Community building

Community Building

Community Flywheel

New members join
      ↓
Onboarded → get value quickly
      ↓
Engage: ask questions, share wins
      ↓
Contribute: answer others, create content
      ↓
Advocate: invite peers, spread the word
      ↓
More new members join (loop)

Break the loop at any stage and retention collapses. Optimize the slowest stage first.

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Platform Selection Matrix

Platform	Best for	Size sweet spot	Cost	Discovery
Discord	Dev/gaming/creator communities	500–50k	Free	Low (invite only)
Slack	B2B SaaS, enterprise	100–5k	Free/paid	Low
Circle	Courses, memberships, cohorts	100–10k	$89+/mo	Low
Reddit	Open-ended, SEO-rich	1k+	Free	High
Discourse	Technical, long-form Q&A	500+	Self-host free	Medium
Facebook Groups	Consumer, 35+ audience	Any	Free	Medium
LinkedIn Groups	B2B professional	500+	Free	Medium

Decision heuristic:

• Dev tool → Discord or Discourse
• B2B SaaS → Slack or Circle
• Consumer app → Discord or Facebook
• Need SEO → Reddit or Discourse

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Member Journey Stages

Stage 1: Awareness

• Discover community via product, referral, or search
• Actions: click join link, view landing page

Activation: Clear value proposition on join page. Answer "why join?"

Stage 2: Onboarding (Days 1–3)

• Welcome DM or email within 1 hour of joining
• Prompt: introduce yourself in #introductions
• Show them 1 quick win (best thread, best resource)

Welcome DM template:

Hey [Name]! 👋 Welcome to [Community Name].

Quick orientation:
• #announcements — product updates
• #ask-anything — questions answered fast
• #wins — share your progress

One request: drop an intro in #introductions!

I'm [Your name], [role]. Reply here anytime.

Stage 3: Activation (Days 3–14)

• Post first message or question
• Get a helpful response within 2 hours
• Feel "seen"

Key metric: % of new members who post within 7 days (target: >30%)

Stage 4: Regular Engagement (Months 1–3)

• Check in weekly
• Contribute: answers, feedback, content
• Attend events (AMAs, office hours)

Stage 5: Superuser / Champion

• Top 5% by contribution
• Evangelize outside community
• Co-create content or events

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Engagement Loops

Daily Loops

• Staff member posts a prompt/question each morning
• "Daily tip" or "resource of the day"
• Celebrate wins (new users, milestones)

Weekly Loops

• Weekly thread: "What are you working on?"
• Office hours / AMA (30–60 min, async-friendly recap)
• Curated digest of best posts emailed to members

Monthly Loops

• Featured member spotlight
• Product update recap with Q&A
• Community challenge or contest

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Moderation Playbook

Rules (keep to 5 or fewer)

1. Be respectful — no harassment or hate speech
2. Stay on topic — relevant to [product/niche]
3. No spam or self-promotion without permission
4. Search before asking — reduce duplicates
5. Share your wins and learnings

Response SLAs

Type	Target response time
Bug report	2 hours
Question	4 hours
Introduction	1 hour (team)
General discussion	Best effort

Escalation

• Warning (private DM) → Timeout (1 day) → Ban
• Document each action in moderation log
• Keep receipts (screenshots) before banning

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Community Metrics

Health Metrics (weekly review)

Metric	Definition	Target
New members	Joined this week	Growing
DAU/MAU ratio	Daily active / Monthly active	>15%
Response rate	% questions answered <4h	>80%
Post rate	% members posting monthly	>20%
NPS	Would you recommend this community?	>40
Content creation rate	Member-generated posts / total posts	>50%

Leading Indicators

• Intro posts per week → predicts 30-day retention
• Response time → predicts activation
• Events attendance → predicts long-term engagement

Lagging Indicators

• Monthly active members
• Revenue from community (if applicable)
• Referrals sourced from community

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Superuser Program

Identification Criteria

• Posted 20+ helpful messages in last 90 days
• Answered at least 10 questions from other members
• Zero moderation issues
• NPS given ≥ 9

Benefits to Offer

• Early access to features
• Direct Slack/DM access to founders
• Co-create content (co-author blog, webinar co-host)
• "Ambassador" badge or role
• Monthly calls with product team
• Merch / swag

Onboarding Superusers

1. Personal invitation from founder
2. Private channel or group
3. Quarterly call to gather feedback
4. Clear expectations: 1 helpful post/week minimum

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Community-to-Revenue Attribution

Direct Attribution

• Unique referral links for community members
• Promo codes tracked by source
• Survey at signup: "How did you hear about us?"

Indirect Attribution

• Track conversion rate: community member vs non-member
• Measure time-to-close for community-sourced leads
• Track churn rate: community member vs non-member (expect 2–3x lower)

Reporting Template

Community Monthly Report
New members: X
Active members (posted): X (X%)
Questions answered <4h: X%
Top contributors: [names]
Revenue attributed: $X (direct) / $X (influenced)
Key wins: [notable moment]
Action items: [what to improve]