Reading Time: ~ 2 min.
Morning yenizens!
You might have noticed that I’ve added a small improvement to our overall reading experience by adding “reading time” into each issue:
I’ve done this by taking the number of words written and dividing that by 250 words per minute — I believe most yenizens are on the faster side of the reading scale ( the average adult human reads between 200-250 wpm).
Let me know what you think!
To infinity & community,
— john
A bit of a shorter issue today as I plan on spending most of my day finding, securing, and bringing home a 🎄!! Wish me luck!
Chad Neufeld and Amanda Moloney sit down for a brief (but packed!) chat about how to launch an online community — I thought I’d share my notes on this brief exchange and give you all the goods, per usual!
Let’s jump in… it’s a simple question & answer session between the two!
Chad: What is the most important thing to think about when considering a launch of a new community?
Amanda: The conversation usually starts with technology (features & functionality) but where folks need to start is with purpose:
- Why are you building this community?
- What will the value be for your organization?
- What will the value be for the participants?
Without the 3rd, there really isn’t a community.
Chad: What are 3 things that all successful communities have present?
Amanda: You’ll need these three key ingredients:
- The first thing you need is organizational support, connections to the marketing, social, and technology / product teams.
- The second thing is to have the right people in the community — people who are already passionate about the things that you’re building the community around. These might be followers on existing social channels or have existing contacts / relationships.
- Successful communities give their participants valuable things to do, leveraging their experience and passion to help solve collective problems and topics to discuss.
Chad: What are some obvious characteristics of a successful community?
Amanda: There are a two important characteristics that all successful communities have:
- The moderator or community leader who acts as the “professional host” to welcome new members, nurture new topics, and to keep the conversation going and lively.
- Healthy recruitment needs to be a priority because all members have a “limited lifespan” of how long they’ll be in the community — they won’t be there forever. Bringing in new voices and new ideas to the conversation is important for a healthy community.
Chad: What is one question that you were asked more frequently?
Amanda: I wish people would ask me how long it takes to build a healthy community! It definitely is something that you need to think about as a long-term investment, the value in the community comes over time as those connections happen between the members and the brand.
This is a year-long project, not a 3-month project type of thing.
Appreciate these tactical (and short!) videos! You can find more information about Chaordix here — there are many other great options listed here in The Yeniverse! Have a great weekend!
