ASK IH: Tips for the first 6 months of building a community?
For those of you that have built communities (i.e. IH or Ministry of Testing, etc)...If you were starting a community in a new niche, what would you do for the first 6 months and how do you measure success? #ask-ih
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The hardest part of early-stage community building is thinking about the "community" as a thing you're working on, when in fact, the community doesn't exist yet and you can't really build it yourself.
I think of it kind of like gardening. The plants have to do the growing, your job is to make sure they have what they need to do it. Similarly, communities are co-created by members, and are more about figuring out what people already want to do but would be better if done together.
During the first 6 months I always split my time between 1-1 relationship building, small group activities, and co-creating some small, simple rituals that bring people together on a regular rhythm.
I highly recommend this book for understanding the individual components that go into creating that environment where people can feel like they belong: https://www.amazon.com/Community-The-Structure-of-Belonging/dp/B07DGK64Q4/
Amazing :) Great advise for 1-1 relationship building I like that thought process. Buying the book right now!
Glad that helped!
Heads up, I accidentally linked an old edition of the book. Fixed in my comment above (and I can't imagine the old version being useless since it's so evergreen) but you may want to get the latest!
haha thanks for the heads up, I noticed there was a second addition in audible luckily so I snagged the most recent one :) Really appreciate all the support you provide on IH!
<3
This comment was deleted a year ago.
It depends. :)
I mostly ask myself 'how can I be useful to the (potential) community members'.
Who is your community?
Following this. My answer is consistency :-)