged community, you have a pool of customers that you can call on individually to give feedback, test features, hop on a call or whatever else you need to do to learn more about their experience.

5. Support network for reviews and rebuttals

For many companies, getting good reviews early on can make your product. Your community will jump at the opportunity to support you and show you some love.

They’ll also be a great resource for testimonials. When we needed some more customer quotes for our homepage, it was as simple as posting in the community and asking for volunteers.

At the same time, there’s a good chance if you’re building up some steam that there will be trolls out there to pull you down. Your community can be the people who stand up to defend you and call out their bullshit.

4. Build the foundation for a movement

A community comes in many forms. It’s greatest form, some might say, is a movement.

You’re an entrepreneur, which probably means you’ve set your sights on a real big vision. You’re not looking to just make a quick buck. You’re in it to change the world.

Well, community is what can help you get there. All of the massive companies you know today started with a small, loyal community. That first community serves as the foundation for growth for years to come. Look at Facebook, Instagram, Ebay, Pinterest, Craigslist, Couchsurfing, Meetup, Yelp… I can go on. They all started with a small, loyal community that developed into a larger movement.

3. Improve your customers’ experience

Humans need community. It’s helped us evolve and survive since the beginning of our time. It touches on a basic human need.

So when we have the chance to become part of a community and feel that sense of belonging, we’re happy. That means that community can serve as an added bonus for your product. Not only do your customers get access to your features, they get access to a support group, a network of peers.

Most products become better when people don’t feel like they’re alone in the game.

2. Defensibility

Anyone might be able to copy your product, your brand, your design and even your voice. But there’s one thing no other company will ever be able to copy and that’s your community.

There’s no faking community. A true community is built on relationships that can only be formed through genuine interactions and a dynamic of trust and respect. This dynamic can take a long time to develop.

Your community members are loyal, and they’ve invested time into building a reputation amongst the group of peers that you’ve brought together. It will take a lot for another company to take that away from you.

1. Make more money

In the end, it’s just a good business strategy. Your community members, being more loyal and engaged, are more likely to come back and buy again.

Make people happy. That’s what it’s all about. If you can do that, with your product and potentially with a community, you’re on your way.

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Now I’m not saying every startup should blindly jump into building a community now. It’s important to understand why you need a community. It’s important to tie it back to your goals and make sure it’s in line with everything else you’re working on.

So take a look at what it is you’re really hoping to accomplish and then think about how a community might be able to help you achieve those goals.

Not sure where to get started?

If you want to become more efficient at building community for your startup, and understand how community dynamics work, come join us at CMX Summit on Feb 6 in San Francisco. (Use promo code ‘thefetch25’ for 25% off.)

We’re bringing together some of the world’s leading minds with completely unique perspectives on how to build communities. Or if you’re looking to hire a community manager, you’re guaranteed to meet the industry’s best at CMX.

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About our contributor // David Spinks is the CEO of TheCommunityManager.com and LetsFeast.com. Lifelong student, community builder and writer. Follow him on Twitter via @DavidSpinks.

Image credit: California Pass

Five unexpected things you can do to grow your personal brand — July 31, 2013

Five unexpected things you can do to grow your personal brand

/The Fetch community

YourPersonalBrandOutlivesyurProfessionBrand

I love Facebook’s mantra of “done is better than perfect” and it resonates with my opinion that nothing you can do can ever be perfect. Except for one thing: you can be perfect at being yourself.

We’ve all heard the constant drum beating that surrounds your personal brand (especially what that looks like online) and how you should be building/nurturing it. The experts say that – as millennials – our personal brands will be the determining factor in our professional success.

Personally I agree and I view personal branding as the modern version of the traditional resume. I also believe that my own personal branding activities over the years (which at one stage included renaming myself “Adii Rockstar”) has been one of the major drivers of my professional success, which has included founding WooThemes and now my new startup, PublicBeta.

But loads of the things written about personal branding is either generic or crap.

So I wanted to compile a list of personal branding activities or tactics that you can undertake that you might not have thought about before. Consider this the road less travelled for personal branding. (This means you won’t read about logos, your blog or social profiles below.)

1. Be the face of your brand

I hate it when people hide behind illustrated or abstract avatars on their social profiles. How am I supposed to engage with you or build a relationship when I can’t really put a face to a name?

As a human being, I prefer the most natural type of communication to build relationships: face-to-face. Unfortunately that doesn’t work well online; so the second best option is for you to use a real photo of yourself on your social profile.

The best thing I ever did was to hire a professional photographer to take press photos of myself. I’ve re-used these photos on countless occasions for press-related purposes and I also cycle through the portrait shots on my social profiles. All of us knows at least one enthusiast, semi-pro photographer in our group of friends who would be willing to do this for free or for cheap.

So get your photo taken already and really be the face of your personal brand.

2. Embrace your uniqueness

Pretty much every industry out there is congested and highly competitive, which makes standing out from the crowd so much harder. But you have a competitive advantage: you are already unique. So stop hiding that individualism.

I love Facebook’s mantra of “done is better than perfect” and it resonates with my opinion that nothing you can do can ever be perfect. Except for one thing: you can be perfect at being yourself.

In a conversation about the definition of success, my wife once remarked: “The true meaning of success is that point where you stop making excuses for yourself.”

Stop hiding behind excuses and facades. Just be yourself.

3. Be passionate

Passion is such an infectious thing (similar to smiling) and it spreads so quickly. One of the best ways to show who you truly are is to share your innermost passions.

Passion is the fuel that should power all of your personal branding activities. It should be the first and the last thing that people hear/see/feel when they interact with you. Their perception of your passion should be able to accurately define who you are and how that relates to your personal brand.

Nobody is gonna associate them with a dull, stale and pragmatic brand.

4. Email-first branding

The other day I was in a workshop about hiring and the presenter said: “Anything you do is everything you do.” She was suggesting that you can evaluate a new candidate by picking up small clues and cues in the seemingly irrelevant and insignificant things that they do.

In this regard, email is one of the most prevalent ways in which you will communicate with other people and it thus becomes a representative part of who you are.

The way you write, the words you choose and how you communicate will shape the perceptions of your brand for the recipient on the other side of that e-mail. So think twice about how you approach this seemingly insignificant task, as your personal brand can either gain a great boost or suffer a devastating blow depending on how you go about this.

5. Teach something

We live in an age where there’s always more than one answer to a question. There aren’t many things in life that has that one, definitive answer. A silver bullet.

This means that everyone becomes a teacher, especially if they are sharing their own experiences and lessons learned. Doing so adds context to what the experts are saying and in that sense alone it becomes very valuable.

People love and appreciate those individuals that take the time to share their experiences and teach something they’re passionate about. For me, it’s sharing my experiences about branding (hence this post).

Consider writing an e-book, hosting a Skillshare class, becoming an expert on Clarity or speaking at a local conference.

This is by no means a definitive list in terms of your personal branding. It should however be a reminder that branding is mostly about what you actually do.

Yes, it helps to have a nicely designed personal website. And in terms of communicating your passion, a blog is a great platform to achieve that. But to be successful with your personal branding you have to take a more holistic approach.

That approach starts with you: who you are, your ideas, your opinions and the things you are most passionate about. Double down on that and you’re off to one helluva start.

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About our contributor // Adii Pienaar is the co-founder of WooThemes and author of Brandiing, a practical guide to content strategy and branding for business. Adii is now ‘paying it forward’ and launching PublicBeta, a learning platform for entrepreneurs by other (very) successful entrepreneurs. You can follow him @adii.

Interview: SF local, Ligaya Tichy — January 27, 2013

Interview: SF local, Ligaya Tichy

/Kate Kendall/2 Comments

To celebrate Community Manager Appreciation Day, we chat to one of community’s original heroes, Ligaya Tichy, about what she’s been up to and what she’s got planned.

ligayaLigaya

You call yourself a ‘Community Architect’ – what does this mean?

I help companies build a passionate, loyal user base. Generally, community folks obsess about experience of a product or service from a participant’s perspective. What is the value in participating for the individual, how does it move the needle for the company? What is the relationship and interaction between them, and from user-to-user? The Community Architect defines this strategy through product features, offline interaction, and in communication via email or social media.

You’re an advisor to startups like ThreadFlip and Skillshare – do you think companies are starting to realise how important community is to business?

Within the startup world, “Community Management” has become a buzzword in the last few years, no doubt thanks to Yelp. But there is much confusion about where it fits amongst marketing and support. I think about it in terms of function; marketing is externally-focused and geared towards acquisition; community focuses on internal user engagement and loyalty, growth is a bi-product.

The foundations of community: engagement, advocacy, ambassadorship, and loyalty, are not new themes in the worlds of marketing and advertising. Startups have appropriated these principles and given new nomenclature, but the essence is the same. They work across industries, whatever the names, because they speak to universal human drives and motivations.

Do all businesses need community? Well, would your love for Coca Cola be enriched by drinking one amongst the company of others who dig it? Some companies seem to make more sense than others.

yelpLigaya Yelping with crew back in 2008

You’ve worked in senior community roles for Airbnb and Yelp – how do you think the role’s evolved over the past five years?

The value of community differs greatly depending on the business – there is no universal formula – and I think companies are starting to see that you can’t just replicate programs and expect to have the same success.

A lot of companies hire recent grads to handle community – do you think there’s much career progression for senior CMs?

Like many careers, one starts on the front lines, moves to a leadership role within the organization, then tackles the higher level strategy, or starts a new project.

If someone is relatively green but passionate about a product and thinks deeply about how to make the experience better, that’s far more valuable than an experienced person who isn’t invested.

airbnb-londonLigaya worked as the Global Head of Community for Airbnb

Community Management Appreciation Day is on Monday Jan 28 – why do you think this day is important and what activities do you have planned?

CMAD is important in raising awareness about the mission and challenges of community folk, and gives us the opportunity to connect and swap stories!

There are many activities planned in the Bay Area such as Community Hacks and Strategy TNT. This year I’m kicking off a series of quarterly workshops for community builders called Together Labs. Through small group exercises people explore community beyond the context of their own companies.

What events and communities do you recommend in the Bay Area?

That depends on what you’re into, but of course The Fetch is a great resource to find out what’s happening in the startup scene and The Bold Italic features the fun and fresh in the city. I belong to the ForageSF community and really enjoy the happenings of SFFT, and of course Yelp is in my heart. Mortified and Tourettes Without Regrets are immensely entertaining events for the silly. Happy exploring!

Check out Ligaya’s TEDxSoMa talk: Rethinking Startup Communities here.

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For a great round-up of upcoming community events and news from Together Labs plus other related goodness, subscribe our free email digests via The Fetch.

About our Curator // Kate Kendall is the founder and CEO of The Fetch, a community where professionals can discover and share what’s happening in their city. Before this, Kate led product, content and digital at magazine companies, handled outreach for new startups and organised too many communities and events to mention. Follow her on Twitter at @katekendall. 

Never stop learning! A London guide to short courses and workshops — July 13, 2012

Never stop learning! A London guide to short courses and workshops

/thatgirlchloe/2 Comments

You may have left school and formal education years ago, but this week London curator, Chloe Nicholls, has put together a list of places that regularly hold short courses, adult training and workshops to ensure you never stop learning. She’s also listed some popular online education and learning websites, so you can learn new skills and, who knows, perhaps you may even become a teacher yourself one day?

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General Assembly London

Recently launched in London last month, General Assembly is a global network of campuses for individuals seeking opportunity and education in technology, business, and design. You can learn anything from Management Reporting for Entrepreneurs, to Mobile Marketing and Front-End Web Development.

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The School of Life

The School of Life is a cultural enterprise offering intelligent instruction on how to lead a fulfilled life. They offer classes, workshops and books on topics such as how to find a job you love, a mindfullness one-day workshop and an overnight talk with a Magnum photographer, Martin Parr.

Decoded.co 

Got an awesome startup idea but don’t know how to code? Then join one of the tailored classes at Decoded, which is offers a one day workshop teaching anyone to code.  Code from scratch a multi-platform app in HTML5, CSS and JavaScript, the languages behind all modern web apps and sites.

Ideas Store

Ideas Store may look just like a library but it’s more than just books! With several locations based around East London, Ideas Store offers free courses, business help and learning opportunities.

InnerSpace

InnerSpace is a meditation and personal development centre based in Covent Garden. As Ferris Buller once said, ‘life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.’ Head to InnerSpace and take in some relaxation. Join one of their meditation courses, or even explore some of their talks such as S.T.O.P. the Stress and Anxiety & Fear.

If that wasn’t enough for you, there are also some great sites revolutionising online education and creating a community of students and teachers who are eager to learn new skills and be inspired by new ideas! Check out Chloe’s recommendations below:

Skillshare – Learn anything from anyone, anywhere.

Udemy – Amazing Instructors. Teaching the World.

Khanacademy – Trying to make a world-class education available to anyone, anywhere.

Gidsy – A place where anyone can explore, organize and book unique things to do.

Any we have missed? Tell us in the comments below!

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