What are the best community building platforms for startups?
Daria
21 replies
Hi everyone!
Hope you are having a great beginning of the year!
Community is at the core of many successful startups. And our team is doing research on community building now. What do you think are the best ways for building a strong community? What platforms could you recommend?
Replies
Anil Meena@anil_meena21
Yes @daryakhmetova , I totally agree community is & should be at the core of businesses. For the same reason, we build Pensil which is all in one white-label community-building platform.
So, my recommendation would be https://pensil.in
Would love to understand more specific use if any and your feedback on our platform.
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@daryakhmetova @anil_meena21 Are you on Twitter, Anil! If you are active there, then I can add you in my indie hackers list. :)
@daryakhmetova @anil_meena21 @atulghorpade I am active on Twitter, but i find it a "very hard to attract followers" platform, Though i love Twitter more than FB & LinkedIn for entrepreneurs I mean.
@benln did an AMA on community building and that post has a ton of resources and advice on it. Here is the link https://www.producthunt.com/disc...
I'm really sorry about this, but .... Producthunt
@iampascio Yes haha
I agree it is one of the most important tools for building a community. That's why I am here!
Twitter
Indie Hackers
Product Hunt
Discord
etc.
The best way to build a strong community is to first, find an existing community, where you potential customers hang out, and be as helpful as possible. Learn the language of your users/customers/members and understand what their problems are, and what resources they need better/faster access to.
ABH - Always be helpful
Secondly, write down your findings and decide how you want to engage them in a more direct way—wether it's on that exiting community, or on a new platform.
Depending on your needs, eg how you want to serve your community you should decide on wether to build one from scratch, use a Saas, or an existing platform.
I personally would side for using a Saas, or going custom.
One of the best resources I've ever come across on building communities is this youtube video by the ex-head of community for Airbnb, who was previously head of community at meetups.
Douglas Atkins the culting of brands ()
this video, and his book, is probably the only thing you need to really understand how to build a thriving community.
Hey Darya,
Most common community platforms are Slack, Telegram, Discord, Fb groups, Circle.
What community owners look for in a platform:
1) User retention: ( Do users come to the platform regularly? )
In this regard Telegram & fb have an advantage
2) Community features for engagement
Does the platform have features that nudge discussions & engagement
Discord, Slack are great in this regard
3) Ownership
Do you own your audience on the platform
Circle & other SaaS community products give you this
P.S: We're building a product for community owners & admins regardless of which platform they are on. Do check out joinmygroup.in & tell me what you think :)
The tools come later, the answer will become easier once you research and understand who your people are.
These days when I think about starting communities, I'd think about these two steps:
1. First do Community Discovery (research and hang out with your people)
2. Create Minimum Viable Communities (MVCs)
There's some more info here - https://twitter.com/rosiesherry/...