Building a community

Building an online community around your content can really, really help you grow. A lot of people associate this kind of thing with Youtubers or Twitch streamers, but that doesn’t have to be the case! You can build a community for voice overs, art & design or any creative industry, especially if you’re working from home as we all know, it can be quite isolating.

There will be existing communities out there for specific industries and genres which are great and which you can learn a lot from. But they can also be too big to get to know people personally, to get the support you need and you can’t really showcase what you’re about.

Kevin Kelly wrote a now quite famous essay called 1000 true fans. In it, he states for any creative to earn a living from what they do, they don’t need millions of fans, just 1000 ‘true fans’. People who support you no matter what – who always want to buy whatever you produce. It’s a great concept, but to me, it felt a little off with how these super fans were almost described as data and numbers. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great read and we have to make a living, so numbers will always need to be looked at if we want to succeed financially while turning a passion into a career. However, the biggest thing I’ve learned being in a creative industry is the more you look at the numbers – the more it impacts you and your creative energy negatively. And isn’t creativity what we need more of to succeed? I think there’s a delicate balance to be had when looking at success, creativity and also your own mental health.

The great thing is, building a supportive community the right way, can have huge benefits to your mental health as well as boosting your career! Personally, my community have helped me through a lot of tough times, down days and creative slumps and I could never thank them enough for that. So here’s some tips on how to build that all important community for yourself.

1. Whether you’re on Youtube, stream on twitch, or create any form of art – get yourself a discord and invite your fans. Having a separate place for the people who support you to chat and share parts of their lives, instantly makes them feel more a part of what you’re trying to achieve. And we all want to feel like we’re a part of something.

2. Get to know people - The people who support you or show interest in what you do aren’t just ‘fans’ or someone to give you money for a thing …they’re people. They’re interesting, complex people who might have something really valuable to contribute. So chat with them, find out what food they like, what kind of movies they watch, you might even make some new friends.

3. Listen. Once you start chatting with people, make sure you’re listening to them. Just from making people feel like they’re part of your community, they’re also more likely to give you more honest feedback if you want it, maybe throw some ideas and advice out there, and that can be incredibly valuable. Some of my best ideas and segments for streams have just come from wonderfully silly jokes or deep conversations we have in the discord, all started by members of the community. And when people see you’re listening and value their opinion, they’re much more likely to hang around and become someone who really wants to support you and others in that community.

4. Be yourself. Now I’ve always said, you can’t please everyone so you might as well just please yourself. And what I mean by that is, there’s no point trying to be a different person, just to get more fans or followers. If you just be yourself and enjoy what you do, you’ll attract similar minded people and then, the people in your community will also have more in common and the whole thing will work a lot more easily and organically.

5. Set plenty of channels. If you’re anything like me, you might have a lot of different interests and as your community grows, you’ll have more and more people wanting to talk about different topics. So specifically, when you’re dealing with Discord, make sure you set up plenty of different sub channels to accommodate that. Firstly, it means your main chat won’t get too busy, and second, it’ll also draw people in to those conversations if they see a topic which sparks an interest. They can still remain relevant to your industry or goals, but branch out a little and see what people might want to chat about.

6. Moderate well. People are different and they’re going to have different boundaries and different ideas of what’s ok and not ok. So once you get a sense of your community as a whole and you know what kind of a place you want your Discord to be, make sure you’re moderating (or have people to do it for you). Your community want to feel like they’re in a safe place and that there are people keeping an eye on what’s happening, especially once you start to grow and get a lot of people chatting. The best thing to do first off is to set some really clear rules for the channel. You can also make sure that any newcomers are sent to the rule page first so they know what they’re getting in to. And don’t forget, if moderating starts to feel like too big of a task on your own, you can ask other people to moderate with you if you have some trusted members who are happy to do it.

7. Set your own boundaries. This one is probably one of the most important. When I started my Discord, I felt this huge responsibly for everyone in there and that I had to reply to every comment or post in case people thought I didn’t care. But the bigger a Discord gets, it can be really draining to feel that way. You’re responsible for the space, but you’re not responsible for everyone in there. When I finally made myself take a step back from time to time, what I found was that the community had actually already started to step up support each other, so I didn’t NEED to be there. So just be upfront with everyone, maybe let them know there will be days or times you’ll be taking breaks and not chatting as much. You’d be amazed at how understanding and supportive people are.

8. Have fun. The more you get to know the platform you’re using, you’ll find there are lots fun ways to engage with your community and encourage conversation and interaction. You can host watch parties, set up polls and even run giveaways. This can all be geared towards the specific industry you’re in so it’s a great way to build awareness of you brand or activites.

So that’s my top tips for growing a community. Find your tribe and make a cosy space for them to hang out. Having a solid community has been one of the most amazing things for me and I guarantee, you’ll get more out of it than you can ever imagine. So go forth, make friends and build something awesome.