How to build a community? πŸ§‘β€πŸ€β€πŸ§‘πŸ’ͺ

Manas Sharma
100 replies
Everyone says building a community around your product is important. They help you spread the word, support you in your launches on PH and similar platforms, and give you feedback on new features you add to your product πŸš€. Which are all the great things you would want for your product to happen, right?  But how do you actually get started? πŸ™„ Tell us in the thread below πŸ‘‡ ✍️✍️✍️✍️✍️✍️✍️✍️✍️✍️✍️✍️✍️✍️✍️✍️✍️ UPDATED ✍️✍️✍️✍️✍️✍️✍️✍️✍️✍️✍️✍️✍️✍️✍️✍️✍️ Thanks to everyone for their contributions to this thread πŸ™. Summarising the discussion. β˜‘οΈ β˜‘οΈ β˜‘οΈ β˜‘οΈ Checklist for Community Building β˜‘οΈ β˜‘οΈ β˜‘οΈ β˜‘οΈ πŸ”₯ To Start: β˜‘οΈ Identify your target audience πŸ‘‰πŸ» Before you start building your community, it's important to understand who you want to target. This will help you tailor your content and messaging to the right people and ensure that you're reaching the right audience. You can look at how I’m positioning the value to the community for my SaaS as a reference πŸ‘‰πŸ»https://t.me/+UQ7bDtzlyaphNGRl πŸ‘ˆπŸ» β˜‘οΈ Choose the right platform πŸ‘‰πŸ» There are a number of platforms you can use to build your community, including chat platforms, forums, social media groups, and online discussion boards. Choose a platform that aligns with your target audience and offers the features and functionality you need to support your community. πŸ”₯ To Grow: β˜‘οΈ Create engaging content πŸ‘‰πŸ» Once you have your platform in place, focus on creating content that will engage your audience and encourage them to participate in discussions. This could include blog posts, videos, podcasts, or other types of content that provide value to your community members. β˜‘οΈ Foster participation and engagement πŸ‘‰πŸ» Encourage participation in your community by asking questions, starting discussions, and responding to comments and feedback from your members. You can also use incentives and rewards to encourage engagement, such as offering exclusive access to new features or discounts on your product. β˜‘οΈ Promote on Public platforms πŸ‘‰πŸ» There are various communities out there that might be interested in what you have to say or what you are building. Find what works for you. For SaaS products generally, some of the worthy platforms are:  Product Hunt, Hacker News, Indie Hacker, Reddit, Beta list, Beta page, Clrt Alt, Owwly, Micro startups, Startup base, Beta bound, Slant, SaaSHub, SaaSWorthy, StartupStash, AppSumo β˜‘οΈ Creating a Freemium version πŸ‘‰πŸ»The audience that you want to reach probably doesn’t want anything to do with you. They are not your customers today. You need to convert them into your fans. One of the time-tested models to do that is Freemium. Many of the legendary SaaS companies that we know today leverage this tool to give people a taste of their product and then those people became their ambassadors to grow. Lastly, don’t forget to:  β˜‘οΈ Monitor and manage your community  πŸ‘‰πŸ» Regularly monitor your community to ensure that discussions are staying on topic and that members are treating each other with respect. If necessary, take action to remove disruptive members or delete inappropriate content.  I hope this thread helped you learn something new. ❀️

Replies

Aaron O'Leary
Ooooh this is an interesting question. Looking forward to seeing people's thoughts!
Manas Sharma
@aaronoleary @amy_hourigan guys, we got some really nice answers. I have updated the summary in the post. Do check it out. πŸ˜„
Manas Sharma
@aaronoleary @amy_hourigan I hope you have enjoyed this thread. Can I also request you to join me in my upcoming launch on PH? https://www.producthunt.com/prod...
Manas Sharma
@aaronoleary @amy_hourigan I have launched Roundup on Producthunt today! πŸ˜‡ I would greatly appreciate your support & feedback. πŸ™
Marcus Hendricks
This is exactly the question I came here for!
Tra Dao
@marcus_hendricks me2. Really want to know how to build a sustainable community
Manas Sharma
@marcus_hendricks @tra_dao guys, we got some really nice answers. I have updated the summary in the post. Do check it out. πŸ˜„
Manas Sharma
@marcus_hendricks @tra_dao I hope you have enjoyed this thread πŸ˜‡. Can I also request you to join me in my upcoming launch on PH πŸ™? https://www.producthunt.com/prod...
Manas Sharma
@marcus_hendricks @tra_dao I have launched Roundup on Producthunt today! πŸ˜‡ I would greatly appreciate your support & feedback. πŸ™
Anuj Agrawal
I don't think theirs a answer to that, it can be by approaching the right people on linkedIn or offline meeting people at events or finding mails on the desk of organizations
Manas Sharma
@anuj_agrawal8 my question was more from a marketing POV. How do you build an audience off the internet? I see the value in meeting people offline. The connections are certainly more personal. My only problem with that approach is that for early-stage founders, time is limited. And building a decent size community with just outreach can be very difficult. Thanks for sharing your thoughts πŸ˜‡
Marcus Hendricks
@manas_sharma I like the idea of delegating the task. Someone that can act as a proxy and extend connections on the founder’s behalf. The most important thing the founder can do is provide value to the community.
Manas Sharma
@marcus_hendricks Love it. ❀️ So you're suggesting that we should find "Ambassadors" for our startups. People who will help us spread the word. I can think of "early adopters" as those people. Since they are using the product already, we see the value already. I have been getting some really nice emails from my early adopters. If that converts into a word of mouth and these lovely people help us in promoting the product & build a community β€” it will be pretty sweet.
Manas Sharma
@anuj_agrawal8 @claudia_gharai_ I hope you have enjoyed this thread πŸ˜‡. Can I also request you to join me in my upcoming launch on PH πŸ™? https://www.producthunt.com/prod...
Manas Sharma
@anuj_agrawal8 @claudia_gharai_ I have launched Roundup on Producthunt today! πŸ˜‡ I would greatly appreciate your support & feedback. πŸ™
Daniel Burns
Even before doing anything, you should ask yourself "Why am I building this community?" I think that it all starts with establishing an identity around it and choosing the right set of people, the ones that share common goals and interests. I would also have a thought about where should the community be established and which type of content would the community members mostly engage with.
Manas Sharma
@testifi @andy_ochiltree__ I hope you have enjoyed this thread πŸ˜‡. Can I also request you to join me in my upcoming launch on PH πŸ™? https://www.producthunt.com/prod...
Manas Sharma
@testifi I have launched Roundup on Producthunt today! πŸ˜‡ I would greatly appreciate your support & feedback. πŸ™
phprunner
To build a community you need two things: people and a platform where people can communicate. The platform is easy, you can choose between Twitter, forums, slack channels, Facebook groups etc. Finding people is more complicated. If you are talking about SaaS specifically you can always have a free layer of service and you will attract a bunch of people can join your community.
Manas Sharma
@sergey_kornilov1 Very well put. πŸ™Œ Freemium is a time-tested model that a lot of legendary SaaS products have used to give their potential customers a taste of your product and have built some wonderful communities. Thanks for sharing.
Manas Sharma
@sergey_kornilov1 I hope you have enjoyed this thread πŸ˜‡. Can I also request you to join me in my upcoming launch on PH πŸ™? https://www.producthunt.com/prod...
Manas Sharma
@sergey_kornilov1 I have launched Roundup on Producthunt today! πŸ˜‡ I would greatly appreciate your support & feedback. πŸ™
Halley Victoria
I've read a couple of the posts on your website so far, and I really like the way you write. io games
Manas Sharma
@halley_victoria I hope you have enjoyed this thread πŸ˜‡. Can I also request you to join me in my upcoming launch on PH πŸ™? https://www.producthunt.com/prod...
Manas Sharma
@halley_victoria I have launched Roundup on Producthunt today! πŸ˜‡ I would greatly appreciate your support & feedback. πŸ™
Sofia Li
There are a bunch of platforms out there. I would suggest focus on one platform to build your community, by investing more of your time and human resources on it. So to get started, choose the right platform that best fits your product positioning.
Manas Sharma
@sofiali - I'd agree that platforms are a great tool for discoverability. 🌏 Of course, there are certain platforms that are specific to a particular niche. But, here is the list of some platforms I have been looking at (sharing it for the PH community to benefit from the list): - Product Hunt - Hacker News - Indie Hacker - Reddit - Beta list - Beta page - Clrt Alt - Owwly - Micro startups - Startup base - Beta bound - Slant - SaaSHub - SaaSWorthy - StartupStash - AppSumo @sofiali - Please add any other platforms that you have found useful.
Sofia Li
@manas_sharma Thanks for the sharing! That's super useful!
Manas Sharma
@sofiali @edmund_bielonko I hope you have enjoyed this thread πŸ˜‡. Can I also request you to join me in my upcoming launch on PH πŸ™? https://www.producthunt.com/prod...
Manas Sharma
@sofiali I have launched Roundup on Producthunt today! πŸ˜‡ I would greatly appreciate your support & feedback. πŸ™
Manas Sharma
@edmund_bielonko I have launched Roundup on Producthunt today! πŸ˜‡ I would greatly appreciate your support & feedback. πŸ™
Marcus Hendricks
I’m a marketer and a founder building a community around my brand, and I believe that grassroots is the route to awareness and a strong network. Founders who pound the pavement themselves are going to have the most solid relationships with peers and the public.
Manas Sharma
@marcus_hendricks I hope you have enjoyed this thread πŸ˜‡. Can I also request you to join me in my upcoming launch on PH πŸ™? https://www.producthunt.com/prod...
Manas Sharma
@marcus_hendricks I have launched Roundup on Producthunt today! πŸ˜‡ I would greatly appreciate your support & feedback. πŸ™
Raju Sivaram
We started out building our platform by working with entrepreneurs who were passionate abt building their brand, so slowly we expanded and made a community of them who could guide us through out our journey.
Manas Sharma
Thanks for sharing @raju_sivarama_gadiraju πŸ˜„ Any advice or learnings from your journey that you would like to share with the PH family here?
Manas Sharma
@raju_sivarama_gadiraju I hope you have enjoyed this thread πŸ˜‡. Can I also request you to join me in my upcoming launch on PH πŸ™? https://www.producthunt.com/prod...
Manas Sharma
@raju_sivarama_gadiraju I have launched Roundup on Producthunt today! πŸ˜‡ I would greatly appreciate your support & feedback. πŸ™
Manas Sharma
Love the responses we have gotten on this thread so far. ❀️ This post is now in the weekly trending charts, which shows many of us are looking for answers here. πŸ’ͺ I asked the same question on some of the other discussion forums like HackerNews & IndieHackers. Sharing some of the top responses with the PH family here πŸ˜‡: 🌟 Rosie Sherry (Founder & Community builder at RosieLand) 🌟 says: "Communities don't look like communities when they start, they look like research, conversations, relationships, email lists, seeking belonging and having empathy. Most people aren't cut out for the community, it becomes a full-time job within itself. Doing research and having conversations will benefit you regardless, so I'd start with that." 🌟 Chris (a Marketing Guru)🌟 says: "If I may say, it's not really a community that you need per se but attention from your target audience. You need to get potential customers to pay attention to your business and your product. If that attention turns into a community then great! But if it doesn't, it's not the end of the world. The question is then, how do you get attention for your startup? Particularly given that the vast majority of your target audience isn't going to be looking to buy your product right now and therefore any attempt to sell them your product will be ignored. The solution that has been tried for a long time is freemium - give people a taste of your product for free and they'll not only pay attention to it (cos its free) but also try it out and share it. But it's super hard to get right. There's an alternative however that is a spin on the freemium model that is much easier to pull off. Wrote an article about it here the other day. Rather than repeat the article, I'll share it: https://www.indiehackers.com/pos..." 🌟 Upen (Founder of Micro SaaS Ideas)🌟 says "I have been building one of the biggest communities for Indie Hackers at Micro SaaS HQ where we talk about Micro SaaS, Info products, Newsletters, Productized services, Marketplace models, latest trends in SaaS etc. Here are a few pointers on your questions about communities. Building communities isn't easy. In most cases, they take years of effort and communities are usually born out of an Info product, Newsletter, Blog, product or a group of people. In our case, this Micro SaaS HQ community is born naturally out of a Newsletter. Don't assume that the community grows by itself. No, they don't. You need to spend an enormous amount of time and energy and wait for a couple of years. The easiest way to validate this would be to find places where you can talk about this and see if people are interested. A message as simple as - 'Hey, I am ABC and I am planning to build a small community of people doing XYZ. If you are interested, please signup here' Then get on a call with these people and see why they are interested. Validating an idea is also about validating your reach too to find those audiences." 🌟 Post by an Anonymous founder🌟 "I think one strong way to start building your community is by involving people (that are passionate about the mission) in a behind-the-scenes way. I use Discord to communicate and make announcements, and I am constantly interacting directly. Let them know they are valued from the jump. Transparency & consistency in your presence is key!" 😈 😈 😈 With so many good ideas & suggestions, I couldn't resist acting on them. So I created a Public group yesterday night to start a community for us. In no time we got a decent number of people who joined our small community. Sharing the link here too: https://t.me/+UQ7bDtzlyaphNGRl
Behnam Hoseinzadeh
In my opinion, we should get to know more people who have the exponential of making visual products in order to understand their way of thinking.
Manas Sharma
@behnam_hoseinzadeh I hope you have enjoyed this thread πŸ˜‡. Can I also request you to join me in my upcoming launch on PH πŸ™? https://www.producthunt.com/prod...
Manas Sharma
@behnam_hoseinzadeh I have launched Roundup on Producthunt today! πŸ˜‡ I would greatly appreciate your support & feedback. πŸ™
Anshaj Goyal
Building a community for your SaaS (Software as a Service) product can be a great way to engage with your customers and provide them with additional value. Here are a few steps you can take to build a successful community for your SaaS product: 1. Identify the purpose of your community and the specific goals you want to achieve. This will help you determine the best approach for building and managing your community. 2. Choose a platform for your community and set it up with the necessary features and tools to support your goals. This could be a forum, a messaging app, or another type of platform. 3. Invite your customers to join the community and provide them with information and resources to help them get started. 4. Engage with your community members regularly and encourage them to participate in discussions and share their experiences and feedback. This will help foster a sense of connection and build a stronger community. 5. Provide value to your community members by sharing helpful resources and information, and by responding to their questions and concerns in a timely manner. 6. Regularly check in with your community members to see how they are doing and ask for feedback on how the community can be improved. This will help ensure that the community remains relevant and valuable to your customers. Overall, building a successful community for your SaaS product requires regular engagement and support from community leaders and members. By providing value and fostering a sense of connection, you can build a strong and engaged community that can help drive success for your business.
Manas Sharma
@anshaj_goyal I hope you have enjoyed this thread πŸ˜‡. Can I also request you to join me in my upcoming launch on PH πŸ™? https://www.producthunt.com/prod...
Manas Sharma
@anshaj_goyal I have launched Roundup on Producthunt today! πŸ˜‡ I would greatly appreciate your support & feedback. πŸ™
Sunil Ayar
Thanks for the useful information
Manas Sharma
@sunil_ayar Happy that you found it useful. More power to you as your build bigger and better communities πŸ’ͺ
Manas Sharma
@sunil_ayar I hope you have enjoyed this thread πŸ˜‡. Can I also request you to join me in my upcoming launch on PH πŸ™? https://www.producthunt.com/prod...
Manas Sharma
@sunil_ayar I have launched Roundup on Producthunt today! πŸ˜‡ I would greatly appreciate your support & feedback. πŸ™
Aiswaria Mohan
Publishing use cases are a great option to marketing your product online. They help marketers understand the tool better and also decide on a paid subscription according to their business requirements.
Manas Sharma
@aishwaria_mohan Love this answer! ❀️ The more your experiment with your positioning with use cases the better chance you have to reach your target audience. Gonna add this to the summary. Thanks for sharing πŸ™
Manas Sharma
@aishwaria_mohan I hope you have enjoyed this thread πŸ˜‡. Can I also request you to join me in my upcoming launch on PH πŸ™? https://www.producthunt.com/prod...
Manas Sharma
@aishwaria_mohan I have launched Roundup on Producthunt today! πŸ˜‡ I would greatly appreciate your support & feedback. πŸ™
Albert Lin
Great thread and made me think... Question for folks here - How important is it to you that your community (if it's not a community for your brand) can eventually be monetized?
Manas Sharma
@albert_lin1 Would love to learn what people feel about monetizing the community. I can share one example of IndieWorldwide that's doing it. https://indieworldwide.com/
Manas Sharma
@albert_lin1 I hope you have enjoyed this thread πŸ˜‡. Can I also request you to join me in my upcoming launch on PH πŸ™? https://www.producthunt.com/prod...
Manas Sharma
@albert_lin1 I have launched Roundup on Producthunt today! πŸ˜‡ I would greatly appreciate your support & feedback. πŸ™
Gal Moran
Which platforms do you think are top priority generally?
Manas Sharma
@gal_moran18 I think the bigger the community, better the reach. PH, Reddit & HackerNews are some of the biggest. So I'd focus on them more than others.
Manas Sharma
@gal_moran18 I hope you have enjoyed this thread πŸ˜‡. Can I also request you to join me in my upcoming launch on PH πŸ™? https://www.producthunt.com/prod...
Manas Sharma
@gal_moran18 I have launched Roundup on Producthunt today! πŸ˜‡ I would greatly appreciate your support & feedback. πŸ™
Marko Rakic
Thanks for PH alternatives, didn't know for all of them
Manas Sharma
@marko_rakic2 I hope you have enjoyed this thread πŸ˜‡. Can I also request you to join me in my upcoming launch on PH πŸ™? https://www.producthunt.com/prod...
Manas Sharma
@marko_rakic2 I have launched Roundup on Producthunt today! πŸ˜‡ I would greatly appreciate your support & feedback. πŸ™
Jareer Samad
Thanks a lot, Manas for the useful thread.
Manas Sharma
@jareer_samad Glad, you found this helpful πŸ˜‡ If you want to hear more from me, you can also join my community β€” Async Roundup β€” link is in the post above.
Manas Sharma
@jareer_samad I hope you have enjoyed this thread πŸ˜‡. Can I also request you to join me in my upcoming launch on PH πŸ™? https://www.producthunt.com/prod...
Manas Sharma
@jareer_samad I have launched Roundup on Producthunt today! πŸ˜‡ I would greatly appreciate your support & feedback. πŸ™
Alexander Michael
Awesome love to read butt can we made community where people buy and sell houses ill create a website last month please check and review https://buildy.pk/
Manas Sharma
@alexander_michael3 I hope you have enjoyed this thread πŸ˜‡. Can I also request you to join me in my upcoming launch on PH πŸ™? https://www.producthunt.com/prod...
Manas Sharma
@alexander_michael3 I have launched Roundup on Producthunt today! πŸ˜‡ I would greatly appreciate your support & feedback. πŸ™
Mexican Pharmacy Online
How to Build a Meaningful (and Massive) Community, From Someone Who's Done it Twice: Find Ways to Support & Celebrate Your Organic Ambassadors. Bring Your Followers Into the Business-Building Process. Encourage Connections Within Your Community. Stay Guided by Your Why. https://mexicanonlinepharmacy.or...
Manas Sharma
@mexican_pharmacy_online I hope you have enjoyed this thread πŸ˜‡. Can I also request you to join me in my upcoming launch on PH πŸ™? https://www.producthunt.com/prod...
Manas Sharma
@mexican_pharmacy_online I have launched Roundup on Producthunt today! πŸ˜‡ I would greatly appreciate your support & feedback. πŸ™